Nearly half of the shops that responded to the 2024 fourth quarter “Who Pays for What?” survey said they’ve been paid labor regularly by the eight largest national insurance companies for radar power tests.

The result is an increase of nearly five percentage points compared to 2023. However, like in 2023 when the question was first asked, more than 3 out of 5 shops said they’ve never billed for the labor to perform the tests.

CRASH Network and Collision Advice, who partner to offer the surveys, said only a few automaker models such as Toyota and Mercedes-Benz require such a test.

“It’s a static function test to see if painting the bumper has reduced the power of a radar sensor too much,” said Mike Anderson, of Collision Advice, in a press release. “The test is needed if the system uses higher resolution radar for blind spot systems that are able to identify not just a vehicle in the blind spot but even smaller objects such as a bicycle. The test uses what is essentially a metal pole on wheels, to measure, when the system is engaged, how much the bumper cover is reducing the power signal of the radar sensor.”

The latest survey, fielded in October, also found that more shops are being paid for pre- and post-repair scans while fewer are paid for in-process scans.

Of those that negotiate for pre-repair scan payment, 90% said they’re paid “always” or “most of the time,” an increase of 1.1 percentage points. The survey does not currently identify if the repair facility is paid at the rate they charged, or what percentages of their charges were covered.

In 2023, Progressive, USAA, Farmers, Nationwide, and Liberty Mutual always paid more than 70% of shops for pre-repair scans that billed for it. The highest percentage of shops who said an insurer never paid for the procedure was State Farm at 6%.

“It is impossible to write an accurate estimate or repair plan without doing so to diagnose what a vehicle needs such as seat belts or other required parts and labor,” said Anderson, in the latest survey report. “If you, as a shop, are among the 1% who say you’ve never sought to be paid for this, I would love to hear from you to see if we can gain some insights into that.

“One of the things that I learned recently is that on some vehicles, an ADAS component (such as adaptive cruise control) can be out of spec (the horizontal or vertical alignment values for the radar, for example) without triggering a diagnostic trouble code. Therefore, it is important that collision repairers understand how to use an OEM diagnostic scan tool when required to verify the values of ADAS components. In addition, a vehicle may not have been driven enough to achieve the “set conditions” to trigger a DTC. Set conditions may include a specific speed, distance, driving pattern, etc.”

Of those that negotiate for in-process scans, 29% said they’re paid “always” or “most of the time,” a decrease of 5.3 percentage points compared to 2023. Shops said USAA (17.4%), Nationwide (16.4%), and Progressive (16.2%) were the three insurers most likely to always pay for the scans.

“I am perplexed as to why payment frequency for this procedure has declined,” Anderson wrote. “I believe it must be due to the lack of awareness among collision repairers as to the necessity of this. It will be interesting to see in the future if more automakers modify their position statements related to this.

“It is an absolutely necessary process, and just as important as a pre- and post-repair scan. Some vehicle features or options may be turned off or placed in fail-safe mode due to the disassembly of the vehicle or removal and reinstallation of a component, or due to lost communication DTCs that are set. If you don’t address that before you do a test drive, it could generate another DTC to tell me there was a problem because it was turned off, or I may not be able to properly do a calibration if it’s turned off.”

In-process scan billing also saw a decrease in 2023, down 1 percentage compared to 2022. Thirty-five percent of respondents who billed for it said they were paid “always” or “most of the time.”

Anderson highlights the importance of in-process scans in the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) Quick Tip video below.

Post-repair scans also saw an increase in payment. Of those that negotiate for it, 91% said they’re paid “always” or “most of the time,” an increase of 1.3 percentage points.

“I think it’s important to understand that there are not dash lights for every function that may not be working on a vehicle,” Anderson wrote. “Some vehicles need to be driven a certain distance or have a set number of key cycles before a dash light is triggered. So the post-repair scan has to be done to ensure all the safety and comfort features of the vehicle are working properly. There is no dash warning light, for example, that tells you the Bluetooth feature isn’t working. There may be no dash light for blind-spot monitoring or adaptive cruise control. So, I look forward to the day when post-repair scans are being paid 100%.

“It is critical to perform a test drive (action test, drive cycle, etc.) to achieve the set conditions BEFORE performing a post-repair scan. Whether scanning is done in-house or through a sublet service, I encourage shops to capture the “freeze frame” or “snapshot” data (which shows when trouble codes were set, or how many times the keys have been turned on/off since the code was set) as documentation to substantiate the line item(s) on the estimate or invoice.”

While still low, shops getting paid “always” or “most of the time” for labor to research OEM repair procedures also increased, up 1.1 percentage points from 2023 to 16%.

“I’m seeing the typical amount of total sales a single estimator can handle decline, because the estimating process continues to become more complex, including research of OEM repair information,” Anderson wrote. “I’m starting to see a few shops with an employee doing nothing but scanning vehicles and researching OEM repair procedures. I think it will be interesting to watch this moving forward.

“There are two considerations involved in determining a charge for OEM research: the labor time involved and the subscription fees; this question focuses on the labor time, because we look on whether shops charge for the subscription fees separately.”

The first quarterly “Who Pays for What?” survey for 2025 is now open through the end of this month. It focuses on not-included refinish labor operations. Shops can take the survey here.

Survey participants receive a free report with complete survey findings along with analysis and resources to help shops better understand and use the information presented.

The survey can be completed in about 15 minutes by anyone familiar with their shop’s billing practices and the payment practices of at least some of the largest national insurers. Only aggregated data is released.

The results of previous surveys are also available online.

Images

Featured image credit: Thapana Onphalai/iStock

Charts provided by CRASH Network and Collision Advice