View From The Trenches

I know it is July but with the slowdown in the economy, a phenomenon of winter has reappeared … The Job That Won’t Go Away.

I call them tarbabies. They are old horror jobs of which it seems you can never rid yourself. The name comes from the old Uncle Remus stories of Walt Disney fame where to punish Brer Rabbit; Brer Bear constructs a doll figure made from tar. The more the rabbit touches the doll, the more ensnared he becomes. Got the picture? I’m sure we all have had our own.

My latest one came from a favor I did. A repair shop owner with whom I do business asked me to install a windshield in a 1998 RAV-4 (FW2001) for his wife’s best friend. Of course, it had to be at rock bottom price. The woman was heading to Mexico within a few days and she wanted it cheap.

I hung an American-branded (but Chinese-made) windshield in it and used an aftermarket moulding. The cheap moulding just did not fit correctly and the fight to make it look good was complicated by use of a one-hour SDAT urethane. In the end, I got it to lay flat and then taped much of the top and upper corners down. Three months later, I got a call from my buddy telling me the RAV-4 was back at his shop and its owner was saying that it had a nasty wind whistle.

I went over, and the install looked good. However, I went ahead and resealed it. I went through that same scenario two more times until I finally pulled the glass out (which of course broke), and, when I replaced the glass, I used a Toyota moulding. (Lesson learned.) I have since contacted a voodoo priestess and gave her instructions on what kind of fate I’d like that mini-SUV to have befall it.

These kinds of jobs come in all makes and models or types of glass. They could arise out of one of the easiest installs or from a job that you never should have accepted. That is what makes them so frustrating—the unpredictability factor. Once you get one, the only predictable thing is that they just won’t go away. They are almost as bad as having a visiting mother-in-law or distant relative who just takes up residence in your house.

The next sort of punishment is the ‘job of desperation.” Business is off; the phones are quiet and wham! A guy pulls into your shop driving a Peugeot 505. He needs a windshield and you need to make payroll. Could this be a match in heaven? Not a chance! It is your first step on the road to hell but you don’t know it because you have never ever had to spell the word Peugeot, much less install any sort of glass in one. You should have had sense to turn the job down, but you will pay the price by becoming entangled for so long that you and your customer soon will be on each others’ Christmas card lists. I once did an Audi 6 sidelite on a mobile job, knowing better. I was there so long the client’s children started calling me “Uncle Neil.”

For you company guys out there, I can feel your pain. As an owner-operator, at least I can choose what jobs I want or can do. You folks are at the mercy of a CSR who is clueless or has had a fight with his/her significant other that morning and is mad at the world. Back in the mid-1980s, my CSR tried to give all of the following jobs to one installer in a single day: a Fiat X 1/9, an Audi 5000 and a MG Midget windshields to do mobile. “Tried” was the operative word, because after I got him to stop weeping uncontrollably, it was too late in the day to send him out.

When times get slow, every nutcase seems to come out of the woodwork. I get calls for 1965 Alfa windshields, MGB R&Rs or to re-bond the shoes on 1969 Mustang door glasses. A full moon only complicates the demands or at least magnifies them.

Why is it when sluggish times arise that one gets tormented with strange requests or a job comes back to haunt you? Some people will call it karma; others call it cosmic revenge. For me the very worst cases arise when you take on a job with marginal profit to keep busy with and it just snaps back, biting you in the rear, and makes you pay again and again and again for your first bad decision. I already have a wife to remind me of past mistakes—I don’t need a second source.Winter is bad enough to get these boomerang jobs that keep returning to haunt us. Now we have the economy and deceptive referrals to blame as well. I would just hang in there and my best suggestion to avoid getting snarled in tar is to keep something or someone handy so it could be sacrificed to the glass gods if need be, or, better still, keep the phone number of the competitor you detest the most close by to give out when you are tempted to take on a job that would let Brer Rabbit get his licks in.

Dear Mr. Lubner and Mr. Feeney,

First of all, I would like to congratulate the both of you on your current business successes. Safelite has made some substantial strides in the past few years under the ownership of Belron. As for the parent company, Belron has shown a marked ability for overall growth in the world market and I’m sure that has not been easy. I can certainly appreciate both of your time and candor in answering questions put to you a few weeks ago by the publisher of glassBYTEs.com™ and AGRR magazine. I also offer my respect for the Diamond acquisition. Being in the right place and time can be a matter of luck but one making your own “luck” is another matter.

I’m sure that you don’t care one whit about the opinion of an independent, but as the both of you were gracious to be interviewed in order to get Belron’s message out, I would like to offer a few opinions of mine regarding both of your corporations.

To me, one concept that was made clear by the both of you was that Belron will do what is good for Belron and is not responsible for the rest of the industry. That is troubling. There is no doubt to anyone that Safelite, with the Diamond auction proceeds, is by far the largest and most widespread auto glass installation firm in the United States. In a perfect world, one should also lead by example and sadly it sounds that there is no wish for Safelite to do so.

My feeling is if Belron is a world leader in auto glass, it should act like one. It should set the bar has high as possible when it comes to its manufactured and installed products. It should be the physical presence and the moral voice of our industry, but sadly it is not and professes no desire to be so.

I have no history with Safelite or Belron. I have never worked for any of Belron’s former or present companies. Contrary to rumor, their little red vans have never run over any of my dogs although I must say, I admit I’ve thought about potty training one with a picture of a certain vehicle.

It’s been said with some truth about independents that we either are too good (or think we are) to work for some one else or so bad that the only persons that would have us is ourselves. While there are some extremely capable techs working for Belron/Diamond, I feel that there are far too many that fall below the national average for talent and are just collecting a check. From what I’ve witnessed in my part of Northern California, the employment pool is largely filled with people that understand the concept of flat-rate work but impart little personal pride in their duties.

I will always admit a bias against production pay plans that benefit installation numbers. I think it places an all too tempting burden to pad your wallet, both by the company and the tech, over the quality of the installation. I beg anyone to prove to me that by giving incentive bonuses to techs who install more glass per month is a boon and an advantage to the folks who own those cars. I surely haven’t found that to be the case.

I mistrust any CEO who refers to his employees as “associates.” To me it is condescending and has become a buzzword of sorts to prevent any corporate officer from being assaulted by employees who become aware of the vast pay differences and stock dividends that exist between Mr. CEO and those who actually sweat to eke out those earnings.

First, I simply have a problem with how Belron/Safelite squeezes out profits. To me, it starts with its own private label glass. Years ago, Belron’s windshield brand, Safevue, was a quality aftermarket brand that was marketed by Solaglass, its own wholly owned distributor. I bought that label with confidence.

Belron now has had control of the SGC brand of glass since purchasing Safelite. It has had more than enough time to influence manufacturing procedures and standards. The word “quality” and SGC glass are not currently synonymous.

What I have seen with my own eyes are poorly made windshields that often are distorted and ill-fitting. I have seen all too many windshields with the SGC label that have faded, discolored or even wavy, bonded mouldings. In short they are becoming easier to spot as replacements—a new way of branding, I guess. Rumors exist citing the increased use of generic mouldings during installs. To me, that just suggest more cost-cutting procedures and a callous disregard for the consumer, who, for the most part, is ignorant of the quality of the house brand Safelite uses.

My largest bone of contention is your ownership of a third-party administrator. First of all, to increase your market share, you have made your deal with the devil throughout the world. You have offered yourself as the corporate answer to glass cost containment to the insurance industry. You have set rates that are “fair and reasonable” to only you that enables you to be assured of a constant malleable stream of unsuspecting customers that are sent to you by Belron subsidiaries who stand in as claims adjusters for insurers. Without Safelite Solutions (SS), Belron/Safelite would be competing against and losing customers to a more local-based business.

I would not be surprised if the heavy-handed methods that Belron has employed to secure insurance work lead to changes in the future of how these TPAs conduct business and who may operate them. Too many privacy and trade secrets issues become exposed within your TPA’s purvey that are of concern to independents, which appear to favor Belron’s positioning itself to exploit that knowledge. I, for one, strongly suspect that the fast promotion track from Belron or Safelite lies within SS because it has the most value to the rest of the corporation. Mr. Feeney, with his accounting background, is the current proof of that supposition.

I have described Safelite to my customers as the “Wal-Mart” of auto glass—very big, very corporate and very conscious of costs. The both of you may feel that nickname is a badge of honor due to its success and growth pattern that, for the moment, dominates a sector of American business.

I mean it as a term of derision simply because to me every process you invoke and every procedure you mandate is one that is designed to save you money. A shopper may walk into a grocery store and purchase the house brand of canned food over a national brand. That’s choice. You simply install your SGC brand whenever possible unless an insured says otherwise.

I would just like to see Belron/Safelite/Diamond act like leaders instead of the monolithic, self-centered company that they seem to be. There are issues of easy entry into this craft, installation standards like AGRSS, parts identification to help trace bad installations. These are valid concerns to all of us, but at no time do we ever hear of any efforts that Belron wants to be involved with improving our industry. What we do hear is news of acquisitions and denials of misdeeds coming from Columbus.

A truism that often comes true is: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Watch what you wish for, gentlemen.

Anyone else out there feel like they’ve lost their independence lately? I bet when most of you open your petrol and utilities bills this month you’ll begin to believe that you are now working for Exxon, Chevron or Shell. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the New Reality.

I know we are not alone. It seems daily we receive notice that glass manufacturers and distributors are passing on their increased energy expenses to in the form of higher prices. The ugly truth is that, in our industry, as end users, we seem to play a frantic game of musical chairs and always get caught standing when the music stops. You would think that we could learn by now.

This dramatic rise in energy costs has to be hurting us all. We read that the American public is driving less, meaning glass breakage opportunities on the road have dropped. Replacing broken glass has become optional (or at least discretionary) for many as consumers are forced to make choices with tightening budgets. Installation numbers as well as revenue per unit have dropped precipitously for many shops and many are pondering what to do to combat this double whammy. I hope that doesn’t mean praying for hail.

High energy costs are going to change America. We may not revert to rickshaws and bicycles but I think we’ve seen the era’s end of Hummers and Excursions. Unfortunately glass installation vans are not usually not known as fuel-efficient and many shops are reminded of that fact first-hand as they pay the gas bill every month.

So what is the big deal, you ask? Just raise prices to offset the rise in costs—right? That would be the way any other business in the world would act when faced with higher expenses. No, no my friends, the retail glass installation sector is the Bermuda Triangle of business where all natural laws are suspended and companies disappear into bankruptcy. The bigger ones come back reborn, it seems.

Mobile service, the bane of brick and mortar shops but the elixir of life to many others, has become much more expensive to operate. Up to this time, we (meaning the retailers) have sold our souls to the word “free” when describing this act of consumer convenience. It has gotten to the point where customers expect and insurers assume that mobile service will cost them nothing. Of course, up to now that cost has been built into our sale price. However, as gas prices skyrocket, it has become very hard to absorb that rise as shop owners are doing everything to attract sales by keeping prices as low as possible.

I know this. I have to install two extra windshields a month just to stay even with just the rise in just my gas bill for my one truck. I shudder to think what it now costs a company with a national fleet of install vans in the thousands to operate. We are talking millions of dollars extra per year, all of that coming off the bottom line.

What is both galling and a mystery to me is why our two industry leaders, which are vertically integrated and operate insurance billing services, refuse to acknowledge higher energy costs in glass claims. Why are material and labor prices still dropping in the insurance sector as expenses continue to rise? Oftentimes it appears that these two companies are either the advocates or enablers for cost containment. In my view, those actions just give more fodder upon which our industry’s conspiracy theorists thrive+. I know many shops have expressed fears that the Dynamic Duo have a higher contracted price to client insurers, and that they then turn around and demand a lower “fair and reasonable” one from an outside or non-franchised installation firm, turning a higher profit from that transaction.

Insurers love to point out our retail side as proof that they deserve better pricing. I submit the premise that that sector of auto glass is our version of the Twilight Zone. Pricing defies all natural law, somewhat like a black hole is to physics. Some of the foolishly quoted prices I hear spoken astound me with disbelief. Mobile service usually is at the core of these mini pick-up based operations I think I know why. There are so many assorted people (actually the bottom feeders of this industry) who cannot think of any means to garner business other than to cheap-sell their shoddy products by any means possible.

Along with mobile service, the retail end has become addicted to the cheap Chinese imports that have flooded the wholesale market. Well, wake up and smell the coffee, folks! The cost of that source has to rise fairly soon. Our Middle Kingdom alphabet brands are going to get more expensive. I know of one situation in which the cost of shipping a container of table saws from China has gone from $6,000 to $20,000, attributable solely to higher transportation expenses. The U.S. dollar has gotten weaker against many of the world’s currencies. In fact, China has been accused for some time now of keeping theirs artificially low to attract commerce. As far as auto glass manufacturing is concerned, one would think that the gap between domestic and overseas production would close somewhat due to transport costs. In fact, anything that is imported will cost Americans more just by the fact that the cost of fuel to bring it here has risen enough to affect prices.

With all of that said, should I be waiting next to my fax with bated breath for the announcement from our friendly neighborhood TPA informing us that one will be allowed to charge its customers more based on higher energy costs? Or would my time be better spent holding a sign at a busy intersection that reads: “Will install auto glass for gas?”