Executive Director’s Report
ASRA Collision Industry Survey Results...
Evidence of the Pressure on the Collision Industry
.Victor Marciano, Executive Director
Welcome to a late edition of PARTS & Pieces, the ASRA newsletter. In the last issue of PARTS & Pieces I asked for the industry’s assistance in conducting a survey on the number of collision shops in Alberta. Thank you for coming through!!! I asked:
"How many collision shops are there in the province?" One government department
told me 340, another 840, still another 649, while the Internet phone directories
told me 770 ?!?…
ASRA’s focus for 2002 was to create the infrastructure to properly survey the collision industry. We received a very small summer student grant and we put Pam Jones to work assembling a complete and accurate database of our industry. This database will be used to conduct more thorough surveys of the industry. The long-term goal is to develop accurate and useful information about our industry, that ASRA members and other stakeholders can use for business planning.
First, I must thank the industry for their participation. ASRA identified over 700 potential participants who were contacted by phone or fax and asked to complete a short one-page survey. Over 450 shops answered the survey! Thank you! This is spectacular participation and it has provided us with some excellent data.
As of August 20, 2002 there were 582 collision shops in Alberta (133 in Calgary, 126 in Edmonton, 146 in rural southern Alberta, and 177 in rural northern Alberta). Incredibly there were 84 collision shops that had a business license or were listed in the phone book but were no longer in business! That’s almost 13% of the industry that had gone out of business in the previous 15 months!
The following is a summary of our findings. We correlated this information by confirming our extrapolated number of Apprentices with Alberta Apprenticeship’s numbers—they matched up almost exactly!
Includes 12 Boyds, 5 Herbers, 2 Concours, 2 Coachworks, 2 Peterson, 2 JD, 2 Jaehns, 2 Apex, 2 Empire, 2 Cosmos, 3 Big Rig, and 7 MAACO’s, 10 pure restoration shops and all MDA bodyshops.
In this PARTS & Pieces you will find a survey undertaken by ASRA: Collision Labour Shortages. Because of our improved database this years skills shortage survey has information from over 105 shops, a 144% increase in participation over last years 43 shops.
For 2003 we will focus on creating a comprehensive database of the mechanical repair industry. "How many mechanical repair businesses are there?" Estimates range from 1700 to +3800! "Average wage of service technicians?" No firm answer. "Average posted labour rates?" No firm answer. So when you get that call or fax from the ASRA office this summer, please help out and help put your association in a better position to help you! Ž