Air Repair: July 2001

              Air Repair July 2001
Volume 4 Number 3 July 2001
The second quarter of 2001 is
behind us, and the next issue of the
Repair Facility Performance Report
will soon become available at the
test stations.
We appreciate the efforts of
the repair industry to fix emission
failures. You have responded to the
challenge of fixing IM240 failures
by attending seminars and training
classes. Without the technical
expertise of the repair industry, we
would not be able to achieve
cleaner air. Identifying gross
polluting vehicles means nothing if
the repair industry is not prepared
to fix them.
We have received many
comments about the Repair Effec-tiveness
Index (REI) and thought
this would be a good time to discuss
enhancements of how the REI is
calculated.
The last issue of the Repair
Facility Performance Report (April
2001) identifies shops that per-formed
at least five IM240 repairs
during the previous six months
(October 1, 2000 to March 31,
2001) and achieved a Repair
Effectiveness Index of 75% or
greater. During this period, 529
shops performed 8200 IM240
repairs, of which 6903 (84%)
passed the next retest.
The REI is a consumer infor-mation
device designed to help
motorists choose a repair shop to
fix emissions failures. The REI is
based on repairs performed during
REI Change Will Affect Your Shop
the previous six months, and is
calculated by dividing the number of
successful retests by the number of
total repairs. It is important to
understand that each test counts as
a separate event. For example, if a
shop performed four IM240 repairs
on the same vehicle, which failed
three retests and passed one, it
would have an REI of 25%.
Waivers, in and of themselves,
do not affect a shop’s REI. The
only thing that does are test results.
By definition, a vehicle must fail
before it can be waived. The test
failure will affect the shop’s REI,
but a waiver does not.
Some shops have reported they
do not fill out the repair data section
on the back of the Vehicle Inspec-tion
Report to avoid having that test
used to calculate the shop’s REI.
However, the repair data can be
completed by the motorist, not just
the shop or technician. We believe it
is not in a shop’s best interest to let
the customer complete the repair
data. The most accurate and
reliable information comes from the
technician or shop.
A number of shops are con-cerned
that they “take a hit” on
their REI when a customer asks for
a diagnosis and the shop does not
repair the vehicle, or when a
customer chooses not to perform a
particular repair recommended by
the shop. Some shops even refuse
to complete the repair data section
on the back of the VIR in such
instances, believing this will keep
the shop from taking a “hit.”
However, the customer is still able
to complete the back of the VIR in
order to have the vehicle retested.
As a result of feedback we
have received from a number of
shops and investigation of how
other states handle the situation,
beginning with the July issue:
If box 4 is checked “NO”, that
VIR will not be used to
calculate the shop’s REI
Continued on page 3
Reasons For REI Change
1. More accurately reflects a
shop’s true ability to diag-nose
and repair IM240
failures.
2. Adds more successful shops
to the REI that are doing
volume business (many are
IM240 trained shops).
3. Shops will not take a “hit”
for diagnostics only.
4. Shops will not take a “hit”
for a motorist unwilling to
complete all recommended
repairs knowing the vehicle
is going to fail.
5. Shops will be more willing to
do diagnostics without
putting REI in jeopardy.
6. Shops will be more willing to
do partial repairs without
putting REI in jeopardy.
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