Nearly 50 Percent of Body Shops Get Paid for Seat Belt Inspections

The latest quarterly “Who Pays for What?” survey is now open through the month of October. It focuses on billing and payment practices related to scanning and calibrations, aluminum repair and shop supplies. 

Nearly 50 percent of shops now say they are regularly getting paid for the labor involved in inspecting seatbelts by the eight largest national insurers, twice the percentage that said that when the question was first asked in the “Who Pays for What?” survey series back in 2016. 

This “not-included” repair operation – for which every OEM has a very specific procedure – is a necessary and required part of a safe collision repair, said Mike Anderson of Collision Advice. He will not be satisfied until 100 percent of shops are performing it. 

“As I conduct workshops across the country for automakers and wholesale parts managers, it is concerning to me to hear how few seat belts are being sold,” Anderson said. “This leads me to believe that too many in the industry do not understand how critical this procedure is or aren’t looking at the OEM information on this to know how to properly inspect a seat belt. It’s often more than just a visual inspection.” 

The industry appears to be headed in the right direction regarding the procedure. In 2016, 63 percent of shops acknowledged they had never included it on a final invoice. Today, it's down to 20 percent. Of those who had it in 2016, 56 percent said that insurers would never pay for it. Today, one in four still believe that insurers won’t pay them for the procedure, even while 49 percent of the shops that do charge for it say they get paid all or most of the time by the eight largest national insurers. Another 26 percent are paid at least sometimes. 

“I am glad to see the big improvement, but more is needed,” Anderson said. “As an industry, we must accept responsibility for researching and following the requirements for this on every single vehicle we repair.” 

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 should take 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. Each shop's individual responses are held in the strictest confidence; only aggregated data is released. 

Shops can take the survey here. The results of previous surveys are also available here.