April 2019

ALL ABOUT ADAS: AUTO WINDSCREENS CONFERENCE A uto Windscreens' area distribution centre (ADC) for Oxford hosted its 2019 conference, which attracted a mix of VM representatives, aftermarket businesses and insurers looking to find out the latest on ADAS. Kicking things off, Auto Windscreens Managing Director Rupert Armitage set the scene: "ADAS – the bane of my life," he said, to the amusement of the delegates. "Since December 2017 when we started, the recalibration network we have has grown. We have more than 2,500 dealerships and approved bodyshops signed up to our network. We have an SLA and recalibration rate fixed with those 2,500 businesses. There is a further 2,000 that we use and have access to, and they are generally on the same recalibration rates and SLAs. If you go back to December 2017, we were knocking on doors and asking for help getting vehicles recalibrated for their customers. We now have some dealership groups coming to us and asking if we will do their glass if we send them the recalibration work. "Over 18,500 OE parts were fitted in the period, and we have noticed a significant movement in pricing. There has always been this thought that OE parts were much more expensive. In the period we have seen a fall of 31.4% in the price of OE glass. If you do it compared with 2017 to today, it is a fall of 46.6%. Challenges Rupert said many operators in the market are not giving their customers a clear picture on ADAS: "Disinformation around the area is really quite frightening. Customers are given a solution because it is best for a supplier. They are being told things that are factually incorrect. "The pace of change is also frightening. We have manufacturers who now don't produce a vehicle without ADAS. The 5-Star Ncap rating has driven that to a certain extent, but it has now become an expectation. "There is a lack of clarity, and I find it absolutely staggering that people still look at ADAS as a revenue stream, and not a service to the customer. We definitely don't look at it as a revenue stream, in any form. That is illustrated by the fact that we cut our recalibration rates last year, halfway through the year, simply because we found out that the cost to us was coming down. We are not trying to recoup the cost of investment in equipment and we are not telling people the wrong thing just so we can get that money back. There is no legislation, that is the big issue." On the way ADAS recalibration is being performed, Rupert commented: "Are there vehicles with only part of their ADAS working? We don't know. What does 'basic setting performed successfully' mean? We have seen certificates given out to people who had their vehicle recalibrated, and it is signed by the technician that the basic settings have been reset successfully. What does that mean? They don't know. It leaves people in a very dark place. "We have been out to cars where the camera has been bonded to the screen because the bracket was broken. A camera 0.6° out of alignment, because the bracket is not placed in the correct place on the windscreen, will mean that instead of the car braking itself 53 feet away, for 1.5 seconds, it will do 0.9 seconds of braking and hit the obstacle at 20mph. Future Looking to the future legislative environment Rupert pointed out: "The law does not evolve quick enough. We have to apply common sense." "The new MOT regulations is a real worry. ADAS is at some point going to 56 AFTERMARKET APRIL 2019 ON THE ROAD left to right, Tim Armitage, David Elphick, Rupert Armitage, Steve Plunkett, Andrew Fitzpatrick www.aftermarketonline.net Auto Windscreens recently ran a conference that helped to provide an update on ADAS, and Aftermarket was there to see what went on