IN THIS ISSUE

Collision Repair · General Auto Repair · Tire & Wheel · Auto Glass · Towing & Roadside · Car Wash & Detailing

What to do about it: Pull 90 days of fuel receipts and divide by tows, mobile jobs or deliveries to get a current cost per call, then compare it with the fuel assumption inside every motor-club, insurer and property-management contract you hold. Put a written fuel-surcharge request in front of each account manager this week; most club and insurer agreements permit one but only on request. Reprice flat-rate mobile glass and mobile diagnostic calls now instead of waiting for renewal. If you run diesel wreckers across state lines, route fills by region: EIA has West Coast diesel at $6.987 and East Coast at $5.744 for the week of Sept. 7. Stop service writers quoting round-trip mileage off last year's rate sheet, and add a mileage band to written estimates for mobile work beyond your normal radius. Ask parts suppliers in writing whether a delivery surcharge is coming before it shows up on an invoice you have already quoted from.

Diesel sat at $3.698 a year ago and $5.404 a month ago before reaching $6.204 on Sept. 14. A wrecker burning 25 gallons a day now costs about $63 more per truck per day than a month ago. Any flat per-tow or per-mile rate written before August is under water until you reprice it or add a surcharge. Source: AAA Gas Prices, national average (retrieved Sept. 14, 2026)

Why it matters: The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma awarded $20 million compensatory and $20 million punitive damages on a claim worth $25,000. Testimony centered on adjusters who did not understand Oklahoma underinsured-motorist rules and on incentive structures that rewarded lower payouts. The carrier demanded medical records and wage verification, then closed its evaluation the day after the tortfeasor's liability payment cleared, without ever receiving them. Shops are not parties, but that demand-then-ignore pattern is the same one that shows up in supplement handling. Time-stamp every supplement, photo set and OEM procedure you send, and keep the carrier's written answer, or the absence of one, in the file.

Why it matters: Reported Sept. 10, the statement covers 15 structural areas including frame rails, torque boxes and impact bars, plus the front end module and door assemblies. Any structure distorted more than 3mm must be replaced, and measurement has to be finished before ADAS alignment and calibration. Only four systems are approved: Car Bench Evolution, Celette Naja, Spanesi Touch and Car-O-Liner Vision X2. A shop without one of those cannot document a compliant Lucid structural repair, whatever its bench can actually do. Price the measuring system against your realistic Lucid volume this quarter; if the math fails, sublet structural work and keep the R&I, refinish and calibration.

Why it matters: NHTSA said Sept. 9 that a Dallas driver killed Aug. 27 in a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox is the 11th death linked to the DTN60DB inflator made by Jilin Province Detiannuo. The agency banned imports and sales of the part on April 29, 2026, its first motor vehicle equipment ban in more than two decades. From Sept. 24 eBay will not list airbags, inflators or steering-wheel airbag covers; control units, crash sensors, diagnostic modules and passenger sensors remain, for pre-approved U.S. sellers only. If you have ever bought restraint parts on a marketplace, pull those invoices now and source only from the automaker, an authorized supplier or a licensed dismantler.

Why it matters: BLS released the August CPI on Sept. 11. Maintenance and repair was up 1.1% for the month seasonally adjusted and 5.2% over twelve months; motor vehicle insurance was down 0.8% for the month and 5.1% over the year. Parts and equipment rose only 0.9% over twelve months and tires 0.4%. Read together, that says labor and shop overhead, not parts, are carrying your ticket increase, and that carriers are cutting premiums while your cost base rises. That is the arithmetic behind door-rate pushback. Benchmark your posted door rate and your effective labor rate against the 5.2% figure before the next carrier rate survey lands, and keep the release as backup.

West Coast diesel at $6.987 runs $1.24 above the East Coast at $5.744, and West Coast gasoline at $5.362 is $1.68 above the Gulf Coast. Multi-state tow and mobile-service operators should plan fills and price out-of-region calls off the regional number, not the national average. Source: EIA Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, week of Sept. 7, 2026

Why it matters: USTMA's July forecast, released Aug. 6, puts total 2026 U.S. shipments at 330.3 million units against 336.3 million in 2025, a drop of about 1.8%. In March the association had forecast 338.9 million and called it a record. Replacement passenger is 218.3 million units, replacement light truck 37.1 million and replacement truck 22.9 million; original equipment is 41.0 million passenger, 6.3 million light truck and 4.6 million truck. Fewer units through the bay, and no price relief to offset it: BLS has tire CPI up just 0.4% over twelve months. Build inventory to the lower number and protect margin on alignment, TPMS service and road-hazard attach rather than on unit volume.

Why it matters: NHTSA campaign 26V559000 covers 2024-2026 Grand Cherokee variants, 2024-2025 Wagoneer and 2026 Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer. The remedy is a free radio-frequency hub software update and owner letters go out Sept. 29. A second campaign announced the same week, 26V562000, covers 328,381 2021-2023 Grand Cherokee L and Grand Cherokee models whose rear coil springs can detach. Both land in tire and wheel bays. Until the software is updated, an unlit TPMS lamp on these vehicles proves nothing: check and record cold pressures by gauge on every one that comes in, note the open recall on the invoice, and keep the copy.

Why it matters: SB 988 writes calibration disclosure into the Civil Code and was amended on the way out to protect a customer's right to choose the repair shop. It cleared the Assembly floor Aug. 24 and the Senate floor Aug. 26, then was enrolled and presented Aug. 31. The official action history carries nothing after that date, and no signing deadline is published on that record, so do not set a compliance date off a rumored one. If you write glass in California, draft the calibration disclosure language and the shop-choice notice now, get them through your insurer network contacts, and hold them ready to go live the week the bill is signed.

Why it matters: The first symposium, in May 2025, was an aftermarket-only forum on calibration and compatibility problems. Getting automakers, IIHS, SAE, ETI and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists into the same room, co-hosted with MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, is how calibration procedures, tool access and target specifications eventually get standardized, and that is what decides whether a glass shop can bill a static or dynamic calibration and be paid for it. Nothing agreed there is binding on any carrier today. Watch what is published out of it before you commit capital to calibration targets and software in this budget cycle.

Why it matters: Act 440 of the 2026 Regular Session, formerly HB 728, swaps Louisiana's old Interstate Commerce Commission references for FMCSA standards. An out-of-state truck with a DOT number may run interstate loads but cannot tow intrastate without a Louisiana plate, and must give state police a bill of lading, VINs and consignor and consignee addresses before entry. Private-property towing contracts now expire annually at 11:59 a.m. on June 13 and are nontransferable, and signage must be approved by state police. Penalties reach revocation of towing and storage licenses plus liability for excess fees and attorney costs. Re-paper Louisiana property contracts and carry the paperwork in the truck.

Why it matters: Agero handles roughly 14 million roadside events and more than one million accidents a year across 150 million vehicles and two-thirds of the top North American auto insurers. Through its Urgently platform it will now let a connected-vehicle crash signal trigger dispatch and assemble the claim file at the same moment, with trials showing claim cycle times down by up to three days. For an independent operator on that network, dispatch will arrive with crash telematics attached and your response will be measured against a clock the insurer already started. Automate GPS pings, arrival photos and release times rather than typing them in after the shift.

Why it matters: The Colorado Attorney General said Cobblestone Denver Opco, which operates more than 40 Colorado sites under a parent with over 100 across four states, failed to give required advance notice of membership price increases to more than 30,000 customers between August 2022 and February 2025 and did not furnish receipts to more than 40,000. Restitution is about $19 each for over 70,000 consumers, on top of $253,000 already refunded. Going forward the chain must document auto-renewals, give 25 days' notice of price increases and offer one-step online cancellation. It denied wrongdoing. Test your own sign-up receipt, price-change notice and cancel flow this week.

Why it matters: The Rinsed Q2 2026 report, released July 22 and drawn from more than 3,000 locations, puts total same-store sales up 5.4% while mature sites open two years or more managed only 2.7%. Monthly churn reached 7.9%, up 5% year over year, with voluntary cancellations at 4.9%, up 9.2%, while card-decline churn fell to 3%. Retail-to-member conversion was 17.3% at sites with 4,000 or more members but 2.4% at sites under 2,000. Growth is coming from the member base, not the drive-up lane, and it is leaking faster than last year. Pull voluntary cancel rate and conversion by site and fix your smallest site first.

Two thirds of 2026 volume is replacement passenger tires, and the total is 6.0 million units below 2025's 336.3 million. Dealers should plan a flat-to-down unit year and hold gross on alignment, TPMS service and road hazard rather than chasing share on price. Source: USTMA July 2026 Forecast (released Aug. 6, 2026)

What to do about it: You don't need a security program. You need multi-factor authentication on email and your accounting login, and one rule everybody follows: nobody changes bank details on the strength of an email or a call — you ring the number you already had on file and confirm. That covers most of it, and costs nothing. The part it doesn't — how the systems are set up — is the day job of our parent company, CyberSainya.

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