Legislation, Safe Driving and More

It’s been quite a week here in the glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR™ newsroom. One of the biggest stories to break this week has been that of the passing of a different sort of bill in the state of Michigan’s Senate. While many of the bills we’ve seen and covered on glassBYTEs.com over the last few years have related to third-party administrators, the latest one in Michigan actually proposes a code of conduct for third-party administrators (TPAs) that also offer retail services.

What’s even more interesting to me than the content of this bill is that no one seems to be completely happy with it; some independents seem to think it’s a bit lenient, as it’s endured quite a few changes from the original version, while Safelite officials say it is concerning, with the reporting requirements it would mandate, along with an openness of the company’s network.

I’ve often heard that give-and-take is important in these types of situations—and it seems in this case everyone’s getting a little of what they want. But as both groups have made it clear they’re hoping to get some changes made in the state’s House, it will be interesting in the coming weeks to see what occurs.

How’s My Driving?

On a less auto glass-related note this week, State Farm announced that it has released a mobile phone application called “Driver Feedback.” It is designed to that rates a user’s driving, based on “hard acceleration, hard deceleration and hard swerves.” It appears it’s available to anyone—whether or not you’re insured by State Farm—so I immediately downloaded it and will soon hopefully know the answer to the above question: how’s my driving? (I hope to try it out today in busy, Friday afternoon traffic.)

Depending on whether it actually works, I can’t help but think a free app like this one could be helpful to auto glass businesses, too, who want to know if their techs are being safe on the road. If you’ve tried something like this out, for yourself or your employees, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at pstacey@glass.com. And please feel free to check back to find out how my driving is—or not; what my score says may determine whether or not I share this information in a future blog.

Trading Places

Yesterday, LYNX Services announced that it is making some personnel changes, including naming Chris Umble to the newly created position of executive director of auto glass claim solutions. I’ve known Chris for quite a few years in my role as an auto glass journalist and have always appreciated his accessibility to the industry—not to mention his devotion to it, despite his very busy schedule—and am excited to see what the future holds as he moves into this role.

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope your 2012 is off to a great start.