One of the things the auto glass repair and services industry looked forward to for 2012 was the name change of the well-known AGRSS Council to the Auto Glass Safety Council, a change that would be effective immediately on the first day of 2012. The former AGRSS (Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards) Council officials announced it back in the middle of September last year, right in the middle of Auto Glass Week in Memphis. At the time, it was suggested that it would mark a formal commitment to covering a wider range of concerns regarding the industry for the organization.

The non-profit group formerly known as the AGRSS has contributed a great deal to the auto glass repair and services industry in the country. It is actually accredited by the country’s national standards institute (the ANSI) as an organization dedicated to the development of a formal set of standards for its chosen field. In fact, the AGRSS was instrumental in developing the currently practiced set of standards for auto glass replacement safety, also commonly referred to as the AGRSS Standard. However, as the president of the organization, Debra Levy, remarked at the time that the name change was announced, the group actually did more than focus on the development of standards, so the old name was becoming slightly restrictive in terms of what it implied.

Levy noted that changing the group’s name to the Auto Glass Safety Council would see the name being a more accurate reflection of the organization's true aims and central purpose. Levy said that the Council was not only dedicated to the development of standards for the actual auto glass repair procedures and tools but also other relevant concerns in the industry, all with the ultimate goal of achieving safety for consumers and car owners. Some activities Levy mentioned that the Council was either already doing or interested in doing were audit works for the industry, validation, certifications for auto glass repair technicians and shops, and, of course, education.

The note about certification was a particularly salient point at the time: the Council had just announced, no more than a few days earlier, its purchase of the rights to one of the most famous and established accreditation programs in the auto glass repair industry. To be precise, it had acquired the National Glass Association’s certification programs, which had been in use in the industry for well over two decades. The operational transfer of the programs took place last year as well, with the Council saying that its acquisition of the certification program was an indication of how significant certification was and would continue to be in the auto glass repair and replacement industry.

The UK-based auto glass repair brand Autoglass has released its latest commercial, where the winner of its Facebook contest can be seen sporting a frown as his windshield takes on a decidedly nasty crack after his car hits a bump on the highway. The man, Blackpool resident Ian Graham, was chosen out of over 130 participants in the auto glass repair brand’s social networking site contest, which involved calling for people to submit images or videos of them or someone in their family (or close social circle) with a vehicle (one with a windshield, of course).

The auto glass repair company started the competition in the latter half of last year, promoting it as an opportunity for vehicle owners to star in the next ad. Besides that, though the company was also offering an iPad 2 as well as no less than £3000—a pretty handsome windfall for the winner, all told. The contest’s mechanics involved the finalists being selected by vote, but the ultimate arbiter of the winner were people from the auto glass repair company’s own marketing team, which held auditions for the finalists chosen from the over 130 contest entries. Graham was apparently selected because he acted very naturally in front of the camera and fit the needs of the advert very well.

This is just another step in the company’s advertising plans for this year, which, taken with the next year, is being considered a very important time for the auto glass repair brand’s marketing department. Back in 2010, the company actually announced that it was planning to double its advertising expenses in order to stay competitive in a global market that was not only suffering from the recession but also shifting in its advertising interests, with people becoming more and more involved in social networks and being more likely to respond to adverts routed through those channels.

In the past year, Autoglass has actually had rather impressive representation in the media, what with its slew of marketing campaigns and gimmicks. These have ranged from the Facebook competition to the painting of street art, all of which has seen the company’s name on papers and news sites both dedicated to the industry and not. Customers seem to be responding positively too, according to company executives, who say most of the feedback from their marketing efforts has been positive.

The auto glass repair brand is part of the Belron family of companies, which also includes Safelite in the United States, another windshield repair and replacement giant. The company currently claims to have in excess of 100 branches or locations in the United Kingdom, and has served over 1.5 million customers at last official count.

The controversial, much-publicized suit from David Harner against several auto glass TPAs and insurers has just undergone a change: Hanover, one of the insurers listed in the suit as being among the insurers who failed to pay claims due, has been removed from the list.

This is the latest development in what is turning out to be a true David vs. Goliath story, as Harner, the owner of an auto glass business in Westchester, takes on some of the biggest auto insurers and TPAs in the business. Safelite and its parent company are named in the suit, for instance, as indeed are LYNX and its own parent company, PGW. The allegations are myriad, and they echo some of the most common allegations being made by many independents in the auto glass industry against the big boys, from failure to pay allegations to charges of unfair business practices.

The removal of Hanover from the failure to pay list is the second such removal of the insurer from a list having to do with allegations by Harner. In July, Harner also removed Hanover from the list of insurers that he claimed had committed a breach of contract, being careful to stipulate that said removal would have no bearing on other actions being taken against the insurance company.

Further comment has yet to be found regarding this recent development, at least from the concerned parties themselves, but observers say it may be that Hanover has taken action to pay the claims alleged by Harner since the filing of the suit, as indeed happened with another company in the list of names Harner claimed to have perpetrated a breach of contract. This other company, Unitrin, was taken off the list by Harner subsequent to its payment of the fees due to Harner’s company.

What is really getting people’s attention about Harner’s case, though, would be the allegations he makes about how insurers are providing a set of scripted statements to agents to use with policyholders that tend to guide said policyholders towards preferred auto glass repair shops and away from independents. This is an allegation that has been levelled specifically against LYNX, with Harner going so far as to actually provide script examples in his case.

Why does this get so much attention? Because many independents in the auto glass industry have been making similar claims for some time now, saying that the TPA-insurer-repairer relationships being built by the bigger companies in the trade are beginning to constitute unfair business practices that see majority of clients being diverted by insurance handlers to companies that are actually affiliated with their own, leading to a kind of monopoly that excludes smaller players from the game. While this is still under contention, Harner’s case is being expected to provide some prime instruction once an outcome is finally found, which is why so many people in the industry are watching it.

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A Catoosa County local was killed just recently when a six-point buck slammed into his pickup’s front auto glass on the Three Notch Road. Apparently, Jimmy Bridges was making his daily drive to work when a deer jumped out and shot straight into Bridges’s windshield, which shattered upon impact. The curious point in the story is that the deer apparently jumped almost directly into the windshield, as forensic officers could not find any sign of the deer having made contact with the actual front body of the car. The deer then went through the broken auto glass and kept going, actually going through the pickup with such force that it ended up in the truck bed.

While the deer was presumed to have expired on the spot due to the massive injuries caused by the collision as well as the shards of auto glass scattered all over the vehicle, Bridges himself managed to last long enough to be put in an ambulance. However, he apparently sustained major trauma during the crash, especially because his vehicle’s airbag did not deploy: even if they had, it would have been unlikely, say experts, for them to have deployed to actual good effect, given the extent of the damage on the windshield. Airbags use the windshield of a car for a brace, and need it to deploy properly.

Bridges died on the way to the hospital. Locals who knew him have discussed the incident with a sobering mixture of sorrow and mild resignation, the latter being for the fact of life that deer accidents are in Georgia and similar states. Deer encounters with drivers are actually fairly common in the country, and a great many people have been in accidents relating to the animals. For some of Bridges’s friends, the surprise came from knowing that Bridges was one of them, used to these animals and their presence, and even then still became a victim.

Locals spoke of the delicate balance between humans and the wild in the area at the moment: with more and more farmlands being converted to residential territories, incidents like this, it is feared, are going to be taking place for a good while into the future. Deer are often foraging for food or going about their mating/migration patterns when collisions of this type occur. The best advice, say people who live in the area, is to just go below the speed limit and slow down your driving as much as you can without causing trouble for those traveling behind you. Another tip given by some state troopers is to avoid overreacting or panicking when a deer comes out. While it is a danger that a deer could go through your auto glass and cause great damage, more people actually suffer fatal or near-fatal injuries as a result of swerving away and trying not to hit the animal.

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