Some B.C. drivers wait months for repairs as autobody shops face labour, supply chain issues

Add car repairs to the growing list of B.C. services facing delays and headaches amid a labour shortage and supply chain disruptions.

The earliest many British Columbians are finding they’re able to get their vehicle fixed after a crash is four to six weeks, but others are finding themselves facing waits of months.

Some repair facilities aren’t even accepting tow-ins as they deal with a lack of space to store vehicles.

Rick Hatswell, president of operations at Craftsman Collision, told Global News auto repair companies are facing a multitude of challenges.

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Many workers left the industry during the pandemic and have not returned, he said, while shops face delays in getting parts and the growing complexity of modern vehicles.

“It could be any brand, any make or model. And what you’ll find is you get 80 per cent of the parts within a couple of days, but there will be that one or two final pieces that you cannot put the car back together safety or have a customer drive the vehicle until some of those sensors are in … or even something as big as the front bumper cover,” he said.

“There was one on the island recently, where we had a Honda CRV … and the front wave radar sensor was not available. And literally that customer had to wait four months for that sensor to come in so we could safely reassemble the vehicle and she could drive away. And in that time there’s no coverage for a vehicle if she was at fault.”

The proliferation of sensors, computers and other complex systems in vehicles, he said, means the staff they do have must often spend hours on research before anyone can actually lift a wrench.

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Craftsman, he said, is continuously hiring in all departments and maintains a crop of about 75 apprentices at any one time, but still find themselves short of qualified hands.

“There are some grants available, but we need a lot more help to be able to get those people through,” he said.

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“The difficult thing is its a four year apprenticeship program. And if we can get all these people through the apprenticeship it’s one thing, but we still have this four year gap.”

ICBC spokesperson Brent Shearer said the problems B.C. autobody shops are facing — particularly around labour and parts — are cropping up across North America.

He said the public insurer was working with the industry to try and address some of the critical gaps.

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“It mainly centres on attracting people to the industry and retaining key people in the industry. Cars are getting more complex and its requiring more complex training and more complex skills, to be able to work on those cars,” he said.

“So to help build capacity within the industry we are providing $1.5 million of funding in terms of boosting capacity, attracting people to trades and increasing their ability to work on those cars.”

In the meantime, he said vehicle owners can purchase loss of use insurance through ICBC or a private insurer to help ensure they have access to a vehicle in the case that they’re in a crash and their own set of wheels is off the road for an extended period.