The era of "gravy money" from early ADAS adoption is closing. If you aren't planning to bring calibrations in-house or formalize your sublet strategy right now, your shop may be running out of time.

Between facility updates and equipment costs, auto repair shop owners report that ADAS presents a high barrier for entry, with 49% of owners surveyed for the ADAS Knowledge & Capability Survey saying that they have no plans for adding ADAS calibrations to their offerings. Sixty-one percent of owners cite equipment costs as an issue, and 73% say they'll only add ADAS service if and when the volume justifies it.

The issue is that viewing ADAS service solely as a numbers issue is a risk not only to the shop, but to every vehicle that comes through it. As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is a hundred years ago, but the second-best time to plant one is right now.

It Isn't Optional

Keith Perkins, trainer and owner of L1 Automotive Training, says that far too many shop owners are viewing the subject of ADAS calibrations incorrectly. Expecting the equipment to pay off immediately, especially if you're only just now investing, isn't going to work out.

"I think the part that gets missed every time is if a shop owner was to really stop and think, 'Well, when does my business insurance pay for itself?' That's where ADAS gets looked at as an optional function. Unfortunately, if any shop is thinking that ADAS is something they don't have to get into, they're wrong," Perkins says. "They will be liable at some point in time, and most likely just go out of business for not properly repairing vehicles."

Sending a vehicle back on the road without proper calibrations is the same as sending it out with only a handful of lug nuts tightened. From radiator work to brake jobs to simple headlight changes, ADAS is affected by countless factors and components. It simply can't be ignored.

"ADAS isn't just a thing; it's the whole system of the vehicle," Perkins says. "So, when does it pay for itself? The very first time that you use it, you've immediately removed the liability of not doing the job properly."

Taking the First Steps

There are two approaches a shop owner can take to get started: buying piecemeal or buying an all-in-one system. The former requires researching your average vehicle mix and parts orders, which can be accomplished by partnering with your parts distributor or shop management software provider.

"Get your mix of (most commonly worked on) vehicles and determine what kind of targets are required for those vehicles. Look up a service procedure; find a calibration for the replacement of a windshield. If you do a lot of windshields, you've got to look at cameras.

"The other option is to jump in feet first and just buy an all-in-one system. Sometimes you can buy the manufacturer's individual target for that brand of car way cheaper than you can buy a whole kit. If you determine there are only a couple of models you deal with, it might be way more cost-effective to buy the OEM tooling and target system, which is not always better quality than the aftermarket stuff."

Dynamic calibrations, which are performed on the road and required for domestically manufactured vehicles, may already be within a shop's grasp.

"If they were to invest in some training and research, they'd find that they probably already have everything to do almost all the dynamics," Perkins says. "Depending upon their mix of vehicles, they may need a substantially smaller investment—$10,000 or less—to add static targets to that based on what they are seeing."

Perkins points to tools like the TopDon ADAS Radar 3-in-1 Calibration Tools, which have a low price point and targets for most radars on the market, as straightforward options for owners.

Static calibrations, which are performed in the shop while the vehicle is stopped and level, can seem expensive and unapproachable due to their facility requirements, but between dealerships, mobile shops, and other subletting options, the work simply can't fall between the cracks.

"At the end of the day for a shop owner, it's all going to come down to money, when unfortunately that can't be the case," Perkins says. "They either need to determine, 'My building is appropriate for calibrations and we're going to do them in-house,' or 'My building is not appropriate and we are going to sublet every one of them because we know it has to be done properly.'"

The Clock Is Running Out

Perkins urges owners to view ADAS equipment in the same way that they view R-1234yf machines: an expensive initial investment that will quickly become a critical piece of equipment for nearly every single vehicle that comes through the shop. While it may be easy to neglect it at first and avoid the costs, it will soon become clear that turning away work is damaging the bottom line.

ADAS calibrations are an even more serious issue. With A/C work, the customer knows immediately if the system is broken. With ADAS, miscalibration is an invisible danger. The car drives away with no warning lights, but a malfunctioning safety system.

"In the beginning, when I jumped on board early and made tens of thousands of dollars of investment in it, it quickly paid off for me," Perkins explains. "But now that people have dragged their feet, it's dried up and become something where every small mobile company bought the equipment and made all the 'gravy' money off it. Now everyone's fighting for scraps on that."

While the time for easy profit may have passed, shops need to seize the moment to secure future revenue, protect the shop from liability, and reduce the amount of money lost to subletting.

"They've put themselves in a position where they have to get it, but soon they'll be mandated by law to buy the equipment, and there will already be everyone else who has their equipment paid off and has lowered their prices to be competitive because of insurance," Perkins explains.

Making matters worse is the fact that customers don't always make their decisions based on what would be the safest or most appropriate option for their situation. The longer a shop delays modernization, the worse the competition is going to get.

"The problem is we can't change the public's perception of our industry enough to get people to stop going to the shops that intentionally don't care," Perkins says. "So, the good shops will be fighting the guy down the road who says he'll do the alignment for $79 and claims that ADAS stuff doesn't need to be done. No matter how much information you give to the public, if the guy down the road says he can do it for less and says it's just as good, they'll trust that person over the person trying to charge them more. Until we turn that around for the public, it'll be an uphill battle."