Traffic at dealership body shops should slowly return to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, though it may not be until the following year before the numbers are back to normal.
That's the view of Susanna Gotsch, director at CCC Information Services, a collision software provider. She says most shops reported a 15 to 20 percent decline in business last year — recovering from the first few months of the pandemic when some saw business drop by half.
"Our expectation is that we will continue to see people start to get out more, we'll continue to see improvement" in collision repair numbers, she says. "The second half of the year could be pretty healthy from a volume perspective. Well above where we were in 2020 and maybe only slightly down from where we were in 2019."
Traffic levels — as well as accidents — plummeted during the pandemic as many people worked from home and rarely ventured out. Gotsch says CCC research indicates typical bone-shaped driving routes …