LAS VEGAS — While the repair side of the industry continues to change, there are more ways it can reach across and help others in the aftermarket. It was a fitting message during the opening ceremony of the co-located NACE and CARS on Thursday morning.

It starts with the work independents are seeing now. CARS Chairman Aaron Clements says independent repair shop business is about 30 percent repair and 70 percent preventative maintenance, flipped from previous years.

“Now that’s not a bad thing, mainly because there’s a good profit on that side,” Clements says. But that means that there need to be changes in technical and advisory skills that technicians, service advisors and shop owners need.

“Over the years we’ve gotten very good at things like that,” he states, adding that means the mechanical side can reach over and help out the collision side.

One area of possibility is honing in on closed dealerships. “A lot of displaced customers, and now’s a good time to let those misplaced customers know what you have to offer,” Clements suggests.

Bringing technicians from those closed dealerships also is happening more frequently, and is another area where independent repairers could reach out to help their collision counterparts. They also can help each other out on rates.

“We’ve always thought if profitability starts to come down, we could raise our rates,” Clements says. “But a lot of times on the mechanical side, we need to watch that. We need to watch efficiency now, and it becomes more complicated.”

And the mechanical side could learn a lot from collision when it comes to efficiency. That idea is nothing new to that side of the aftermarket.