The latest Pulse of the Industry report for June 2026 is now available.
Canadian collision repairers carried less repair inventory in June than at any point in more than a year, while insurer-paid repair-order values fell and production performance continued to improve, according to the latest Pulse of the Industry report from Collision Repair magazine and AutoHouse Technologies.
The report, based on more than 60,000 monthly repair orders across Canada, found the industry’s average work-in-progress ratio fell to 10.5:1, down 9.2% from the prior three-month average.
The WIP ratio compares the total repair hours represented by vehicles on site with a shop’s average daily output. A ratio of 10.5:1 represents approximately 10.5 days of repair inventory at the current production rate.
Top-performing repairers typically maintain between 7.5 and 11.0 days of repair inventory, according to the report.
The June result continued a steady decline. The industry’s WIP ratio stood at 12.7:1 in February, 12.2:1 in March, 11.6:1 in April and 10.6:1 in May.
“June’s data shows an industry carrying less repair inventory than at any point in the past year,” said Mike Gilliland, president and founder of Vancouver-based collision analytics provider AutoHouse Technologies. “As WIP has declined, operational KPIs have continued to improve.”
Collision Repair’s publisher Darryl Simmons said a falling WIP ratio can have more than one cause.
“A lower WIP ratio can reflect tighter production control, but it can also signal fewer repair opportunities,” Simmons said. “The important question is whether shops are deliberately carrying a leaner inventory or simply have less work available.”
The report found average cycle time declined to 13.1 days, down 3.8% from the prior three-month average and slightly below the 13.2 days recorded in May.
Cycle time measures the period from a vehicle’s arrival for repairs through delivery to the customer.
The top 10% of repairers averaged a 5.8-day cycle time. That was 2.3% above their prior three-month average, but remained less than half the overall industry average.
Average touch time increased to 2.6 labour hours per repair, per day, up 2.6% from the prior three-month average.
The top 10% of repairers produced 4.8 labour hours per repair, per day, an increase of 4.2% from their prior three-month average.
The operational improvements coincided with a further decline in insurer-paid repair-order values.
The average insurer-paid sale per repair order was $231 below the prior six-month average and fell another $131 from May.
The average customer-pay sale per repair order remained $67 below the prior six-month average, although it increased by $18 from May.
“The decline in insurer-paid repair-order values matters because better throughput does not automatically protect revenue,” Simmons said. “The industry can move repairs through the shop more efficiently while the average insurer-paid job generates less revenue.”
Gilliland said disciplined operating processes will become more important if repair opportunities continue to soften.
“Strong markets can hide inefficient processes. Slower markets expose them,” he said. “If repair opportunity continues to soften, the performance gap between disciplined operators and the rest of the market is likely to widen.”
Pulse of the Industry is produced through a partnership between Collision Repair and AutoHouse Technologies.
The data has been normalized, with variance thresholds applied to remove anomalies. Financial figures are presented before tax.
