Colorado Dealer Creates “Hail No” Weather Protection Screen To Shelter Cars From Hail Damage
A Colorado dealership sick of mounting insurance premiums for hail damage has created a solution to help lower the costs associated with hail damage.To get more news about
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Hail No is essentially a metal net that hangs over cars in an open lot to help prevent hail damage without blocking all the natural light that is one of the natural advantages of an outdoor lot. The system was created by designers at Denver-based Schomp Automotive Group to help keep their cars from looking like golf balls.
Although the solution is expensive, running about $1,400 to $1,750 per car to install, the prices of protecting vehicles against hail damage are getting out of hand. Schomp told Automotive News that its insurance premiums quintupled between 2015 and 2021, rising from around $28,000 to $141,000 per month.One of the reasons for the increasing prices is that, as cars use more lightweight and high-tech parts, they are getting more expensive to fix. The other issue, though, is environmental.
In a sort of perfect storm for dealers, not only have the cars being damaged become more expensive, hail has become more frequent, too. Of the 12 costliest hailstorms ever in Colorado, nine have taken place since 2008.
All of which meant that in 2018, Schomp’s hail losses totaled nearly $200,000. Even worse, many insurers are refusing to insure dealerships for hail damage because of how likely it is.
Michael Dunlap, VP of business development at Schomp, says that inventory that’s covered by the Hail No net is seeing about a 50% reduction in insurance premiums. This means that the system will be able to pay for itself in just a few years.
Being from Colorado, Hail No is designed to be able to support up to a foot of snow and is also designed to be easily taken down for the winter months when more snow might fall.
Hail No isn’t the only dealer inventory net protecting out there, either. Since the problem affects most of the Rockies, British Columbia, Canada-based WeatherSolve has produced its similar system, albeit with a slightly less catchy name: Hail Canopy.
Prices for the products are similar and the Hail Canopy is already in use at dealerships from Alberta to Colorado. In fact, Skyler Leavitt, the general manager at CSL Ford Sales in Cardston, Alberta says his dealership avoided major damages during a 2020 hailstorm that turned into the costliest in Canadian history and now he’s sold on the nets.
