In November, the Auto Glass Safety Council™ (formerly the AGRSS® Council Inc.) announced several major advancements to its third-party validation program. One of these involves changing the way locations are selected to be validated. Beginning with the first validations in 2012, all AGRSS®-Registered companies have moved from random audits to audits of every company during the 36-month validation period.
For companies with multiple locations, one of their locations will be randomly chosen, and this location will be validated during the validation period. All single-location companies will be validated during the validation period.
In addition, one multi-site company will be selected randomly during each validation period to have more than one location validated. For this company, a sample size equal to the square root of its total number of locations will be validated. The additional locations for this company will be validated near the end of the validation period.
In addition, locations will now be grouped by geographic areas. Except in rare cases of extreme geographical distance, all locations will grouped into clusters of about ten locations. The locations will be validated in random order throughout the validation period. As in previous years, companies will receive approximately 70 days notice prior to their validations.
Companies that wish to become registered after the sample population is selected will be identified as provisional members until they have been successfully validated.
“The board voted to make this change because the companies that have been through audits have found it so helpful and thought all would benefit from going through the process,” says Jean Pero, chair of the Auto Glass Safety Council™’s credentialing committee. “Consumers now can choose to use an AGRSS®-Registered Company with full confidence that the company has been or will be audited.”
She adds, “In addition, it sets aside the concern associated with random audits—that some companies will never be chosen—because every company is validated. Further, it sets the stage for the coming integration of technician certification into the Registration Program, which, when completed, will provide even more value to Registered Companies.”