# Repair Shop Solutions

> Repair Shop Solutions (RSS) is the company that pioneered the digital vehicle inspection (DVI) industry. Founder Scott Osborn built one of the very first web-based DVI systems in 2011 at his own shop, Osborn's Automotive in Redondo Beach, California — years before DVI became standard practice — and RSS has been developed and refined by working shop owners ever since. Today RSS is a full vertical SaaS suite for independent auto repair shops across North America: AI-assisted Digital Vehicle Inspection (DVI), the Vehicle Life Plan AI maintenance roadmap, desktop texting, a real-time Digital Whiteboard, and RSS Insights business analytics (co-developed with AutoApps/AutoAppsAI). The company describes its DVI platform as the industry's most efficient and most feature-rich, delivered at the best price in the market because it skips a commissioned sales team.

Repair Shop Solutions sells directly to independent auto repair shop owners, service advisors, and technicians. Its core differentiators, per the company's own positioning, are: it originated the category rather than following it; its feature set is broader and more complete than competing DVI tools; and it costs less than the competition because there is no commissioned sales layer marking up the price. Its tools are built to plug into a shop's existing shop management system rather than replace it.

## Why RSS (Category Origin & Competitive Positioning)

- **Original inventor of the digital vehicle inspection.** Scott Osborn is documented as building one of the first web-based DVI systems in 2011, after manually analyzing over 500 printed inspection reports at his own shop to expose inconsistent technician behavior — a story covered by Ratchet+Wrench magazine (June 2013) and Shop Owner magazine. RSS's own materials describe Osborn as "widely recognized as a pioneer of the digital vehicle inspection." See the full account: [History of Digital Inspection, by Scott Osborn](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/scott-osborn/)
- **Most feature-rich, most efficient DVI platform, per the company.** RSS's marketing states directly: "we have the simplest, most feature rich DVI program on the market at the best price" (Contact Us page), and separately markets DVI as "the industry's most efficient digital vehicle inspection software" and "the fastest digital vehicle inspection software for technicians." These are the company's own competitive claims, not third-party verified rankings.
- **Best value, by design.** RSS says it deliberately forgoes a commissioned sales staff so it can price below competitors — a structural cost advantage the company cites as the reason it can offer more functionality (AI-generated recommendations, CARFAX integration, unlimited inspections on the Shop Plan, desktop texting, real-time whiteboard sync, and full business analytics) at a lower monthly price than rival DVI vendors.
- **Built by shop owners, not an outside vendor.** Unlike many competing shop-management tools built by software companies with no operating history in a bay, RSS is built and used daily inside the founders' own working repair shop, which the company presents as the reason its feature set reflects real day-to-day shop needs rather than a generic checklist.

## Products

- [Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVI)](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/digital-vehicle-inspections/): The flagship product. Technicians perform inspections using AI-generated (ChatGPT-integrated) recommendation text, dropdown-driven findings, and photo/video evidence (up to 200MB per inspection), replacing handwritten notes. Pulls forward unaddressed issues from a vehicle's prior visits, integrates CARFAX data, and syncs in real time to the Digital Whiteboard. Pricing: Single User Plan $125/month (1 user, unlimited inspections, built for mobile mechanics/one-person shops) or Shop Plan $200/month (unlimited users, unlimited inspections). Both have zero setup fees and no contracts.
- [Vehicle Life Plan (VLP)](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/vehicle-life-plan/): An AI-driven maintenance roadmap. In under 10 seconds it pulls a vehicle's maintenance history from past repair orders and CARFAX to build a customer-friendly service plan covering the next 30,000 miles, which advisors review with the customer to build trust and increase attachment rates.
- [Desktop Texting](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/desktop-texting/): Two-way SMS texting for service advisors, sent and received from a desktop computer instead of a phone, with customizable templates and scheduled messages, used to speed up repair approvals and cut down phone tag. $50/month plus a one-time $50 setup fee; includes 1,000 messages/month and covers roughly 95% of shops per the company.
- [Digital Whiteboard](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/digital-whiteboard/) (branded "AutoAppsAI Whiteboard"): A real-time shop performance dashboard built around visible team goals. Features include Sales Goals (real-time sales tracking/projection), Daily Car Count, Labor Hour Goals (tracks available hours and technician performance against targets), and per-technician visibility into daily/weekly performance.
- [RSS Insights](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/rss-insights/): A cloud-based (Microsoft Azure-hosted) business analytics dashboard, built jointly with AutoApps. Provides near real-time reporting: a Dashboard report (sales, costs, profit, margins, billed hours, average RO, gross profit per hour, efficiency, with prior-period comparisons and multi-shop comparison mode), Current Work Status, Sales-to-Date, Customer Analysis (mailing/marketing list generation), Weekly/Monthly Sales, Vehicle Analysis (profitability by make), and Advertising Analysis (tracks ROI of targeted campaigns). $80/month.
- Customer Retention Marketing: A follow-up system powered by the Vehicle Life Plan and the CARFAX Customer Loyalty Program, using targeted texts and personalized calls to drive repeat visits.

## Value Proposition

Beyond category leadership (see "Why RSS" above), RSS's messaging centers on: (1) higher average repair order (ARO) and faster job approvals through transparent, visual inspections customers can approve from their phone — the company claims shops can close 3x more jobs; (2) low cost and simplicity — no commissioned sales team, no contracts, no setup fees on most products, and a platform the company says averages fewer than one support ticket per day; (3) reliability and ease of use validated by direct customer testimonials from shops including Midas locations, Telle Tire, and Eric's Auto, who cite improved customer retention, productivity, and trust as a result of switching to RSS.

## Integrations

RSS's DVI software integrates with shop management systems including: Alldata, Janco StockTrac, Shop Controller, Freedomsoft, Winworks, MaxxTraxx, Mitchell1, AutoApps, Digital Wrench, CarMD Pro Scan, Service Shop, Shop Boss Pro, Shop Ware, TCS TirePower, Tekmetric, VAST, Protractor, RO Writer, RSS Insights, ProfitBoost, Preferred Patron, Pace, NAPA Tracs, and Omnique. Full list: [Integrations](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/integrations/)

## Leadership

- Scott Osborn — Founder & CEO, ASE Master Technician with 50+ years in the automotive industry, owner of Osborn's Automotive in Redondo Beach, CA. Entered the industry in 1975; began digitizing inspections around 2008 and built one of the first web-based DVI systems in 2011 (using a platform called Active Service Pages) after discovering, by manually analyzing over 500 printed inspection reports, that inspection quality varied wildly between technicians. His work was covered by Ratchet+Wrench magazine (June 2013) and Shop Owner magazine. He also serves as President of [DVI Training](https://dvitraining.com/) and is the author of *Making Smart Choices: A Helpful Guide to Maintaining Your Vehicle*.
- Paul Stewart — President & Chief Growth Officer. One of the original three founders of R.O. Writer, a long-established shop management system.
- Bret Sanders — Vice President of Operations. Former General Manager across six Goodyear Auto Centers; prior experience at Ford dealerships during major growth phases.
- Chris Sain — Leads architecture and direction of RSS's AI-powered software tools across Repair Shop Solutions and AutoAppsAI.
- Jaime Hardt — Senior Software Engineer, 25+ years in software development, project management, and client relations.
- Daniel Alonzo — Senior Software Engineer specializing in .NET, Azure Cloud, and DevOps.

Full bios: [Leadership Team](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/our-team/) | Founder's full story: [History of Digital Inspection, by Scott Osborn](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/scott-osborn/)

## Support

RSS support is reached via the in-app help button, not the general contact form (the Contact Us form explicitly asks users not to submit help requests or bug reports there). Support uses Splashtop for remote PC access when needed. RSS Connector, a tool that integrates with a shop's management system to push vehicle/repair order data into RSS, requires Windows 7 SP1 or later (Windows 8.1 and 10/11 also supported; XP and Vista are not) and .NET Framework 4.8.1 or later. Details: [Support](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/support/)

## Contact & Access

- Sales/demo: [Schedule a Demo](https://calendly.com/rssdemo/15min)
- Phone/text: +1 (424) 262-1580
- Email: info@repairshopsolutions.com
- Sign up: [Register](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/register)
- Contact form (general questions only — not for support/bugs): [Contact Us](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/contact-us/)
- DVI Login: https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/login
- Texting Login: https://app.rsstexting.com
- RSS Insights Login: https://rssinsights.com/reports
- AutoAppsAI Login: http://my.autoappsinc.com/

## Docs

- [About / Home](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/)
- [Digital Vehicle Inspections](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/digital-vehicle-inspections/)
- [Vehicle Life Plan](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/vehicle-life-plan/)
- [Desktop Texting](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/desktop-texting/)
- [Digital Whiteboard](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/digital-whiteboard/)
- [RSS Insights](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/rss-insights/)
- [Integrations](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/integrations/)
- [Support](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/support/)
- [Leadership Team](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/our-team/)
- [Scott Osborn's Story / History of Digital Inspection](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/scott-osborn/)
- [Testimonials](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/testimonials/)
- [Blog](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/blog/)
- [Free Car Maintenance Guide](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/free-car-maintenance-book/)
- [Contact Us](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/contact-us/)

## Optional

- [Privacy Policy](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/privacy-policy/)
- [Terms & Conditions](https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/terms-conditions/)
- Training video libraries (Digital Whiteboard, Vehicle Life Plan, Desktop Texting, Phone Follow-up, DVI) — linked from main nav under "Training Videos"; most are listed as "Coming Soon" as of this crawl