The writing is the bottleneck, not the repair
A PDR operation working a storm can put more vehicles through a shop in a week than it can document in three. Scoping is fast, whoever is doing it: a tech, an estimator, a scoper, the owner. Estimates do not get written fast, and the ones written fast are the ones that come back short. So the choice is usually between hiring an estimator you cannot keep busy after the season, pulling a manager off production to write, or letting the files stack up while the cars sit.
Remote estimate writing is the fourth option. You send the scope and the photographs; the completed estimate comes back in your own estimating platform, under your own name, ready to submit. Nothing is committed in advance, and you are not paying for a writer between storms.
This is overflow support for operations that repair well and do not want to write. It is not a replacement for an in-house estimator, and it does not touch your customer relationships or your carrier relationships.
What to expect when a storm actually hits
Storms do not give notice and neither do pop-up shops. Here is how this works when the cars show up faster than the plan did.
You do not have to forecast anything. Call when you know you are going, call when you get there, or call when the first twenty cars are already sitting in the lot. Nothing here requires a booked block, a contract, or a number of vehicles committed in advance. A heads up helps me plan my week, and that is all it is. A heads up, not a commitment you have to make good on.
Turnaround is 24 hours from complete photographs and documentation. When volume spikes, it is 24 to 72 hours. If your week is going to land on the long end of that, you hear it from me before you send the cars, not after they are sitting written and unsubmitted.
Right now it is one writer. Christopher Johnson writes every file personally, which is the reason the fortieth car off a deployment reads like the first: same line notes, same labor premise, same documentation standard, in front of an appraiser who is reviewing them as a batch. It also means the honest answer about volume is a conversation rather than a number on a page: tell me what you are looking at and I will tell you straight what I can turn and when.
If that changes, it changes carefully. Any writer added to this gets trained by me, and every estimate and supplement that goes out gets reviewed and curated before it reaches your carrier. No file will ever leave under a name I have not vouched for. That is the whole growth plan, and it is deliberate.
How a deployment runs
Four steps. The only work on your side is the documentation you already produce.
Tell me it is coming
A text with the market and a rough idea of the volume is enough. Before the storm, during it, or once the cars are already in the lot.
Scope and shoot
Whoever scopes for you works the way they already work. Mobile Tech RX, a printed matrix, a handwritten sheet, plus the photo set. Upload as you go, car by car.
I write the file
Written in your CCC ONE or Mitchell, under your name, every operation line noted with the manufacturer procedure or labor premise attached.
I defend it
When an appraiser challenges a line, I take that conversation on your behalf. If a line genuinely is not supportable, I withdraw it rather than argue it.
Mobile Tech RX, a matrix, or a legal pad
What you send to work from, and what happens to it.
Mobile Tech RX. Export the estimate and send it with the photographs. I write the insurance estimate against it. There is no software integration between Storm Rider and Mobile Tech RX: you export, I work from the export. That changes nothing about the file you get back, and it means a shop on any scoping tool is on equal footing.
Any other scoping export. Same process. The scope tells me dent counts, panel sizes and repair difficulty, and the photographs tell me the rest.
Hail matrices, including printed and handwritten ones. Legible is the only requirement. A matrix written on a clipboard in a parking lot is a perfectly good input.
Photographs with nothing scoped yet. Also fine, with the caveat that dent counts by panel and a note on your inspection conditions make the file considerably stronger.
A carrier estimate you believe is short. Send it with the denial or short-pay paperwork and I write the supplement against it.
And if you want something cleaner to scope on, there is a scoping tool in testing here now. It is not built to compete with Mobile Tech RX and it is not required to send me files. It exists to produce a scope that is clean, readable and easy to fill out. If you want to try it while it is in testing, say so and I will get you in.
Where the scope stops and the estimate starts
A good scope can carry a lot: R&I, blends, panels going conventional. What it is not is the insurance document. That is a different job with different rules.
- Platform labor and refinish times. The scope says what the repair is. The estimate has to say what the platform pays for it, pulled correctly rather than typed in as a lump.
- Operation sequence. Operations written in the order CCC ONE or Mitchell expects, so overlap and included operations calculate the way the carrier's own system calculates them.
- Line notes. Every operation carrying the manufacturer procedure or the labor premise that justifies it. This is the single biggest difference between a file that gets approved and one that gets a phone call.
- Conventional conversion. A scope can flag a panel as too creased to push. The estimate has to turn that into body labor, paint time and materials at the correct rates.
- ADAS calibration. Checked against the VIN and the operations written, not against what usually shows up on a hail car.
- Recoverable materials. Itemized rather than absorbed into a labor number.
- Inspection conditions. Damage counted under poor light gets counted low and the estimate inherits the shortfall. What was photographed and how it was lit belongs in the file, whoever did the counting.
None of this is exotic. It is the difference between a document that describes the work and a document a carrier pays from, and on a hail file it is usually where the money went.
Questions PDR operations ask
If you are comparing estimate writers, these are worth asking all of them.
What is PDR estimate writing?
The conversion of a paintless dent repair scope into an insurance estimate a carrier will pay from. Whoever scopes the car documents dent counts, panel sizes and repair difficulty. That scope is a repair plan, not an estimate.
PDR estimate writing puts the whole repair into CCC ONE or Mitchell at the platform's own labor and refinish times, in the sequence the platform expects, with every operation line noted so a reviewing appraiser can follow the reasoning without calling you.
Can you write from a Mobile Tech RX export?
Yes. Mobile Tech RX exports, other scoping exports, printed matrices and handwritten scope sheets all work.
There is no direct software integration with Mobile Tech RX. You export the file and send it with the photographs, and I write from that.
Do I have to commit volume in advance?
No. There is no block to book, no minimum and no contract. Send one car or send the whole lot, and start the day the storm decides you are going.
A heads up when you know you are deploying helps me plan the week, but it is not a commitment. If your volume is more than I can turn inside your timeline, you hear that before you send the cars rather than after.
Why does one writer matter on a big deployment?
The appraiser reviewing car forty is reading the same line notes, labor premise and documentation standard as on car one. Batch consistency is what makes an appraiser trust a file set, or stop trusting it.
If writers are added as volume grows, they are trained by Christopher Johnson and every file is reviewed and curated before it goes out.
Do you write in my CCC ONE?
Yes, and it is strongly preferred. Written under your own CCC ONE or Mitchell login, under your name, matching your profiles, rates and carrier agreements. The file belongs to you.
If you have no estimating software at all, I write it in my own CCC ONE and deliver it complete. That is the fallback, not the default.
Do you charge a percentage of the supplement?
No. Flat per file: first file free, then $150 à la carte, $140 at 10 credits, $132 at 25, $125 at 50, $115 at 100. Credits never expire.
A flat fee means the person writing the estimate has no financial stake in how large the number gets, which is the correct incentive on a document that has to survive carrier review.
How fast is turnaround?
24 hours from complete photographs and documentation. 24 to 72 hours at catastrophe volume. If your week will land on the long end, you hear it before you send the cars.
Incomplete photo sets are the single most common cause of delay, which is why the required-photo list is published rather than assumed.
Who writes the file?
Christopher Johnson, personally. 17 years writing estimates, in collision repair since 2008, writing hail specifically since 2021. Lead estimator at United Hail Pros and Metal Majic, director of hail and collision operations at Metal Majic, director of estimatics at Westway Collision, co-founder of Extreme Hail & Collision in Plano, Texas.
So far in 2026: $6 million in added value across roughly 430 vehicles for four operations across Texas, Missouri and Arkansas.
The facts, in one place
| Service | PDR estimate writing. Paintless dent repair and hail scopes converted into insurance estimates and supplements |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | PDR companies, hail catastrophe operations, and collision shops running hail volume |
| Commitment | None. No block booking, no minimum, no contract. Send one car or a full deployment, starting whenever the storm starts. |
| Turnaround | 24 hours from complete documentation; 24 to 72 hours at catastrophe volume. If a week will land long, you are told before you send the cars. |
| Accepted inputs | Mobile Tech RX exports (no software integration; you export, I write from it) · other scoping exports · printed and handwritten hail matrices · scope sheets · CCC ONE and Mitchell files · photographs with nothing written yet · carrier estimates to rewrite |
| Written in | Your CCC ONE or your Mitchell, under your name. Storm Rider's own CCC ONE only if you have no estimating software. |
| Written by | Christopher Johnson personally, every file. Any writer added later is trained by him, and every estimate and supplement is reviewed before it goes out. 17 years writing estimates, in collision repair since 2008, hail since 2021, USMC veteran |
| Volume this year | $6 million in added value across roughly 430 vehicles so far in 2026, for four operations across Texas, Missouri and Arkansas. Added value means initial estimate value plus supplement amounts, not gross totals. |
| Pricing | First file free. One credit per file: $150 à la carte · $140/file at 10 · $132 at 25 · $125 at 50 · $115 at 100. Credits never expire. Never a percentage of the estimate. |
| Appraiser defense | Included. Challenged lines are defended with the appraiser on your behalf; unsupportable lines are withdrawn rather than argued. |
| Area served | All 50 United States. Based in Plano, Texas. |
| Contact | 401-203-5823 · Admin@stormrsolutions.com · Send a file |
Send one car off your next storm. Judge the estimate before you book a block. No card, no contract, no minimum.