Changing the way we think…
23 September 2014
There is no doubt that the accident repair industry is changing and bodyshops like ourselves are moving with the times to keep pace with all the developments. The biggest change in the last couple of years is the speed at which we can carry out repairs. This has been largely driven by insurance companies who are asking bodyshops to improve vehicle off road (VOR) time. As we all know, time costs money and this is particularly true with regard to accident management where the actual cost of an accident is not just the cost of the paint and labour required for the repair, but the cost of administering and following up the claim which can result in the claim costing many thousands of pounds more than the actual repair cost. Fleet News magazine www.fleetnews.co.uk suggests that the total cost of an accident can be at least triple the cost for repairing the damage. Administration costs, telephone calls, etc all add massively to the cost of the accident. With a fast track repair process in place, not only is the repair time drastically reduced but the cost in administering the claim is also reduced significantly. The way we have achieved this at James Alpe Ltd is to change the way we work on smaller, light accident damaged vehicles right from the point of estimating. We operate a ‘triage’ system and wherever possible we will repair vehicles through our fast track process. We have in place a dedicated spray booth, a team of fast track technicians, specialist paint and equipment all used to effect a fast repair which does not compromise on quality.