Mobile future

Mobile future

18 Dec 2007

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Accident repair group predicts way forward for industry

AN ACCIDENT management company says mobile repairs are the future of the industry.

Total Accident Management (Total) says using mobile body shops can reduce the time vehicles are off the road from up to six days to just 24 hours. It claims this means costs are reduced by an average of 17% on a third of all repairs.

The mobile body shops can be used to repair vehicles with no more than four damaged panels – provided they have no major structural damage and can still be driven.

The company claims the approach reduces the need to put the driver in a hire car, saving on average £283 per repair.

Total director Stefan Smyth said the new approach would help repair businesses increase the amount of work they could take on.

“The UK’s body shop industry is full to capacity with accident damaged vehicles, some of which need minor repairs that don’t warrant taking up much needed space in their workshops.

“The cost and environmental restrictions imposed on buying land and opening a new body shop are so great that it is preventing the UK network from growing so it needs to offload the smaller repairs that don’t actually generate any profit.

“Our new approach ensures body shops only work on the more highly damaged and costly repairs which make best use of their skills and expensive equipment,” continued Steve.

Currently around 83% of Total’s repairs go to its national body shop network, around 12% of its damaged vehicles are SMART repaired and 5% go to salvage.

The new approach will see a minimum of 20% of cars directed to mobile body shops with only 60% of its more seriously damaged cars sent to traditional body shops. Stefan said mobile repair was an increasingly valuable business concept.

“Mobile repair is a relatively simple concept and one that we can easily adopt into our internal processes and training schedules,” said Stefan.

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