A new survey published by the UK bodyshop representative organisation, The National Body Repair Association, has found that relationships between repairers and insurers have shown some signs of improvement, but many concerns remain.

The survey was investigated how the body repair industry perceives its relationship with the various insurers on a range of different issues. Commenting on the findings, Chris Weeks, Director of The National Body Repair Association said, “The NBRA is encouraged to see that repairer feedback was fairly positive in our first Insurer Attitude Survey.”

However, there still seems to be room for improvement in all areas. For example in overall satisfaction with insurer contract no insurer scored more that 7.5 out of 10, with some polling as low as 2.4. The biggest complaint from repairers concerned insurers reluctance to adequately cover the cost of replacement vehicles and the NBRA has called for a collective agreement on how fault mobility will be fulfilled and funded in the future

Another major concern, which is sure to be echoed by Irish bodyshops, was the level of insurer profits. The survey states that over the last decade, the overall RPI UK rate of inflation has been 31.8%. However, bodyshops have seen labour costs on repairs increase by only 17.3% in the same period. This is before overall invoice discount has been applied and despite much higher costs due to labour skills shortages. 

Chris Weeks commented, “The financial pressure that a lot of repairers are under, means that investment in equipment and training is a challenge. A reduction of that pressure would make future safety issues less likely.” He added, “There is still scope with certain insurers to develop their relationships with their repair networks as some still fall well below average in many areas of the survey. We will now work closely with insurers and repairers and hope to see our comments and recommendations taken on board.”