Last month we featured the founders of the new Vehicle Repairers Association (VRA) in Mayo, together with an appeal for other like minded bodyshops around the country to contact the organisation.

Sean Hegarty of the VRA says there has been an excellent response to this, with repairers from all over Ireland making contact and expressing their desire to become involved and give the VRA a national membership base.

The objective of the VRA is to give repairs good representation and a fairer deal. In particular, the association wants to lobby the relevant authorities to ensure the full and fair enforcement and policing of environmental regulations, organise training initiatives, present a united front to insurance companies on key issues, and assist members in their own promotion and that of the wider industry.

As well as looking to establish itself in other counties, the VRA has also been very active in the past month on other fronts. Sean Hegarty says that himself and John Moran of the VRA recently had a very positive and constructive meeting with representatives from the Department of the Environment, the EPA and other organisation to discuss the policing and enforcement of environmental regulations. These bodies took on board the concerns of the VRA members and have agreed to investigate the issue further and meet again to discuss the best way forward for all parties satisfaction.

The VRA has also been active in organising a successful training initiative for its members on Glassmatix estimating. 13 members recently attended a locally held course organised by the VRA in conjunction with Glassmatix. The course was a great success, proving highly useful to those attending, while the group booking and local venue meant that members were able to benefit from significant savings on both cost and time.
If you are interested in joining the VRA, or would like to set-up a VRA initiative in your area please go to www.vra.ie to register your details.