Sopp+Sopp's winning partnership with Centrica

Callum Langan, commercial director, Sopp+Sopp (left) with national account manager Louise Meadows and head of business development Chris Beeby

In its partnership with Centrica, fleet services and accident management solutions company Sopp+Sopp has helped the electricity and gas supplier to reduce downtime, cut hire spend and maximise the use of its surplus fleet vehicles.

The link between the two organisations earned the pair the Fleet Partnership of the Year trophy at this year’s Fleet News Awards.

Sopp+Sopp is also helping fleet customers navigate through times of economic crisis by proactively working with them, strengthening its repair network and investing in its network of Activate Accident Repair bodyshops.

Fleet News: What are the main challenges your customers are facing and how are you helping them tackle those issues?

Callum Langan: Our customers are working to understand and mitigate the impact of inflation and the higher cost of living.

The global pandemic, Brexit, the green agenda and the Ukraine war, have added considerable pressure on an already stretched UK repair market.

Further key contributing factors, such as a shortage of skilled workers and parts delays, negatively impact repairer throughput by reducing available capacity and their ability to complete on-site repairs.

In addition, there continues to be the fallout from the supply chain challenges impacting the availability of new vehicles. All the above is combining to place significant pressure on both the motor claims and repair market sectors.

This ‘perfect storm’ of factors is increasing repair costs and vehicle downtime, meaning replacement vehicle mobility is outstripping demand across the industry, resulting in an increase in overall claims-related spends for insurers, fleet operating businesses and even end-use consumers. We make sure we work in partnership with fleet customers, keeping them informed about what’s happening so we can work together to agree solutions.

We’ve mitigated the challenges by strengthening our repair network, particularly in those areas where we see the highest demand.

We’re also supporting this by investing in our own chain of purpose-built bodyshops, Activate Accident Repair.

We currently have six sites in the UK, with two more set to open shortly, with plans to continue expanding the volume of sites into 2023.

We’re also mitigating repair industry challenges by maximising alternative repair methods where appropriate, including roadside and mobile repair, minimising vehicle downtime.

By also working in partnership with our customers to maximise scheduled vehicle downtime, we are mitigating the impact of secondary off-road periods.

Our teams, through proactive automation, work closely with group company Activate Parts to validate parts delays and minimise the impact where possible, through a national supply chain, alternative or green part options, and supporting fleets with either commonly used or hard-to-get-hold-of parts, where appropriate.

FN: Has accident management changed since Covid?

CL: One of the biggest changes is vehicle mix.

A lot of fleets have carbon reduction and electric vehicle (EV) goals in place for 2025 and 2030, and around 85% of the fleets we work with now have alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) within their portfolio.

Clearly, this has an impact on various elements of the accident management process, and we’ve been working closely with our supply chain to ensure the right level of EV capability, not just for vehicle repair, but at every stage of the process.

The dynamics of the vehicles have changed, which means the dynamics of the skill set in the repairers and internal teams around engineering, triage and systems have had to adapt to identify these vehicles so they can be placed in the right shops, but also have the skill set and capability to repair them.

A lot more technology is also included in AFVs as everything's connected.

The way that the motor claims sector, and accident management, is progressing towards digitalisation, has been imperative for Sopp+Sopp to keep investing in our technology roadmap.

This ensures that we can maximise connected vehicle technology to transform the whole claims reporting process from where it was previously, to rely on drivers. Instead, we are starting to see the transition to being reliant on technology to inform and prompt the mostbeneficial processes.

FN: Are there any new initiatives with Centrica?

CL: We’ve been working together on innovative ways to complete mid-term vehicle damage assessments.

Recently we’ve trialled the use of artificial intelligence (AI) image technology to complete remote damage assessment.

This prevents potential issues with unreported damage when the vehicle comes to be replaced and allows us to continually maximise scheduled downtime to complete small repairs without any impact on vehicle availability.

We are also maximising the use of technology throughout the claims reporting process, in addition to further increasing management visibility of the repair process allowing sector-specific decisions to be made around engineer downtime.

Judges’ comments:

Sopp+Sopp’s understanding of the market in which it operates – and the constraints facing its customers – is impressive. Its awards entry, detailing how it introduced measures to reduce Centrica’s vehicle downtime, demonstrated a partnership that clearly benefits both parties. The company has proved to be flexible, agile and focused on continuous improvement.