Accident management and credit hire has largely discarded the negative baggage of ambulance chasers and money grabbers from its initial years in the early ’90s.

Back then, inflated bills to insurers for replacement car hire and a lack of regulation created friction and ill-feeling.

Some of that has yet to be fully removed from the minds of a handful of insurance companies but, in the main, the sector now has acceptance thanks to regulation and agreed GTA/ABI rates on car hire.

The service for fleets is a relatively new development.

Fewer than 30% of fleets are part of a formal accident management programme – the smaller the fleet, the less likely they are to have signed up.

And, for a while, the service fell off the agenda altogether and was replaced by a focus on risk management and duty of care.

Total Accident Management, the fleet-based organisation owned by Helphire, one of the first accident management companies, believes it is now firmly back in the spotlight for fleets looking to reduce costs.

“Accidents will still happen, despite any action that a fleet might take under duty of care,” says Total’s new managing director Penny Stoolman.

She claims accident management can cut costs at every stage of the repair process by controlling the number of hours per job,
checking estimates and intelligent repair allocation – ensuring ‘smart’ touch-up or mobile repairs instead of a full body repair where appropriate.

“Properly allocating cars can save 17% on average off the repair bill,” says Stoolman.

She also claims Total can save fleets 12% on average on uninsured loss recovery by managing the process.

It pays the bill, instead of the fleet manager, and reclaims the money from the insurance company.

Total works with 120,000 fleet vehicles from around 2,000 fleets and 10 leasing companies from the FN50, handling around 34,000 claims a year which results in some 23,000 repairs.

It has built its business on a modular service proposition, creating a tailored solution for each fleet that can range from case management and non-fault credit hire/repair to a full accident management service with reporting, legal services and billing.

Around 65% of its customers take the full Fleet Complete product.
Instead of monthly reports, fleet decision-makers can view in real-time vehicles on/off road, those being repaired and those that have been repaired.

Total’s Tpro controls third-party claims, applying the same cost measures to minimise damage claims.

It captures around half of third parties and converts around 60%.

“Fleet managers should encourage their drivers to have a roadside chat post-accident to get details to help us capture more third parties,” says Stoolman.

Fleets that adopt Tpro can reduce their insurance premiums by having larger excesses.

“Some of our partners have huge excesses because we capture and manage their third-party claims,” adds Stoolman.

She believes more fleets will consider outsourcing services – not just accident management – as they look to reduce overheads and increase cashflow.

Total is looking to rapidly grow its share of the estimated £500 million fleet accident management market.

Last year it more than doubled turnover to £11 million (from £4.5 million); it expects to double turnover again this year to £22-23 million.

“That’s as far forward as we are looking,” Stoolman adds.

“But there’s no reason why we can’t continue to grow at a steady and sustainable rate.”

Case study: Ringway Group

Ringway Group has saved more than £111,000 in non-fault accident management costs on its fleet of 2,000 vehicles in the first 21 months of using Total’s credit hire and repair service.

The figure represents 40% of Ringway’s repair costs over that period – equivalent to £5,582 per month.

Total’s system links into Ringway’s in-house accident management programme.

It records how accidents occurred, who was at the wheel at the time and how often that driver has been involved in an accident.

Total’s KPI reports detail frequency, type and cost of each incident.
Savings come from Total meeting all costs for claims against third parties, which ensures vehicles are back on the road more quickly and removes potential cashflow bottlenecks.

Saint-Gobin, Europe’s largest distributor of building materials, saved £100,000 last year across its 5,000-strong fleet of cars, vans and trucks by using smart and mobile repairs.

Total has cut the average repair cost on Saint-Gobin’s commercial vehicle fleet by £1,000 per vehicle and reduced downtime from 10 days to five.

One-third of its trucks now use mobile repairs.

Downtime on cars has been cut from seven days to five, with 30% of company car repairs now carried out by mobile operators.

Raising the repair standard

Total Accident Management has signed up to the bodyshop standard PAS125.

All new body repairers joining its network must have PAS125, while its existing 147 tier one bodyshops and 200 tier two repairers are all working towards it.

Total hopes to have its entire network PAS125 accredited by the end of the year, but isn’t setting this as a firm deadline.

The company believes PAS125 offers fleets additional peace of mind that the bodyshop has the equipment, people and training to repair their car to its pre-accident condition.

Total is working on a new revenue model to replace the traditional approach based on a percentage of the repair bill used by most accident management companies.

It means the lower the bill, the less money the company makes, which Stoolman reckons is a disincentive to minimise repair costs.

“We are developing a risk and reward method. If we do a good job, then we get rewarded in agreed fees or in some of the benefit enjoyed by the fleet,” she says.

“It raises awareness of the value that accident management can bring and says ‘pay us for doing a good job and allow our suppliers to be paid’.

“We are in the early stages but we’d like to trial and test it with some partners.”