Thirty accident repair centres have come together under a new affinity group promising to provide fleet operators with unrivalled levels of service and quality.

Selsia has been set up by former refinish paint experts Neil Marcus and Neville Dickson to offer sales and marketing support for its bodyshop members, all of whom are PAS125 Kitemarked or working towards the quality standard.

Fleet operators are their main target for business.

Bodyshops pay a membership fee to join, part of which pays for technician training.

Selsia expects to have 60-70 signed up giving national coverage by the end of first quarter.

Dickson told Fleet News: “Fleets aren’t used to be approached by bodyshops. We have put together a package that includes first notification of loss, non-fault, real time management and roadside care.

"Labour rates are agreed by contract.

“We also offer engineering services to evaluate estimates for fleets.

"We reduce cycle times to get vehicles back onto the road quicker.

"We take the problem of accidents away from the fleet manager.”

Selsia is initially targeting fleets with 250-1,000 vehicles and is looking to sign 10 major national accounts this year.

Its network can handle cars, vans and HGVs, while its service also extends to de-fleet – schedules can up uploaded to the online Selsia Fleet Manager service - and cosmetic repairs.

“Every fleet that we have spoken to so far has a part of its business that is open to us because we offer such a broad service,” said Marcus.

“We offer a national solution for fleets.”