A radical new approach to repairing company cars looks set to transform the fleet accident management industry, reducing vehicle off the road times from six days to just 24 hours, and costs by an average of 17% on a third of its repairs.

The key to the new approach by Total Accident Management (Total), part of Helphire PLC, which manages around 100,000 fleet vehicles per annum, is introducing the use of mobile bodyshops to manage its customers’ less seriously damaged cars.

Total has teamed up with a body repair specialist to direct up to 20% of its repairs through a nationwide mobile network, where mobile bodyshops visit the damaged vehicle and repair it on site.

The mobile bodyshop is capable of repairing vehicles with no more than four damaged panels, that have no major structural damage and can still be driven.

Total has been pioneering new methods of repair for company vehicles over the past two years with Smart repairs through its partner Bac2Nu. It believes the introduction of mobile repairs is the next logical step after optimising its Smart repair rate.

This radical new approach reduces the need to put the driver in a hire car, saving on average £283 per repair, as well as reducing vehicle off the road time from an average of six days on a conventional repair, to just 24 hours on one that involves mobile or Smart repair.

Introducing a combination of Smart and mobile repairs not only reduces costs and vehicle off the road times for fleets, but frees up bodyshops to concentrate on repairing the more costly, seriously damaged cars.

“The UK’s bodyshop industry is full to capacity with accident damaged vehicles, some of which need minor repairs and that don’t warrant taking up much needed space in their workshops,” explained Stefan Smyth, director of Total.

“The cost and environmental restrictions imposed on buying land and opening a new bodyshop are so great it is preventing the UK network from growing so it needs to offload the smaller repairs that don’t actually generate any profit.

“Our new approach ensures bodyshops only work on the more highly damaged and costly repairs which make best use of their skills and expensive equipment and, more importantly, generate their best return. All the others are catered for by smaller scale repair techniques and like all of our repairs, the work is guaranteed for three years,” he added.

Currently around 83% of repairs go through its national bodyshop network, around 12% of its damaged vehicles are Smart repaired, while 5% are total losses and go to salvage.

Total’s innovative new approach will see a minimum of 20% of cars directed to mobile bodyshops, Smart repairs will stabilise at around 15%, while the number of vehicles salvaged will remain static at around 5%. That means only the remaining 60% of its more seriously damaged cars will go through the traditional bodyshop route.

“Mobile repair is a relatively simple concept and one that we can easily adopt into our internal processes and training schedules. It’s a win win situation for all concerned and represents the changing face of the fleet accident management industry,” said Smyth.

Total has already piloted the concept with customers who have already enjoyed the cost benefits of Smart repairs, but more importantly, the speed at which drivers get their cars back on the road.