Avis is reducing its vehicle off the road times and keeping repair costs under control thanks to the support of its accident repair partner Ai Claims Solutions.

The challenge for any rental company is to keep its fleet working seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and its 18,500 vehicles are now working harder than ever thanks to a series of new initiatives introduced by Ai.

Since being awarded the Avis accident management contract nearly a year ago, Ai has expanded its repair network to180 sites which are matched geographically to manage rental car repairs across the 130-strong Avis network.

Working as an integrated repairer network controlled by Ai, rather than managing each Avis repair in isolation, has helped reduce average repair times to  just nine days. Previously this figure was the wrong side of 10 days.

Ai allocates Avis cars based on a repairer’s workload, thus ensuring there is no bottle neck for getting individual cars back on the road. To keep the repairer network motivated, Ai has recently launched an annual Avis repairer award to recognise the site that provides the rental company with the best service using the strict Key Performance Indicators set across the 180-repairer network.

“With manufacturers restricting the supply of cars supplied into the rental market, so ensuring we make best use of our current fleet is vital, and one key aspect of our success in 2007 has been reducing our off the road times,” said Paul Hainsworth, Fleet & Network Development Director, Avis UK.

“Currently we are running at around 300 repairs a month, which means that many cars could be out of action for a length of time. Ai’s expertise in managing the end to end repair process has meant fewer off the road days and more cars being available to hire out to customers, which in turn means improved revenue rates for our network.”

“The repair network performance during the first year of the scheme has been much stronger than anything we have experienced before,” he added.

One of the keys to the success of the relationship is the pre-agreed service levels adopted by repairers and the training courses which Ai set up in 2007.

“Ai has worked extremely hard since the inception of the contract, to familiarise the repair network of the requirements expected when repairing Avis vehicles. We have jointly run seminars for repairers so they understand what is expected when an Avis rental car enters their workshop and the importance of a swift turnaround,” said Geoff Peacock, Ai Repair Network Manager.

Jim Monteith, Technical Services Director, Ai added: “I am proud of the way our team and the Repair Network responded to the challenge laid down by Avis in terms of cycle time reduction and cost control. To take a chunk of business on board whereby every single vehicle is effectively un-hirable and therefore needs urgent attention, placed an enormous amount of pressure on the network. By effective planning and working closely with the Avis team, the results to date have been strong and adequately demonstrate the robust processes that we have in place to control the end to end repair process”.