What does it all mean?

A year ago insurer MMA realised it had a problem. It received wildly varying bills from its authorised car repairers and didn't know whether these simply reflected the wide range of different kinds of damage being repaired and regional pricing differences or whether there were huge inconsistencies in the pricing of similar types of work.

What MMA needed was a system that would enable its engineers to determine the nature of the repair work. And to decide if the higher repair costs were justified.

MMA chief engineer Gary Brench had an idea. He had heard of an American system called collision deformation classification (CDC). It was being used by the Society of Automotive Engineers of America to model accident reconstructions, but Brench saw its potential to solve MMA's problem.

CDC is a simple concept. If you can assign a standard category to repairs then you can begin to compare costs. And once a database has been built up, you can analyse it and find out which repairers offer the best value for money. If there were problems, it would allow MMA to try and seek solutions based on fact rather than anecdote.

How does CDC work? A seven character code is used to build a three dimensional picture of the damage suffered by a vehicle. Any damage that a vehicle sustains can be described by a CDC code. And for every CDC code there will be a known average repair cost.

Brench says that the system is very straightforward to implement. "You can teach an engineer to use it in half an hour. It takes a matter of seconds to apply the system - it is very computer friendly."

Assessing scores
CDC provides a benchmark by which each repairer's costs can be assessed.

"For each repairer we can compare their average repair costs with their average CDC score. We would expect a high repair cost to be accompanied by a high CDC score and vice versa," says Brench.

Engineers can then ascertain which repairers may need to be monitored and which can get preferential treatment.

"If the repairer's CDC score is low, but their repair costs are high, we would need to keep a watch over them. Those whose repair costs are lower than their CDC scores can be considered for delegated authority."

Repairers who are given delegated authority no longer have to produce estimates that can be costly and time consuming. They simply send their invoices and images of the damaged car for the engineer to check. According to Brench a repairer producing 100 estimates a month can save £800.

And repairers who perform well will also find that their labour rates increased by way of an incentive. MMA reviews its labour rates every three months.

One of the main benefits of CDC, says Brench, is that it reduces the amount of time and resources spend on administration. MMA's engineers no longer need to spend time assessing vehicle damage and can be used to improve other technical and customer service areas. In the nine months that the system has been underway, the company has halved monitoring and audit times.

Cutting all costs
A reduction in average repair costs - £10 per vehicle according to Brench - has also been achieved. This is because the system allows MMA to focus on those repairers that provide the most cost efficient service.

There are also customer service benefits. Repairers have more time to work on repairs, as they are not producing estimates, says Brench. This means clients get their vehicles quicker. Brench points to the results of customer satisfaction surveys that have been carried out. The average time for customers to collect their vehicles has been reduced by eight days to two days following the implementation of CDC. Customers' positive comments also increased by 16% to 84%.

Brench is also keen to stress the system's wider potential. "We have been thinking about how this system can be used and we feel there are lot of spin-offs."

One example is the grading of personal injury claims such as whiplash. Brench says a database could be compiled of the damages awarded to a victim and the vehicle's CDC score. This may allow an argument that a personal injury claim was too high as the CDC score would suggest a lower level of injury.

Wider application
It could also be used for third party payments. "The third party's damage could be verified by knowing the CDC on our own customer's vehicle," says Brench.

And CDC will also aid in salvage classification. "The forthcoming End of Life Vehicle Directive is encouraging re-use of car parts to prevent landfill. Having a database of vehicles with damage classified will assist searches and identification of usable parts."

But while Brench is excited about the broader uses of the system, he is concerned that they may not be achieved unless the industry provides support.

"There is only so much that MMA can do. Wider application depends on whether the industry as a whole adopts it. Over the coming months I hope that others become interested."

HOW THE CODE WORKS
Box 1,2: Direction of impact. Uses a clock face: 12 o'clock is the front of the vehicle

Box 3: Global area of damage. F=front

Box 4: Spread of damage - horizontal location. R=right hand side; C=centre

Box 5: Spread of damage - vertical location. E= from bottom of car to the bottom of the windscreen.

Box 6: Type of damage. S=sideswipe;

E=corner damage, N=narrow

Box 7: Level of damage. 1=low level damage up to 9=catastrophic damage.