It's good to talk, says the Accident Exchange Group boss

I welcome the fact that the consumer is at least being placed at the centre of the debate but is critical of the lack of open debate between the respective stakeholders in defining how the GTA and the credit hire market evolves. If there is one thing that the Claims Clinic identified it was that it is very good to talk!

The costs associated with credit hire claims and the different strategic positioning of individual insures makes it difficult to see the GTA providing a one size fits all solution to the industry cost issues but I would argue that it was never mean to provide that solution.

It does, however, provide a framework which provides certainty for as many as 60% of claims processed in the spirit of the protocol. With a cost to the insurance industry of £500 million annually, delivering that certainty in terms of costs and process fas to be beneficial to the entire supply chain. But the key issue in terms of what tomorrow looks like has to be dialogue.

Every stakeholder in the process appears to be seeking change and improvements to a mechanism which is, at times, dysfunctional when viewed as a solution between individual stakeholders against their respective strategic aims.

The challenge, for me, therefore, has to be creating wider and more involved debate from all sides of the industry in order to retain the foundations of the system currently regularising the supply chain whilst still allowing a wider dialogue to extend the benefits and help adjust them to the current evolving commercial landscape and also to encourage individual dialogues to build on the GTA to satisfy their own aspirations.

Steve Evans is chief executive of Accident Exchange Group and a member of the Accident Management Association executive committee.