ILC ARTICLE

ILC Breakfast News – Wednesday 30 March

30th March 2022

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CoreLogic to headline ILC’s environmental property event  

ILC is delighted to announce CoreLogic, a leading provider of property insights and solutions, as headline sponsor of its specialist home and property conference taking place on 9 June.   

Themed ‘The Environmental Challenges of Property Claims’ the event will bring together over 150 leading industry professionals to discuss the environmental challenges of home and property claims.   

Claims Consortium acquires Roger Rich & Co 

The Claims Consortium Group has expanded its claims handling services into accident, travel, health and pet claims with the acquisition of specialist loss adjuster Roger Rich & Co for an undisclosed sum.  

The move is part of the Group’s strategy to diversify its UK claims services for both new and existing clients and follows the recent acquisitions of WeatherNet and the TPA Leisure offering as well as the launch of Synergy Cloud.

Housing Review highlights major challenges 

The 30^th UK Housing Review, which brings together the most important housing statistics in England, has identified a number of key issues facing the market. 

These include worsening affordability gaps across most of the UK and slow progress in tackling poor energy efficiency in older homes. The Review has also warned that millions of households could be plunged into fuel poverty without government intervention, and concluded that England’s Right to Buy scheme is a ‘strategic failure.’ 

UK public suffer green guilt 

Aviva’s Spring 2022 How We Live Report has revealed that nearly two thirds (64%) of UK adults feel guilty for carrying out environmentally-unfriendly actions. 

The study also revealed that more than half have witnessed green ‘virtue signalling,’ while one in eight UK adults (12%) have exaggerated their eco-friendly actions and a further 23% are tempted to do the same. 

Interestingly, the report also found that under 25s lag behind other age groups in green behaviours. 

ClaimsTech

SightCall progresses to tech final 

SightCall has been seen off competition from hundreds of competitors from 46 countries to be named as a Top 10 finalist for T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Challenge on XR experiences.  

The challenge has been set up to identify and promote the world’s most innovative technology, products, and services that could improve XR customer experience. The winner will be announced on 1 June and progress to the ‘Solution Development’ stage. 

Hannover Re opens up innovation platform 

Hannover Re has opened up hr | equarium with immediate effect, providing insurers with direct access to a pool of innovative services and solutions from insurtechs around the world.  

Insurtechs from around the world use the platform to offer innovations in areas such as cyber, telematics and parametrics to insurers. To date it has been used by more than 700 Hannover Re clients from over 100 countries. 

New collaboration can cut claims journey

RightIndem and ICE InsureTech have announced a new collaboration designed to deliver an enhanced claims journey and simple reporting and handing, while at the same time enabling policy validation and automation of the supply chain. 

They believe that by combining RightIndem’s reporting platform with ICE’s policy and claims insurance software, insurers, brokers, TPAs and MGAs can reduce claims lifecycles and improve the customer experience.   

Motor

ILC breaks £1m fundraising milestone  

The I Love Claims (ILC) community surpassed the £1m fundraising milestone for the Rainbow Trust during the Motor Claims Networking Lunch 2022.  

Taking place on Friday, 25 March at The Grand Connaught Rooms, London the annual event featured a live auction, silent auction and prize draws to raise funds for the charity which supports families who have a child with life-threatening or terminal illness.

ILC Industry Leader Interview – Catherine Hulme

We hear from Catherine Hulme, Operations Director at Innovation Group.

Government abandons further whiplash reforms  

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced that part two of the proposed reforms to the soft tissue claims process have been shelved.  

Part one of the Reforming the Soft Tissue Injury Claims Process – implemented in May 2021 – related to the small claims limit for PI claims and a fixed compensation tariff for RTA cases. Part two was expected to be much broader, encompassing referrals, credit hire and rehabilitation.  

Enterprise enhances rental solutions 

Enterprise has introduced new technology enabling in-branch employees to geolocate both rental and car clubs in real time. This means they can inform customers when a car club vehicle is the more convenient option. 

Meanwhile, businesses using Enterprise’s ETD booking platform can now also be directed to a car club vehicle automatically when that is the closest and most convenient option. 

AkzoNobel confirmed innovation collaboration 

AkzoNobel has confirmed that collaboration on new sustainable innovations will continue with three winners of its Paint the Future awards. The start-ups, selected from 245 submissions from 62 countries, will now join AzkoNobel’s six-month go-to-market acceleration program. 

The winners were SolCold, a sustainable self-cooling coating, Aerones, which brings a robotic solution to wind turbine maintenance, and SprayVision, which brings a data-driven approach to efficient spray application of paint. 

ERS identifies repair challenges 

ERS has highlighted the main practical challenges that exist in the repair process today.  

Unsurprisingly, it has identified parts supply as a key problem, with two-thirds of vehicle parts manufactured in the Middle East and China, where Covid-19 continues to affect production. 

It also revealed that repair constraints and capacity issues mean that up to 100,000 damaged vehicles are still waiting to be brought in for repairs, while driveable vehicles are taking five weeks longer to get booked in than pre-pandemic. Labour shortages and a lack of mobility options are also placing great strain on repairers.  

Liability ‘complex and nuanced’ in automated world  

Mercedes-Benz has announced it will accept legal responsibility for collisions that occur in cars fitted with an ‘L3’ Automated Lane Keeping System, when directly caused by a fault with its technology. Here Matthew Avery, Chief Research Strategy Officer, Thatcham Research, comments on the ‘complex and nuanced’ issue of legal liability for the first iterations of the technology.  

UK government unveils charging strategy 

The UK government has unveiled its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, which commits to deliver 300,000 public electric vehicle chargepoints by 2030, which is almost five times the number of fuel pumps on UK roads today. 

The strategy is backed by a £1.6bn investment. 

Copart celebrates community support 

Copart has celebrated the support it’s given to a number of good causes through its Copart Cares commitment.  

Apart from supporting dedicated automotive charities Ben and AutoRaise since 2015 and 2021 respectively, as well as being a long-time backer of ILC Day, Copart is also proud to have recently supported charities such as Bedford Foodbank, Fountain Foodbank, West Lothian Foodbank, Make 2nds Count, Samaritans Kettering and Bedford Polish Club’s Ukraine Appeal.  

CAPS fits for motor insurers

New data shows a 23% increase in the use of CAPS in 2021. 

Communication between motor insurers and their supply chains is driving the growth, with Ageas, Direct Line, Esure, LV= and Sabre among the insurers now using CAPS to exchange data directly with their repairer networks. 

In the same period CAPS also recorded a 10% increase in the number of bodyshops connecting with its service to 1,357, as well as 21% increase in other suppliers such as parts and salvage businesses. 

Market News

ILC Rising Star Interview: Aisha Hussain, Account Executive Team Leader at Copart

“With times moving so fast and everything being so instant, we also need to make sure we keep innovating and delivering digital solutions. At Copart, we are results focused so we’re already looking into what more we can do integrate our systems and provide bespoke tools.” 

Read the full interview.

EY downgrades 2022/23 forecasts 

The Ernst & Young ITEM Club has downgraded its 2022 UK GDP growth forecast from 4.9% to 4.2%. Meanwhile, GDP in 2023 has been downgraded from 2.7% to 1.9%. 

Its Interim Report also predicted that inflation would peak at 8.5% in April, while spending growth forecast is down from 5.6% to 5.1% this year and from 2.9% to 1.7% next year. 

WTW names new European leader 

Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has appointed Tammy Richardson as its new Europe Regional Leader for its Insurance Consulting and Technology business. 

She steps up from the same position for UK & Ireland and will now lead a team of 500 experts responsible for P&L management and strategy.  

Lloyd’s reports strong profits 

Lloyd’s has published its 2021 full year financial results, revealing a strong return to profitability. 

It recorded an overall profit of £2.3bn, recovering from a £0.9bn loss in 2020, with a combined ratio of 93.5%. The turnaround was driven by the company’s focus on underwriting profitability, as well as leveraging favourable trading conditions to achieve premium growth.  

Meanwhile, premium rates increased by 10.9%, continuing the trend of 16 consecutive quarters of positive rate movement. 

LV= Covid claims top £19m 

LV= has revealed that claims for life insurance, critical illness and income protection has exceeded £19m since the start of Covid-19. 

It paid its first Covid-19-related claim on 16 March, 2020 and has since paid out on nearly 2,000 pandemic claims. This includes 1,400 death claims, totalling £18m, and 550 personal sick pay and income protection claims worth more than £427,000. 

Register now… webinARC: Vehicle Technology     

In this webinARC we hear from vehicle manufacturer, repairer and service provider to explore the ever-evolving world of vehicle technology and what it means for repair management.     

Featuring:     

– Andrew Hooker, Head of Technical, Solus Accident Repair Centres     

– Franco Iannotta, Bodyshop Development Manager, Volkswagen Group UK     

– Phil Peace, Managing Director (International), Repairify Inc