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REPAIRS UNDER INSURANCE.

27th December 1921
Page 11
Page 11, 27th December 1921 — REPAIRS UNDER INSURANCE.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The Repairer Has a Duty Towards His Customer, the Insurance Company, and Al! Road Transport Users in Connection with a Claim for Accidental Damage.

By "Vim."

INSURANCE companies have a pretty good idea of wilo are reliable eepaieers and who are not. Until they know a repairer's capabilities they usually check his estimates for repairing vehicles that have been accidentally damaged, by sending their own engineers to view the jobs. But when they have acquired confidence in him they do not trouble to do this an every occasion, particularly if the season happens to be a busy one or the repairer is far. from any of their branch offices. In such cases they generally accept the repairer's report of the damage done, and inspect only when a job is a big one.

It is, therefore, plain that a great deal of trust is placed in repairers by insurance companies to act as arbitrators between them and their insured. Whether this fact is always realized is rather doubtful. A conscientious man will naturally do his best to hold the scales of justice evenly, but it must be admitted that. now and thim long immunity from queries has the effect of making a repairer feel that insurance companies do not mind what work they pay for, so long as it is done after an accident. In this they are sometimes encouraged by local branch managers, who are often on friendly terms with insured persons (as, indeed, it is their business to be'„ and who are on that account not unwilling to have a point stretched to its limit to please a client. Possibly this is good policy on their part, because an owner whose damaged vehicle is insured by them may be able to influence far larger insurance on property, lives, and the like. In any event, if a branch manager is -satisfied that certain work should be included in an insured's claim, the repairer has no responsibility in the matter, provided he has given impartial advice as to the fairness of the severalitems of the claim.

Insurance Rates v. Claims.

Nevertheless, from a. broad point of view, the re pairer has a duty to perform towards the insurance company as well as towards his customer; nor does that duty stop with the two immediate parties to the claim, for it extends to all users of motor trans port. Insurance rates are not fixed by guesswork, but by actuarial calculations based on experience. That is to say, each class of risk is taken, and at regular intervals the claims are set against the prel mums received. If the receipts compare favourably with the; disbursements, the premiums are reduced: for the subsequent period ; if the position is reversed, the premiums are increased. Immense staffs of clerks are kept constantly engaged on computing experience, and every claim, however small, influences the, results. A single heavy claim—such as a motor coach accident, involving the payment of some thousands of pounds in compensation—might put up premiums for such insurance by an appreciable amount all round. '

Against the need for keeping down all claims in the interests of all the insured in a given class, we have to remember that the reputation of any insurance company depends on the promptness and liberality with which they settle claims. Bening a few brokers and insurance companies who dabble in motor vehicle insurance and, relying on fresh business to keep that department going, dispute everything they are asked tri pay, no decent concern will ever thank a repairer for cheese-paring a job. Very few people are broad-minded enough to sink their own direct interests for the. ultimate good of the whole, and insurance companies know that they can only go forward on the goodwill of each of their insured.

On the other hand, they expect, and rightly, to be protected against what are obviously unfair claims. Again and again they are asked to repaint entirely a vehicle that has had only, one panel' damaged, and are expected to throw in for nothing the whole of this costly work even though the vehicle may have been in-the shabbiest of states before the accident. Frequently they are asked to pay for overhauling and renewing worn parts of some unit, such as the front axle and steering of a car, when the real accidental damage is limited to a bend in the axle itself. If they do not send to inspect ajoli of this kind, it is quite possible for the repairer, without, giving the game away, so to 'camouflage his estimate that it appears to relate only to damage sustained by collision. This is a grossly unfair thing to do, amounting almost to fraud, and is also extremely risky, because insurance concerns are not always such fools as they look. They may pass incorrect claims once or twice; but, after that, the repairer will probably have some trouble to prevent other jobs from being taken out of his hands.

The Repairer as Arbitrator.

In insurance claims the repairer generally stands, as I have already said, more or less in the position of friendly arbitrator between insurers and insured, and he should strive faithfully to do what is right and just by both. A commercial vehicle owner whose van or lorry has been temporarily bowled out in an argument with some other solid body, is chiefly 'anxious to get it back on the road again as quickly as possible—but not invariably. Where a vehicle has been kept regularly at work for Perhaps years without attention, its compulsory retirement through an accident is occasionally regarded as a good opportunity for an overhaul and repaint at the expense of the insurance people. When this kind of proposition is put to a garage proprietor he is compelled, in -common decency, to explain that insurance only guarantees reinstatement of the vehicle to the condition it was in prior to the accident, and not, as many owners think, to a condition equal to new.

On the whole, commercial vehicle users are much more reasonable than private motorists in their demands on insurance companies, but the exceptions require strength of mind to deal with, for they are inherently unsportsmanlike folk. In dealing with them, I have made it a practice—where, in spite of argument, they have insisted that repairs which I regarded as being outside the insurance claim should be included—to send the company a report and estimate divided into two parts, the first representing the work which I considered the accident necessitated, and the second representing the additional repairs requested by the customer. A covering letter has then been sent by me to explain the points in 'doubt, and to ask that an inspecting engineer should call to decide them. This plan has 'always answered well. Insurers appreciate it, and, if an insured has not got all he wanted. I have been exonerated front blame. And I never like being saddled with faults that are not my own.

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