IAG New Zealand has announced a review of its repairer network to ensure standards are consistently being met around: health and safety, equipment and training, repair quality and customer experience.
According to IAG general manager of claims services Dean MacGregor, the increasing complexity in materials and technology systems evident in modern day vehicles brings up the need to partner with repairers who can achieve “high standards” for customers.
As a result of the review, IAG proposed to increase its repair network from 283 to 348, increase its gold status repairers from 53 to 64 and add a further 42 repairers to the network.
MacGregor noted that the review provided an opportunity to address the increasing volumes of vehicles on New Zealand roads and where more repairers are required.
“During the past three years, IAG has seen significant increases in repair volumes,” he said.
“Record immigration, a strong economy and booming tourism have all given rise to more vehicles on our roads and more kilometres travelled, which directly relates to the number of accidents occurring.
“These factors have been most significant in Auckland, resulting in increased demand for collision repair services and leading to increased wait times for customers,” he added.
IAG also reviewed its repairer labour and paint rates. As a result, the labour rate will increase on average by 5.3% for the majority of IAG repairers and 3.1% for paint. The insurer will also introduce differentiated labour rates in Auckland and Queenstown, where increasing labour and overhead costs are a significant challenge.
