How can a car service center enter into an agreement with an insurance company?

Cooperation between service stations and insurance companies

When opening a car service center from scratch, you want to count on a flow of cars. But often the situation does not turn out the way we want, and there are either too many cars or no cars at all. The first case occurs when, before opening the service, you called everyone about your services, and even at a discount, but delayed the opening for a month or two. But the first case will eventually lead to the second, and the clients will run out. In order to stabilize the situation and practically get rid of fluctuations in the number of clients, it is necessary to cooperate with wholesale clients - dealerships and insurance companies.

For the insurance company, the only thing that matters is the price at which you will do your work. If it suits them, then they will not care at all about what equipment and materials will be used during the work. Also, cooperation can be at normal prices, but you will give part of it to some person, so to speak, to a person “on kickback”. The most important thing is not to give too much hope to this whole undertaking; the profit will not be big, but the service will not be idle. The main advantage in all this is that the person brings his car to you personally, if the result suits him, then next time he will probably contact you directly. This also excludes the option of hackwork; if the client has problems with the paintwork, the insurance company will send him to the contractor, that is, to you.

First, you need to understand how much it will cost to paint using quality materials. I use paint and varnish from Duxone, which is not the cheapest, but I am used to these materials and 90% of paintings go without any problems. Repainting any part immediately reduces profits to the minus. Thus, painting one element costs the client 8-9 thousand rubles. For me, the amount of expenses is about 6.5 thousand rubles. It’s not difficult to calculate that I earn about 2,000 rubles from one part. In the case of the insurance company, 5.9 thousand rubles are allocated for painting the element, which is even lower than the cost of the repairs performed. You may ask, how then can you earn at least something from this? The answer is quite simple, learn to work with cheap materials such as Brulex and the like. A liter of basic white paint Duxone costs 1,270 rubles, and Brulex 825 rubles, so the savings on materials is approximately 30%, and the cost of painting an element drops to 4,550 rubles. We get a profit of 1,350 rubles for painting one element, which is not bad at all for a constant flow.

According to the agreement with the client, the insurance company must use new original spare parts when repairing his car. But when the conversation comes between the insurance company and the car service center, only future profits are discussed; the insurers simply don’t care about the client. Thus, all the parts that cannot be determined by eye whether they are original or not are supplied at the cheapest price, often even second-hand ones. The main exception is optics, since their glass has the automaker's markings on it. Some body parts are also stamped with a brand, but it is covered with putty and painted over, everything happens without evidence, it will be difficult to present anything when the client accepts the car.

When starting to work with an insurance company, you should get a company and a good accountant; all mutual settlements will be made by bank transfer. From the legal side, the insurance company is in a better position. The cost of services is specified in the contract and it decreases if the flow of clients increases. Also, according to the contract, cars that came with insurance are serviced first. Otherwise, you can lose all the “live” clients, of course, if there are any. In any case, you should not enter into a long-term contract so that it does not backfire on you in the end. Cooperation is necessary only during the start of the service; in the future, the end user must make a profit. You should immediately understand that you should not expect payment right away, insurance companies are slow in this regard and payment may take a month or even two. You also need to be prepared for the fact that you will never see the money if the company goes bankrupt. No courts will help, since we live in Russia, and we will have to go to court for many years. Thus, working long and closely with the insurance company, you can lose all your profits in an instant; you just need to calculate how many cars serviced in 2 months will remain unpaid. Considering that one element will be painted on three cars a day, the losses will amount to a quarter of a million rubles.

OSAGO or CASCO?

Definitely CASCO, and everything that I wrote above applies only to CASCO. After the MTPL reform, payments, of course, almost doubled, but this is still not enough. For example, 3,850 rubles are allocated for repairing a rear bumper with painting, which, undoubtedly, will not even cover the cost of materials, not to mention the profit. The second stumbling block is the fact that payments are made taking into account depreciation, when buying a new part for a client, you will have to wait for money not only from the insurance company, but also compensation for the difference from the client, which makes the already not very good conditions even worse.

If you have an excellent car service with painting, but there is no time to deal with paperwork or you are afraid to take unnecessary risks, then intermediary companies will be able to help in this matter. For a certain fee, usually about 10-12% of the profit, you get a flow of cars, timely payment, and if hidden defects are discovered, their repair will also be paid for. Thus, by losing a small percentage of the profit, you can protect yourself from the bad consequences associated with late payments and possible bankruptcy of the insurance company. The intermediary company makes payments directly from its budget, and then takes the money from the insurance company, and puts the difference in its pocket, thereby it can earn money and at the same time the risks of the owner of the service are reduced to zero. This method of collaboration is perfect for a newly opened body shop.

For car services

For car services

For service stations, membership in the ECC network is indefinite and does not require a fee, however, it allows isolated, independent, small and medium-sized service stations to increase the flow of customers, improve the quality and efficiency of service, the loyalty and trust of car owners living in close proximity to such service stations, establish them as regular customers. In addition, service stations, having become partners of the ECC network, cease to be a “stand-alone”, “random” car service center for insurers, and are given the opportunity to reliably defend their interests in determining the cost of repairs and receiving payment for repair work performed. Instead of the Service Station, all approvals with the Investigative Committee are carried out by the ECC as soon as possible.

We create the most comfortable working conditions for our partner workshops. ECC specialists have been in the insurance and auto repair market for a long time and have significant experience in settling losses.

Advantages of cooperation for workshops:

1. Steady flow of orders for repairs.
2. Absence of necessity:

— conclude contracts with each insurance company separately;

— maintain a biller (the cost of repairs is calculated by ESS experts);

— negotiate with insurance companies when agreeing on cost estimates for repairs.

1. Possibility of providing additional services to car owners - clients of the insurance company: vehicle inspection in the direction of the insurance company, accepting applications for insured events, sale and renewal of OSAGO, CASCO policies.

Common standards

1. The work and interaction of all service stations - partners/members of the ECC on the basis of uniform requirements based on a single standard agreement.
2. Unified programs and rules for repairs and other services for car owners, in particular, the presence of a customer area, the possibility of providing additional services.
3. A unified tariff schedule for the cost of standard hours and spare parts throughout Russia.
4. Single repair period (no more than 20 days, excluding the time of ordering spare parts).

Our slogan: You do the repairs - we do everything else!

Only a quarter of car services will be able to work with insurance companies after the OSAGO reform (TASS)

28 April 2017, 08:57

Car insurers note that one of the key problems is that the requirements set for service stations are too stringent.

Agreements with 5.3 thousand service stations (STOs) were concluded by insurance companies under OSAGO and CASCO at the beginning of 2017, according to the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA), but after new strict requirements for the provision of services come into force, repairs under OSAGO will be able to be carried out only 25% of such stations.

At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law on payments in kind for compulsory motor insurance, approved by the State Duma and the Federation Council. According to RSA, the law comes into force on April 28, 2017.

The new procedure for receiving insurance compensation in kind will apply only to insurance contracts concluded after the day the law comes into force. TASS turned to experts with the question of what participants in the car insurance market and all motorists should expect from the new rules. Insurers expect a significant increase in the costs of compensation in kind for compulsory motor liability insurance; service station owners have two opposing views on the existing changes: for some, innovations are an impetus for cooperation with insurance companies, while others, on the contrary, have negative experience and are in no hurry to conclude contracts. According to car owners, the first results of the work will be judged three months later, when the first customers who fall under this law appear at the service station.

Insurers' opinion

According to the RSA press service, the cost of repairs under compulsory motor liability insurance with the introduction of priority for compensation in kind will cost 25% more than cash payments due to the fact that when calculating the amount of damage, wear and tear of the vehicle will not be taken into account.

Insurers note that the increase in costs will be associated, among other things, with the fact that the new document establishes a ban on the use of used or refurbished components (parts, assemblies, assemblies - TASS note).

According to RSA, one of the key problems is that the requirements established for service stations are too stringent. “For example, the distance to a service station, either from the scene of an accident, or from the place of residence of the car owner (optional - TASS note) should be no more than 50 km. In many regions, dealer stations that meet the requirements are located only in the administrative centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. This creates difficulties for consumers, since in this case only residents of the administrative centers of the regions and nearby cities will be able to benefit from in-kind compensation under OSAGO; for residents of remote cities and other settlements, the in-kind form will be available only with an additional agreement with the insurer,” they explained.

However, according to the head of the engineering department of AlfaStrakhovanie in Tatarstan, Dmitry Pavlov, the requirements for service stations are quite strict, but feasible. “Implementation will largely depend on specific regional specifics, including the complexity of implementation, but we are optimistic. Today we have worked out the processes for organizing repairs and we are ready to develop this area further,” he said.

Opinion of service station owners

The opinions of bus station owners are divided. Some talk about their reluctance to enter into agreements under the new law, while others are optimistic about the opportunities that open up.

Thus, the owners of service stations in the Stavropol Territory negatively evaluate the previous experience of cooperation with insurance companies in the in-kind form of compulsory motor liability insurance and are in no hurry to enter into new contracts. In particular, the Renostart company does not intend to work with insurers. “We have been cooperating with various companies since 2009. The experience is negative: the insurers transferred the money late, they calculated less than the actual costs, we even had to cover the costs at our own expense, we will not cooperate with auto insurers,” the company reported.

There are also those who, on the contrary, are opening new horizons thanks to the introduction of the law. As reported by the correspondent. TASS in Pyatigorsk TSS Kavkaz LLC, they had not previously worked with insurance companies on in-kind compulsory motor liability insurance. “But now, with the release of the law, we are going to conclude agreements with everyone who contacts us,” said the company’s senior credit specialist Pyotr Levushkin. The company is convinced that the law is sufficiently developed and will resolve all the “subtle points” that previously prevented cooperation with insurers.

The owner of one of the Novosibirsk service stations, Valery Panshchikov, believes that the practice of working with insurance companies will have a rather positive effect on car services. “Firstly, new clients are always good for any car service center. Novosibirsk is a fairly competitive city in this regard. Secondly, the level: in order to meet the requirements of insurers, they will strive to work not in sheds covered with siding, not with drunk mechanics, but with normal tools, normal specialists, this is generally to improve the quality of the service plus,” he told TASS.

Opinion of car owners

End users of this law still have many questions, including regarding quality and replacement of parts. Many social activists have repeatedly stated that scammers will begin to restore old cars at the expense of insurers.

According to Pavel Stabrov, a member of the coordination council of the Federation of Russian Car Owners in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, owners still have many questions, including regarding the repair of old cars. “Half, or even more, of our cars are “old” models that are no longer produced. It is not clear how to look for new spare parts for such cars, how long it will take, how long the car owner will remain without a car and where the car will be while waiting and searching for spare parts,” Stabrov said.

Car owners report that they will be able to experience the first results of the work in a few months, since all participants need to understand the operation of the new mechanism. In addition, they are concerned about the lack of service stations in small settlements where this standard will “sag”.

Thus, according to Olga Pisanova, Chairman of the Board of the Altai Regional Public Organization “Association for the Protection of Insured Rights,” during the transition period, changes in compulsory motor liability insurance threaten a lot of problems for car owners, since any new mechanism requires development.
The human rights activist noted that car owners will probably begin to have questions about the timing and quality of repairs. “I believe that there may be many problems with the timing of delivery of spare parts - now we have cases where new cars are damaged, since January 2017 they have been delivered to the service station and we are waiting for spare parts, and now it is already April,” she said. Colleagues from the Far East believe that the entry into force of the law could result in social tension. In particular, in the Amur region, this is unlikely to help deal with unscrupulous car lawyers who will switch from insurance companies to car repair shops. This opinion was expressed in an interview with TASS by Yuri Shatov, candidate of economic sciences, associate professor, head of the educational program “Finance and Credit” of the Far Eastern Federal University.

He cited the example of remote areas of Primorye, where there is no high-quality car service. According to him, developed car services operate in large cities, in Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Artyom, Spassk-Dalniy, Partizansk, and, for example, a resident of the village of Krasny Yar in the north of the region, in order to repair a car, will have to go to Luchegorsk 150-200 kilometers away. taiga road. In such areas, serious problems may arise with the implementation of new rules and, as a result, social tension. At the same time, he noted that in general the Primorsky Territory is ready for innovations, because the region is close to Japan, and the service system here is quite well developed.

Lawyers' opinion

According to Nikolai Khmelevsky, senior lawyer at the law firm “Puchkov and Partners” (Sverdlovsk region), the new amendments to the Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance, which are part of the cycle of changes, are aimed primarily at protecting the interests of insurance companies. In addition, the legislator expects a significant reduction in litigation regarding the collection of insurance payments, primarily due to a reduction in the activity of unscrupulous intermediaries and enterprising “auto lawyers.” “We should not expect disputes between insurers and victims to disappear from the courts. This is due to the fact that amendments to the law on compulsory motor liability insurance lead to a significant reduction in the scope of rights of victims by providing additional privileges to insurers. This situation could potentially cause a surge in appeals to the courts by citizens,” he said.

He also noted that many questions that arose among the legal community at the stage of consideration of the bill were not resolved in the text of the law. “The procedure for the entry into force of the law is unclear: whether the provisions of the law should be applied if the person who caused the harm concluded a compulsory insurance contract after the day the amendments entered into force, but the victims did not, and vice versa. Due to insufficient legal and technical elaboration of the law, difficulties can be predicted in the practical implementation of the rules on receiving insurance compensation in kind,” he explained.

At the end of March, Putin signed a law on payments in kind for compulsory motor liability insurance, according to which payments under compulsory motor liability insurance to individual car owners will by default be made in the form of car repairs. Money can be received only in exceptional cases, in particular, in the event of a complete loss of the car, the death of the victim, serious or moderate harm to health, or the cost of repairs exceeding the compensation limit under compulsory motor liability insurance (400 thousand rubles), unless the victim agrees to pay extra. Disabled people can apply for cash benefits. In addition, monetary payments are provided on the basis of an agreement between the victim and the insurer. Also, the victim will be able to demand money if the insurer does not offer him a repair station that meets the requirements of the law.

During the consideration of the law in the upper house of parliament, it was decided to monitor the implementation of the law. Speaker of the Chamber Valentina Matvienko proposed to give a protocol instruction to the Federation Council Committee on Budget and Financial Markets “to monitor the implementation of this law for the first six months in order to understand in practice what we have not taken into account.”

Insurer and service station: specifics of work

Author: Tatyana Akimova

The specificity of the insurance company’s work with independent stations is that, unlike the services of official dealers, universal service stations primarily engage only in repairs, and not all of them offer car sales services. “Independent” earn money on technical services and related services, and therefore those stations that partner with insurance companies depend on the volume of repair resources, the main “supplier” of which is the insurers.

If we are talking about a company of the level of Rosgosstrakh, then the closest attention is paid to the choice of stations that receive cars for repairs in insurance cases. In this case, several criteria are put at the forefront, which were described by Sergei Vasilyevich Dukhanin, director of the “Office for work with partners” of the loss settlement department of the Rosgosstrakh company.

– Sergey Vasilyevich, tell us what criteria a service station must meet in order to become your partner?

– Rosgosstrakh has developed a list of 23 criteria that are decisive both in the initial selection of new car service stations and in the process of supporting their work. These criteria include: the presence of first-class service equipment, a spacious and properly organized repair shop, a client area, high quality of repairs, compliance with deadlines for the implementation of work, and the absence of acts of disagreement in working with insurance companies.

I will also add that in the list of requirements, special emphasis is placed on ensuring that the car service has a full set of equipment and tools for carrying out metalwork and body work. There are no requirements for installing equipment from specific manufacturers. After all, it is not the brands that are more important, but the result of the work, quality and efficiency.

Requirements are also being put forward for the station's technical personnel. Of course, we cannot check the professional level of each service station employee, and we are not obliged to. We have one entry point: the management of the technical station. And it is from him that we ask the quality of work, which, in turn, directly depends on the professionalism of all service station employees, because, as we know, a low-qualified specialist will not be able to perform the work efficiently.

I note that there are requirements for software as well. To optimize our work, it is necessary that the station runs on official software. Rosgosstrakh uses all the programs that are common in the field of IT solutions for carrying out approvals for the repair of insured cars; there are also programs for carrying out inspections.

– What if the station at any stage of operation does not meet the requirements?

– At the initial stage of joint work, all stations meet our requirements. If any problems arise during the work, then this issue is resolved at the management level. Some time is given during which the car service can correct the shortcomings without stopping its work. If, after this period, shortcomings remain, we stop working with such a service station. However, during the entire very long period of my work at Rosgosstrakh, I can only remember a few such cases. At the regional level, the interests of Rosgosstrakh are represented by our branches, and we, the company’s central office, agree on repair prices, check station selection criteria, monitor work, and process information received in the form of feedback from our policyholders. If a large number of complaints about a particular service station accumulate, we look into the case and make a decision whether to continue working with it or not. In the latter case, the search for a new station is carried out by the regional branch.

I would like to note that every time we make a balanced and deliberate decision. Obviously, when starting to work with a new service station, both we and the station management need some time to establish relationships and, as they say, “get used to it.” There is also a nuance: within the scope of the insurance policy, the policyholder gets used to any station and, when the next insured event occurs, asks to be sent to the usual service station. This is also important to take into account when monitoring the operation of the station.

–How actively do stations respond to your demands?

“The independent stations that work with us are very receptive. After all, they largely depend on the insurer, which provides them with repair resources. Therefore, car service managers most often correct errors and inaccuracies that are revealed by an independent audit. They strive to avoid disagreements, and we, in turn, welcome those who have improved, because, as we know, “an old friend is better than two new ones.” From the outside it may look like blackmail, but it’s fair: if you are guilty, then correct yourself and continue working with us. In addition, it is difficult and pointless to suspect Rosgosstrakh of deliberate bias in working with independent service stations. Thanks to strict compliance with our requirements, a car service is able not only to provide itself with constant workload, but also to improve the quality of its work, which, you see, benefits any station. Let's remember the early 2000s, when the segment of independent technical services in Russia was represented mainly by makeshift stations and garages. With the arrival of insurance companies, this sector of the market began to grow qualitatively. And Rosgosstrakh, which began working with stations in 2005, took and is directly involved in the development of the market for independent service stations, in improving the quality of their work and raising the level of customer service.

– In addition to direct work on insurance claims, what other points of interaction does the company have with independent service stations?

– We offer car services to place an insurance policy sales point on their territory. We do not force anyone to such interaction. But it is obvious that for a bus station, this format of working with an insurer is also a contribution to its own development, an opportunity to increase its customer focus and offer clients the most complete offer of repair and insurance services.

– What is your understanding of the concept of high-quality “customer service”?

— Customer service in working with the station at Rosgosstrakh means high quality of service for policyholders, high-quality repairs completed on time, transparency of the station in relation to the client and a friendly attitude. As often happens: an insured event occurs, the motorist calls the insurer, who to some extent bears the responsibility for organizing the repairs. At a certain stage of the settlement, the client “forgets” about the insurance company and interacts only with the service station. And we intervene in these relationships only if a motorist, dissatisfied with the quality of repairs or the timing of repair work, turns to the insurance company again. This time with a complaint. Then we organize an on-site inspection, involve an independent expert in this work and, with his help, find the culprits. We strive to improve customer service. And that is why Rosgosstrakh does not provide insurance payments in cash to the client. Reimbursement is made through repair work. Thus, we eliminate the possibility of any fraud and guarantee that the policyholder will receive a repaired car.

– There is an opinion that insurance companies make life difficult for car services and at the same time they are less strict with official dealers? In your opinion, are these points of view fair?

– Problems that arise between the insurance company and the service station must be considered on a case-by-case basis. Often such problems are caused by the insurer itself. And here the level of the company’s work, its availability of financial resources to pay invoices and its internal regulations are of great importance, that is, the goals pursued by the insurer in working with car services. If the insurer, due to a shortage of funds, is faced with the task of withholding payments on work orders, then the service station may also delay repair work and delivery of the car to the client. But often such insurance companies choose stations of low quality, which simply have nowhere to go and, in pursuit of volumes, they agree to obviously unfavorable working conditions.

The format of interaction with dealer car services is different. A dealer never works with one insurance company; he has several. Insurance companies compete and are rarely able to agree among themselves to present a united front in dialogue with the dealer. Therefore, it is dealers who most often influence insurers individually and dictate their rules to them. However, this is true to a greater extent in relation to second-tier companies; this does not happen with status insurers. I would like to note that Rosgosstrakh, while competing with its colleagues from the auto insurance sector, is on good terms with them. We try to adhere to the established tariffs, enter into dialogue with dealers to agree on the scope of work for insured events, and, of course, we accommodate customers who want to have their car repaired at the car dealership where it was purchased.

Rosgosstrakh operates in Russia with 2,000 bus stations, in Moscow - about 50-60 independent service stations and over 200 car service centers of official dealers.

Rosgosstrakh is open to cooperation, but we must understand that we also have a limit: we cannot take a large number of service stations as partners. Precisely because we care about the result and provide the station with full support and put the establishment of partnerships with it at the forefront.

We have an institute of curators whose tasks are to support work with the village: maintaining a register of accounts, working with acts of disagreement, with complaints from policyholders. Feedback is provided through a supervisor in the region, and if an even more serious issue arises, it rises to the level of discussion with management.

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Is the car service insurer a friend?

Any body shop manager knows this situation: “Today it’s thick, tomorrow it’s empty.” During the months of peak load, the queue for body repairs stretches for several days, the craftsmen are forced to work ten hours a day, but the rush gives way to calm, and then the workers begin to grumble about the reduced wages.

How to deal with such differences? Marketers of the auto service market assure that cooperation with wholesale customers will help streamline the workload.

They may be insurance companies or dealerships that do not have a body shop in their structure that meets the automaker's standards.

Dmitry Kolesnikov , executive director of the Fifth Wheel service center (Novosibirsk)

Andrey Gulyaev, acceptance master at the Avtoban auto center (Novosibirsk)

Yesen Tyuleubekov , technical director of the Raivo auto center (Novosibirsk)

A marketer's advice is just a theory, which in practice may not be as profitable as you would like. The managers of many successful body centers in our region have doubts about the benefits of cooperation with insurance companies.

OPINION Dmitry Kolesnikov:
— Insurance companies came to us with offers of cooperation, bringing with them specific calculations for the cost of restoration repairs. We analyzed these proposals, made our own calculations and came to the conclusion that there is no point in this cooperation. The amounts that insurance companies are willing to pay are almost two times lower than our own prices for repairs. Therefore, we don’t see any point in filling up our repair area and working to zero. Many clients contact us after receiving compensation under compulsory motor liability insurance. In most cases, the amount received is not enough to carry out high-quality body repairs, since the prices are greatly reduced. Perhaps, for stations that work with cheap paints and materials, as well as for garage-type services, such amounts are acceptable, but we have enough of our own clientele.

OPINION Andrey Gulyaev:
— We try not to work with insurance companies. I won’t say that our prices for repairs are very high. They are of course higher than in “garages”, but much lower than at dealers. However, we rarely manage to negotiate a price with insurance companies. Another problem is the efficiency of mutual settlements. There were several attempts to cooperate with insurance companies, after which we had to extract money from them for several months. After this we decided to abandon this practice. Still, the best client is the end consumer, the motorist.

OPINION Yesen Tyuleubekov:
— Whether cooperation with an insurance company is beneficial or not is a controversial question. Much depends on which type of insurance you will use to restore the car. Understating the amount of insurance payments is typical only for compulsory motor liability insurance; as for this type of insurance such as CASCO, the funds allocated by the insurance company are usually enough to carry out high-quality repairs. Naturally, any insurance company is interested in ensuring that insurance premiums are as high as possible and insurance payments are as low as possible. The insurance business is built on this. Therefore, when contacting a body repair station directly, insurers sometimes set a cost per standard hour that can only be used to paint used domestic cars, but certainly not a new BMW or Toyota. So it all depends on how the negotiation process between the insurer and the body center goes. If the insurance company is ready to take into account the arguments of the body shop and offer an adequate cost per standard hour, then cooperation will be profitable.

The question arises: “Where do insurers get such low standard hour prices?” Everything is very simple. This data comes from the databases of appraisal companies. However, in different appraisal companies, the average cost of a standard hour for the same cars sometimes differs by one and a half times. This is because our country has not yet adopted a single regulation that should guide appraisal companies in their work. If such a regulation existed, then any appraiser would be forced to use it in his calculations, and a motorist contacting any appraisal company would receive almost identical figures. Today, everything is structured in such a way that the insurance and appraisal company has every opportunity to vary the amount of payments within a very wide range. Accordingly, many insurance companies take advantage of this opportunity to reduce payments as much as possible.

And yet, market participants do not deny that for beginning body service centers that have not yet developed their own clientele, an insurance company can become a profitable customer that will provide the station with work at any time of the year. At the same time, you need to be aware that you will be working with the insurance company at minimal profitability. If the station experiences downtime from time to time, then such cooperation will be useful. If you have enough of your own clientele, then it is better to work directly with the end consumer. You can always convince him that sometimes it is worth paying 1-2 thousand rubles more, but getting a higher quality of repair. At the same time, the insurance company today is one of the most unassuming customers. Insurance companies do not impose any special requirements on the equipment of the station and the quality of the materials used. Most often, the inspection is limited to only a cursory external inspection of the enterprise.

OPINION Yesen Tyuleubekov:
— Most often, insurance companies start a conversation with a question about price. If the station is satisfied with the proposed cost per standard hour, then the insurance company will be absolutely indifferent to what equipment and what materials this service works on.

OPINION Dmitry Kolesnikov:
— The main condition of insurance companies is a low price, and they are not interested in what spare parts will be used in repairs. For example, our station uses Du Pont materials for repairs. The amounts that insurers include in the cost of repair materials are not enough to repair the body using materials of this level, and we see no point in changing technology with such profitability as offered by the insurance company.

However, much depends on the structure of the fleet of insured cars in the portfolio of a particular company. If among the clients of an insurance company under compulsory motor liability insurance there is a high proportion of expensive, powerful and old cars, then there is a possibility that the costing and quality requirements for car service services will be higher. But, according to our interlocutors, there have been no such cases in their practice yet.

In any case, experts do not recommend concluding long-term contracts with an insurance company at the initial stage of cooperation. The fact is that when concluding a contract, the price of a standard hour, as a rule, depends on how many cars the insurance company undertakes to send to you for repairs. The greater the flow of clients, the lower the service level should be. At the same time, insurance companies often stipulate in the contract that the station must serve their clients out of turn. It turns out that if the station has a low throughput, then it may find itself in a very difficult situation when it will have to put in a queue a direct client who came with real money in order to fulfill his contractual obligations and repair the car of the insurance company, from which he will receive a much smaller profit . So it is better not to commit yourself to long-term obligations and carefully read all the clauses of the contract, since the insurance company has very good lawyers.

Concessions to the insurance company can only be made up to a certain limit. Do not forget that in any case the car will be accepted by its owner, and not by the insurance company. If after some time he discovers that the repair coating has sagged or peeled off, he will come with claims to the insurance company, and it will automatically forward these claims to the contractor. As a result, you may lose both a potential end client and a major customer represented by an insurance company. So when discussing prices with insurers, you need to consistently defend your position, explaining that below a certain price level it is no longer possible to work with the materials that you use in repairs.

By the way, most market participants note that it is much more profitable to have dealer service centers that do not have their own body shops as regular customers. A standard hour at dealer prices is very good. True, dealers’ requirements for the quality of services are very high. The station should provide almost factory-quality painting and ideal restoration of body geometry. It really takes a lot of effort to satisfy the dealers' requirements. But this is a topic for another conversation. And we promise to talk about this in our upcoming issues.