The second session of ARC360’s week-long digital event, The Future in Focus, turned the spotlight on technology and training.
Held in association with I Love Claims, ARC360’s The Future in Focus comprises six online sessions looking at the most pressing topics impacting the incident repair sector today.
Talking Tech brought together panellists, Dean Lander, head of repair sector services, Thatcham Research; Gill Gage, director, Parkway Prestige (ARC); and Martin Burbidge, body and paint programme manager, JLR, to provide different perspectives of the technical trends within the sector today.
Technology
The immediate focus is ADAS and the 31 March deadline for all repairers to meet the Insurance Industry Requirements (IRR), which have been introduced to provide clarity around ADAS repairs and ensure all ADAS-enabled vehicles are diagnosed, repaired and recalibrated according to manufacturer specifications.
Dean said, ‘IRR was introduced to create clarity about when and how to repair ADAS. It was first introduced in July 2020 and some bodyshops could meet it immediately, but it was right to introduce a nine-month implementation period. However, I don’t expect to see dramatic change on 1 April; many bodyshops and insurers have been working together to prepare for it.’
The necessity for IIR is obvious, with six million ADAS vehicles on the road already and every new car having some form of ADAS from 2022.
‘It’s no longer niche,’ Dean said, ‘and training and investment in ADAS is fast becoming an essential cost of doing business rather than a chosen cost.’
But ADAS is just one of a wave of new technologies flooding the industry.
Dean continued, ‘Alongside ADAS we’re talking about EVs, autonomous vehicles, and connected cars. I think connected vehicles is the thing we’ve all got our heads in sand about still. It’s going to be a real game-changer.’
Electric vehicles
But it is EVs that are approach faster. The 2030 ban of new petrol and diesel cars has seen an interest in EVs surge, and plug-in models are now regularly outselling combustion engine models.
The speed of uptake will only intensify over the coming years though, as manufacturers rush en masse towards electrification.
Jaguar Land Rover is investing £1bn to develop three new EV models in the UK, and says all its models will be available as fully-electric options by 2030.
Ready to repair
Martin said, ‘When you’re running an approved network, you need to make sure it is ready to repair the sheer volume of EVs it will be faced with. That means training, methods and equipment.’
He pointed out that it could take up to 21 days for a qualified Level 2 MET technician to become EV-compliant, but insisted there was little choice.
He said, ‘Vehicle technology has developed more in last 10 years than in the previous 50, and it’s picking up pace year on year. You need to be up to date with training because gone are the days of just printing things out and following methods. It’s evolving too quickly for that – repairs vary from model to model and even from age of model.’
One alternative to retraining your workforce is EV apprenticeships. Martin believes that is the most logical and cost-effective way to ensure the necessary skills are in the business.
He said, ‘It’s about growing your own. If you think about the amount of EVs we have, the amount of EV technicians we’ll need is going to be substantial. Maybe we will end up with roaming roles for EV technicians that have the skills.’
Training
The question is who will repair all these vehicles in the future? Gill identified a generational gap in the technicians at Parkway Prestige, with most either just starting their careers or nearing the end of it. She fears that this 30-year gap in the workforce could be mirrored across much of the sector.
One of the problems, she says, is that the training available is either at an introductory level directed at those at the very beginning of their careers, or much more advanced and therefore generally reserved for specialists.
Vehicle manufacturer apprenticeships could fill the void but there are far too few of them around and, on top of all that, the repair sector can’t afford for the amount of training required anyway.
Gill said, ‘What we pay technicians is governed by what insurers pay us. What they pay us doesn’t support the level of training required. There is an imbalance.’
Dean agreed, pointing out that many bodyshop have to decide between reaccreditation of existing skills or attaining new ones. He said it was important to the future of the industry to create new development programmes that can replace this ‘recycling of competences.’
He said, ‘It’s absolutely essential to safeguard the future of the sector and that means training, training, training.’
Segmentation
For repairers today, especially single-site bodyshops, the list of challenges and demands on their limited resources can appear overwhelming.
The industry is in a constant state of flux though and while Covid-19 has been hugely damaging to volumes, it has presented opportunities for forward-thinking shops to reassess their business models and emerge as something stronger.
Market segmentation has accelerated in recent years and, according to Dean, needs to keep doing so as owners hone-in on the area they want to specialise in.
He said, ‘The investment requirements for one business to invest across the board is just too great. A small-sized business trying to repair all makes and models today is on a hiding to nothing. It can’t be done. If I were a bodyshop now I would find a segment in the market and focus on that entirely. You have to define what you’re going to be and either go down a technology or a brand approval route.’
