The news has been full of reports of shortages ranging from fuel to flour. This dilemma is not confined to the supermarket shelves as Cornerstone has first hand experience of parts shortages  manifesting into fleet repair problems for our clients.

The events of the COVID pandemic caused vehicle manufacturers to close their plants or cut back on production. The knock on effect saw further reductions in parts manufacture output resulting in a global shortage of vehicle parts.

One of our clients vehicles was taken into the authorised repairers on 3rd March 2022 with the parts dept confirming the components won’t be in the country until 24th April 2022!

Why are vehicle repairs taking so long?

There are several reasons to explain the repair delays you are experiencing. Lets take a look at the main causes.

Microchip Shortage

Our modern cars are packed full of microchips running everything from the engine management systems to cameras, parking sensors and other driver aids. There is now a global shortage of microchips caused by the Corona Virus shutdowns resulting in the worldwide output of new vehicles being at an all-time low.

Plastics:

Fleet repair problems caused by the reliance on plastic. Not just the interior but importantly tailgates, bumpers and body panels that are vulnerable to collision damage and represent a large proportion of the accident workshop parts requirements. The worldwide shortage of plastics and the movement of goods has lead to the lack of availability of these parts in the UK. Coupled with a breakdown in our once efficient flow of components from abroad the UK has exhausted our stocks.

Repairers:

Social distancing measures and a need to provide a COVID safe environment for employees is arguably here to stay for the foreseeable future. Staffing levels including specialist resources have been impacted by above average absence, due to illness and self-isolation requirements. This results in a reduced repair capacity and increased the time taken to get vehicles out of the workshop and back on the road.

Courtesy vehicles:

With the reduced car output we have seen an incredible rise in the cost of new cars as demand exceeds supply. The knock on effect for repairers is the lack of courtesy vehicles available to replace yours when it is being fixed. Because repairs are taking longer than usual there are more requests for courtesy vehicles and this drives a shortage because more of them are in use, causing a real headache for repairers. This is affecting all insurers and repairers.

So if you’re encountering fleet repair problems Cornerstone have a auto replacement hire policy that is tailor made for fleet operators. Give us a call in respect of any fleet insurance matters – we’re here to help.