ASSESSOR SUMMER 2025 FULL MAGAZINE - Flipbook - Page 29
Golding, Motor Network Manager.
Michael has helped establish new
ESG (Environmental, Social and
Governance) standards governing
environmental repair of electric
vehicles and staff wellbeing that 50%
of the approved repair network have so
far achieved.
The PAS 2060 element of the
standards will be replaced with
the new environmental standard
ARIES (Accident Repair Industry
Environmental Standard). Allianz has
been part of the steering group that
has created the improved standard
that is more relevant to the body repair
industry (see our article on page 19).
The insurer is doing a lot of work with
its network on electric vehicle repair
too.
“Although our EV exposure is still
small, it is growing and what we want
is to be able to repair electric vehicles
in our network,” said Michael. “It is
important to understand where the EV
claims are and making sure that we
have a standard, so when we are asked
to repair an EV, we can with con昀椀dence
say that we can. It is vital that
technicians are getting the training, the
tooling and are quali昀椀ed to complete
those repairs.
“We have also been working with
Thatcham Research on battery repairs
and our salvage agent SYNETIQ on
what they are doing with batteries
in the result of a total loss,” added
Michael. “It is that whole circular
economy of sustainability that we want
to be able to achieve and be at the
forefront.”
Michael is a trustee of AutoRaise
and apprenticeships continue to be
important. Allianz UK is funding 25
apprentices, four of whom have passed
their End Point Assessment (EPA). “I
have tracked every one of them from
the date they enrolled, which college
they went to etc, and out of the
25 apprentices who started
two-and-a-half years ago, we have only
lost six,” said Michael. “I am proud of
that 昀椀gure because a lot of apprentices
drop out half-way, but most of ours
have continued. Even if you employed
25 people, after two years you would
probably lose more than six.”
The performance of the repair network
is closely monitored and graded
into ‘performing’, ‘outperforming’
or ‘underperforming’. “Sixty-seven
percent of the network are in our
outperforming categories,” said
Michael.
“We operate a labour rate matrix
to reward performance, which was
increased in March this year, and we
put a lot of effort into the ones who are
in the performing or underperforming
categories to help them improve
and become more pro昀椀table,” he
explained. “We support repairers with
monthly statistics and discuss with
them any missed pro昀椀t opportunities.
We also offer training in repair over
replace through a couple of companies
we utilise.”
The latest 昀椀gures from last winter to
the current time show that Allianz
has been able to maintain a strong
performance in its network. “Our
customer service level has gone well,”
continued Michael. “We are now
at 93% for CSI, which is incredibly
pleasing. Our network conversion rate
also remains as strong as ever which
shows we have good control of the
repairs within the network.”
Jessica Archbold, Allianz Network
Delivery Manager, added: “As a
result of the amazing work that
Michael and his team have been
doing on sustainability, and because
Allianz is a global company, other
countries within the Allianz group
are coming to Michael to 昀椀nd out
www.iaea-online.org/news/the-assessor | SUMMER 2025 | THE ASSESSORS JOURNAL
how he has developed the standards
and are interested to know how we
operate with the repair network as a
partnership.”
Work volumes are often cited as having
declined 20% in the last two years but
Michael thinks that the comparison
to volumes in 2022/23 is not a true
measurement. “When we were coming
out of the Covid lockdowns, the world
went a little bit mad and there was
around 10-15% overcapacity,” he said.
“A more accurate way to benchmark
volumes is comparing current with
2019/20 昀椀gures, which would show
volumes are around 10% down.”
Allianz is doing a lot of analysis
looking at customer trends. “We are
working with our network, especially
around consumer duty awareness,
communication and updating
customers,” said Michael. “I have to
say that has really improved, helped by
some of the data driven systems that
they are all beginning to adopt. What
we are trying to do with our network
is to run the very best, and we are
achieving that.”
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