Driving
with care
AfMA looks at the hidden costs of accident repairs
with DriverCare’s National Relationship & Business
Development Manager Dean Malakiy.
WORDS BY DANIEL BRAID
How has DriverCare been affected by
COVID-19? Have things slowed down or has
workload increased?
As all businesses have, DriverCare has faced
the many challenges of COVID-19 and whilst
we have seen our workload decreased in recent
times due to fewer vehicles being on the road,
we have adapted quickly and efficiently to remote
working environments allowing us to continue to
provide our clients with the 24/7 accident and
claims management service rely on. Whilst the
number of fleets have been reduced to working
from home due to COVID-19 restrictions, many
of our key clients across the medical, family,
children and disability sectors have seen an
increase in the need for their services during
these times, in turn, the vital services DriverCare
provides their fleets.
What are some of the hidden costs that
come about from an accident?
Typically, when organisations calculate their
cost to a business, motor vehicle repairs & their
insurance excess are the only variables they will
consider however, these costs are only the tip
of the iceberg. The true costs of an accident
can impact all departments both directly and
indirectly. For example, financial & accounts, HR
& legal, decreases in employee productivity, loss
of sales, replacement vehicle costs, third party
dispute resolutions and the list goes on – This
has been estimated to be between 4 to 20 times
greater than the repair costs themselves. By
utilising DriverCare’s unique interactive software
and mobile app, DriverCare will minimise our
client’s costs and maximise their returns by
providing a true end to end accident & claims
management service.
How complicated is organising accident
repairs for businesses that choose to do
it alone?
From our 26 years’ experience in the accident
& claims management sector, we know that
managing the process in-house not only has
huge hidden costs as just mentioned, but it also
takes between 1 to 4 working days to manage
22 ISSUE 23 2020 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU