Courtesy car usage could soar in future

A new industry report has indicated that a shortfall in accident repair capacity in the next two years could lead to surge in courtesy car usage.

Cost pressures, write-offs, congestion and safer car are driving hard-pressed bodyshops out of business, Trend Tracker's biennial research reveals.

Although the car population in the UK has increased by 18 per cent over the last ten years, the number of collision repairs to cars rose by only one per cent over the same period.

This, says Trend Tracker analyst Robert Macnab, could mean more drivers spending time in courtesy cars waiting for repairs in the winter months, from 2010 onwards.

"The cost," says Macnab, "will be partly carried by bodyshops themselves, whose insurance company customers insist on them providing courtesy cars, and partly by the at-fault drivers whose insurers face courtesy car bills from credit hire firms - in the form of increased premiums."

The reason the number of repairs has fallen away in relation to the car population is partly due to a rise in insurance write-offs.

Total losses declared by insurance companies each year have increased by 86 per cent since 1998, to a total of to 0.79 million cars, representing 17 per cent of all motor insurance accident damage claims.

If claims for theft, glass and personal injury are deducted, write-offs account for virtually a quarter (24 per cent) of claims. Insurance write-offs are caused when the cost of fixing expensive items, such as airbags, exceeds the value of cars hit by rising rates of depreciation.