The car industry is facing huge delays across the world
If you had an accident in the last year or so, you might have noticed that sorting your claim, getting your car body repaired and getting a courtesy car took much longer than expected. The car industry is facing big delays, affecting everything from the car manufacturing process to the car insurance claims process.
You’ve probably got a lot of questions about what’s going on. This blog is here to give you answers.
Why can’t the garage fix my car faster?
⚙️ It’s hard to get parts
It’s proving difficult for garages to get the parts they need. New rules following Brexit mean that shipping goods into the UK has become much more complicated. This has caused delays for lots of businesses that rely on goods from overseas, like garages.
A shortage of lorry drivers has also meant it’s taking much longer for parts to be moved around the country.
Added to all that, covid-19 is still affecting the supply chain of car parts, especially when China goes into lockdown. Their latest lockdowns in China were only lifted in December 2022.
There’s also an issue with steel. Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest steel producers, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made producing and exporting it much more difficult.
🔧 There aren’t as many skilled workers
Brexit has made it tricky for garages to fill their workforce as people can no longer move freely from the EU to the UK for work. And it’s not just Brexit causing labour problems. During the pandemic, lots of skilled workers looked for jobs elsewhere and found better-paid work meaning they didn’t return to the car industry. This has shrunken the workforce and, with less staff in garages, there are slower turnaround times.
Garages are also struggling to find enough workers with the skills needed to repair new hybrid or electric cars with advanced technology.
📈 Garage costs keep rising
Like all of us, garages are struggling with the rise in inflation. With energy bills, labour and car parts getting more expensive, many independent garages can’t afford to keep their doors open. That means there are fewer garages that can carry out repairs during the claims process.
Why is it taking so long to get a courtesy car?
🍟 There aren’t enough chips
No, we don’t mean a shortage of french fries (phew) We’re talking about the global shortage of semiconductor chips used to make new cars, as well as other types of tech.
The shortage of these chips has been caused by the ongoing effects of covid-19 and by the demand for semiconductors to make things like laptops. Fewer semiconductors available means fewer cars being made.
💰 Courtesy cars are expensive
The ongoing effects of covid-19, rising inflation costs and the general shortage of new cars mean that cars are costing more than they did before the pandemic. As a result, garages are struggling to afford cars to use as courtesy cars.
Unfortunately, garages can’t rely on buying second hand cars either. There’s a shortage of secondhand cars on the market and the ones available are also becoming more and more expensive.
What’s Marshmallow doing to help?
While we can’t control the big global events at play (we really wish we could), we’re doing all we can to help speed up the car insurance claims process.
Here’s what we’re doing to help customers right now:
👐 We’re widening our repair network
We used to work with one partner to sort repairs. We now work with more partners so that we’ve got more support to get our customers’ cars fixed.
💸 We’re investing in garages
Insurers often use the same repairers and garages as each other - there aren’t enough for us each to have our own! The more you invest in those repairers, the more you get from your partnership. So we’re paying more to our repair partners to make sure our customers become a higher priority.
👀 We’re looking elsewhere for courtesy cars
Rather than just relying on the courtesy cars they own or lease, we’re asking garages to hire cars from other suppliers to use as a courtesy car where possible.
🙋 We’re treating each case individually
We have a dedicated process with our partners which means customers who are being affected by delays are put on priority lists. We then discuss these cases with our repair partners to find a solution as quickly as possible.
⏰ We’re offering round-the-clock support
Our 24/7 support line for new claims means that we’re here to answer any questions and offer support to those customers around the clock.
Here at Marshmallow, we’re doing all we can to make car insurance easier and better. Not a customer yet? Get a quote today.
