AssessorsJournalMagSpring2024 web - Flipbook - Page 31
their respective institutes required a
degree to qualify as a member and if
their countries’ universities ran degree
courses for automotive experts? None
of those institutes present required
a degree and none of their countries
ran degree courses in the profession.
Greece’s PEP institute however, who
have not attended meetings for
many years, advised that they require
their members to have a degree
quali昀椀cation.
amongst 昀椀eld experts/engineers,
particularly the independents, that a
signi昀椀cant number of vehicles were
being treated as total losses when they
would have been more economical
to repair. There was also concern that
although desktop engineers do their
best, images and other data do not
always give perfect conditions to assess
damage objectively, which may also be
impacting on the increased premiums.
Bartek Dudziak, delegate for SRTSiRT
of Poland, spoke of a questionnaire
he had sent to delegates and that he
had had little response. After some
confusion, it was established that two
questionnaires had been sent, one
some several weeks ago and one
just recently. Unfortunately, although
several delegates responded to the
昀椀rst, including myself, few had received
the second. Therefore, most delegates
could not respond to the second,
including myself. There was some
confusion over the interpretation of
the 昀椀rst questionnaire and in view of
this, I volunteered to proofread any
subsequent questionnaires before
being circulated.
Poland
Jacques then invited delegates to
a round table discussion relating to
current events effecting our profession
in each country, starting with me.
UK
I advised that the IAEA were currently
in transition, as it had appointed a new
management company to administer
its affairs. Arti昀椀cial Intelligence was
a regular subject of discussion, and
that I considered it was too early to
determine the effect it could have on
the experts’ profession. I explained
that there was signi昀椀cant concern
relating to considerable increases in
motor insurance premiums in recent
months and that the insurance industry
considered it to be partly attributed
to by increasing repair costs. I also
explained that there was some disquiet
Bartek of SRTSiRT advised that
repairers are looking for a 100%
increase in labour charge-out rates
to approximately €70/hr, and there
are court cases pending relating to
perceived low labour rates. Irrespective
of this, a signi昀椀cant number of repairers
have decided to quit the trade. He
also explained that speeding 昀椀nes had
increased substantially recently.
Cyprus
George Hilarion of CAAEA (who trained
and worked in the UK) advised that the
advent of hybrids and EVs was having a
signi昀椀cant effect on repair costs in the
country, and that the total loss rate was
running at approximately 20%.
Spain
David De Diago of APCAS advised that
moves were afoot to form a recognised
national register of automotive experts,
but there are concerns that there
are likely to be political hurdles to
overcome. Repair costs have increased
by approximately 30% in the country,
and he anticipated major changes to
the profession in 2024.
Germany
Natalja Shramm of DEKRA explained
that there had been a very large
number of hailstone claims recently,
and that this has caused long repair
lead times due to industry capacity
limitations.
Ivory Coast
Souleymane Coulibali of CIEAMI
advised that the country had 6
practices in the country employing
approximately 35 – 40 experts.
Leaders of these practices either have
a degree or recognised (unspeci昀椀ed)
quali昀椀cations. Many insurers are
now using their own Staff Engineers
rather than Independents. He asked
if the FIEA could act as an adviser
for the insurance industry and Ivory
Coast government on a criterion for
automotive experts, because currently,
the quali昀椀cation requirements are
purely arbitrary. A few years ago, the
average age of the national car 昀氀eet
was 25 years. After the introduction
of new legislation which restricted the
maximum age of imported cars to 昀椀ve
years, the average age has reduced to
12 years.
Burkina Faso
Thèodor Boyarm of BAIAFE
(Association burkinabé des experts
automobiles industriels et incendie
or Burkinabe Association of Industrial
Automobile and Fire Experts, founded
in 2008) was not a delegate but a
guest, and was welcomed to the
meeting. He explained that in his
country, there was no quali昀椀cation
criteria for automotive experts, and
individuals were appointed solely by
insurers. He asked if the FIEA could
offer some advice on quali昀椀cation
requirements for their members. It is
my intention to provide him with details
of the IAEA’s membership training and
quali昀椀cation requirements.
France
Fançois Mondello advised that there
are dif昀椀culties recruiting suitably
quali昀椀ed experts in the country.
However, insurers are now carrying out
about 30% of inspections remotely
using increasing numbers of Staff
Engineers, and 75% of insurers are
utilising (unspeci昀椀ed) AI, which is said
The Gare de Mons is a contemporary multi-modal station.
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