Sunday, 03 April 2016 10:41
New Era in Damage Repair: OSEM
According to current data, automobiles and vans under 5 years old make up 33% and 38% of the total vehicle population, respectively. Service usage percentage of vehicles under 5 years old currently stands at 80%, which dwindles even further in commercial vehicles. However, that ratio reaches higher levels in older vehicles, much to the advantage of private car services and repair shops.
One million and two hundred thousand accidents occur on our roads each year, in 54% of which are involved automobiles while vans get involved in 23% of road incidents. Vehicles damaged in road incidents are taken to either private and authorized services or repair shops.
There are 68.500 motor vehicle services in Turkey. Approximately 2.500 of them are authorized services while 4.300 of them are private services and the rest are repair shops.
The insurers' link with traffic accidents are either traffic insurances or car insurance policies. They work together with the vehicle service which has been chosen to do the repair work. Most insurance companies make contracts with vehicle services to offer customers better service, trying to manage the whole repair process without getting the customer involved. Despite all that, the recently announced Support Services Regulation imposes first degree liability on insurance companies for any faulty repairs that may occur at contracted vehicle services.
So, as things stand,what do insurers expect from motor vehicle services? As a matter of fact, they do not expect much apart from reliability and properly executed repairs,
1. easy monitoring of service performance,
2. strong brand image and
3. consistent processes.
4. They expect them to utilize
the newest repair technologies.
While authorized services fulfill much of that criteria, private services and repair shops seems to be lagging behind with their outdated equipment, obsolete repair techniques and low staff quality. This situation is more than adequately reflected in the ratio of private services and repair shops who own a TSE certificate (only 3% in the case of private services and one thousandth in repair shops). Authorized services enjoy one glaring superiority in that regard with 96% of them owning a TSE certificate.
And that is exactly the point where Auto Spare Parts and Service Certification Inc. (OSEM) entered our lives.
The OSEM company has been founded under the umbrella of Insurance Association of Turkey to regulate the management of damages covered by traffic and car insurance policies. OSEM shall both regulate car services doing repair and maintenance works and tackle the issue of “equivalent spare parts” which has been a thorn on the side of consumers for many years.
Furthermore, insurance companies will be able to establish a standard of technical adequacy in spare parts and service suppliers via OSEM
which will issue quality certificates to car repair services based on their level of competence and aptitude in maintenance and repair works, contributing in turn to increased traffic security and lower repair costs.
Auto spare parts and services certification has been being done by independent companies in countries such as USA, UK and Spain for a long time.
The equivalent of that mechanism shall be represented by OSEM in Turkey. It will try to address and resolve sectoral issues by keeping insurance companies in the loop with regards to its business practices and methods.
To that end, OSEM established a set of service criteria based on BSI 1025 quality standards.
It signed a deal with Turkish Lloyd to secure their cooperation in the certification of car maintenance /repair centers. The first two certificates were issued following the signing of the protocol.
In the mean time, it completed preliminary work with regards to the transfer of the task of inspection of contractual suppliers to OSEM as required by the Support Services directive.
OSEM also started working on ways to issue spare parts certificates to motor vehicle services as alternative to the exclusive TSE certificate granted as per the Public Mandate numbered 2015/2.
It also started the planning of exclusive training programs for OSEM on correct repair damage and cost management.
In short, OSEM has initiated a new era in damage repair.
Increasing standards in the sector will help ensure increased safety for vehicles and their drivers. Additionally, it will help bridge the service quality gap between authorized and private car services, reducing in return unfair competition. And yet, we will be seeing competition between spare-part oriented authorized services and labour oriented private services being inflamed further.
