Jason Cross, Client Relationship Director at SYNETIQ, responds to an article, originally published in ATF Professional, where Michael Monaghan provided his thoughts on why bodyshops may still be resistant to fully embracing green parts.
Jason has over 25 years’ experience in the vehicle recycling and green parts industry – having helped establish successful green parts supply to some of the UK’s largest fleets and, more recently, insurers.
I read Michael Monaghan’s piece with great interest. Our business is currently working with many insurers and fleet managers to drive the use of green parts, with a great deal of success. That said, I do think Michael has made many valid points.
We as an industry have a great deal to answer for in how we collectively approached the use of green parts in bodyshops for many years. We simply did not do our homework to understand the barriers we needed to break down; we tried to tackle these barriers in one go, rather than one at a time. I also agree with the variables that Michael highlighted as vital to the use of green parts: quality, delivery, consistency of supply and technical issues around fit and safety.
Only a few years ago, there were no independent quality standards within our sector. No single company had a large enough inventory to be consistent with range and supply, and we did not promote our parts as being OE with the correct fit – we simply described them as secondhand.
We didn’t make it crystal clear that safety items were expressly excluded, and there were no special platforms with monitored Service Level Agreements, providing a quick answer on availability in a tight time window. We couldn’t even decide as an industry what we would call our parts; Used, secondhand, green, reclaimed, recycled… In hindsight, it is hardly surprising that we didn’t get it right time and time again.
The industry has made significant progress in developing each of these areas to create a genuinely viable proposition. We’ve learned many lessons ourselves since mygreenfleet launched in 2010, becoming part of SYNETIQs client service offering last year.
We learned that couriers are not a reliable means of delivery for green parts, presenting issues with both delays and damage while in transit. This led us to establish our own delivery fleet, offering our clients a reliable, next day delivery they can trust. This allows us to keep our promises on both schedule and condition on arrival.
SYNETIQ’s mygreenfleet is also now effectively using RRP comparisons and a discount structure to price against comparable new OE parts. We use these MI data sets to illustrate how cost-effective green parts are for our clients and which clearly shows reductions in average repair costs. We’ve also proved the importance of clarity and honesty – we make sure we always do what we say we will. As a team, we have the confidence to say what can be done, are always realistic and always deliver what we promise.
Another key process SYNETIQ uses is a consistent grading system. This is another area which our industry hasn’t delivered on previously, with too many variables leading to issues covered in Michael Monaghan’s article. We always grade panels honestly and consistently, and our comprehensive imaging process ensures we deliver what clients are expecting.
Limiting the range of parts we offer has also had a hugely positive effect on marketing and managing the supply and benefits of using those parts. Doors, for example, are OE only, have large RRP’s, are available in huge volumes within recyclers’ inventory and can easily be graded and described.
Bodyshops supply: Avoiding delays and disruption
In my view, we had to see bodyshops and their supply chains as fast-flowing rivers, that if interrupted in any way would cause more cost and hassle than the actual benefit you were trying to introduce.
Previously, bodyshops were only able to use us if instructed to do so by their insurer work provider and the clock had stopped ticking. This may be a ‘parts on backorder’ situation, which would create more time to find a matching part and much more time for it to be delivered. In this scenario, the part may not be perfect but would be perfectly suitable for fitting.
Now we’ve learned how to interact with bodyshops without disrupting that flow, and we’ve found the floodgates have now opened for the use of green parts in bodyshops. Their use has been promoted and embraced by their insurer work providers. Policyholders are increasingly receptive to the use of green parts, given the spotlight on cost reductions in potentially reduced premiums, lower excesses and not least the environmental benefits. Using a green part saves HUGE amounts of CO2 in both manufacturer and transportation – these parts are already manufactured, graded and on hand. Insurers themselves are also under ever-increasing pressure to demonstrate their CSR credentials and green parts have a huge role to play in this.
SYNETIQ’s systems and processes are now tried and tested, and we’re delivering high volumes of collision parts safely and effectively into bodyshops on a weekly basis. Brexit was a turning point and put many vehicles in the stop clock position, and the recent COVID-19 situation has further highlighted the benefits of high quality, UK-based, warrantied green parts for insurers and their supply chain partners.
The features of SYNETIQ’s green parts offering listed below are delivering significant CSR and financial benefits to bodyshops and insurers, driving significant growth in demand:
- OE green parts with discounts of up to 85% off RRP
- Efficient online portals for parts procurement with 1 hour reply times
- Availability conversions of more than 50%
- Dedicated van delivery networks with next day delivery the norm
- Certificates of Conformity for each part for BS10125 compliance
- Simple parts grading formulas which are easy to understand
- Smaller non-safety-related range clearly identified and promoted
- Matrix style discount strategies based on RRP for ease of comparison
- Account facilities inline with main dealer offer at the least, often better
- Focus on inventory management and VIN to VIN parts number matches
- Life in ownership warranties with a NO QUIBBLE policy.
- MI to demonstrate the details of conversions, sales and savings and more
- API automated options for volume users
- QC processes at every stage of the parts movement through the supply process -removal, stores, van, customer
If you are interested in learning more about using green parts, SYNETIQ would love to hear from you.
Please call Jason Cross on 07778 598323 or email jason.cross@synetiq.co.uk
