ABP Club has released their 2020 report on the state of the UK body repair industry, supported by Mirka UK, which including information about green parts.
It is the 10th year the ABP club has conducted an online survey of the UK bodyshop industry and this year they have received the highest level of response ever with over 300 repair businesses taking part – including nearly two-thirds representing the top 50 bodyshop groups.
In this year’s report, all aspects of the body shop industry are covered including information about green parts. In particular, it shows that the percentage of bodyshops using green parts has increased considerably from 57% last year to 74% this year and the percentage of those not using them lowering from 43% to 26%. An indicator that the hard work in installing best practise and the promotion of the advantages of using green parts is beginning to see some reward.
When asked the reason for fitting reused parts, the main reply was at the request of policyholders to avoid total loss, which mirrored last year’s survey. However, there has been a decrease in request from policyholders when the risk of total loss was not a concern. In 2019, that figure was at 68% whereas this year it only commanded 57% as the reason for using green parts.
For repair businesses that answered YES to fitting green parts in the last year, they were asked in what situation they fitted them (see the chart below):
(Shown is % of those who said they DO fit recycled parts; adds up to over 100% as multiple answers permitted.)
When asking the reasons why bodyshops don’t use green parts, it appears that the biggest factor was due to ‘poor quality’. This year 64% of those bodyshops chose this factor, an increase of 41% compared to last year. Although allowing for multiple answers, there has been a percentage increase in all reasons that some bodyshops were reluctant to use green parts.
For repair businesses that answered NO to fitting green parts in the last year, they were asked ‘why don’t you fit recycled parts?’ (See the chart below):
(Shown is % of those who said they do NOT fit recycled parts; adds up to over 100% as multiple answers permitted.)
The uptake to use green parts in the bodyshop community is encouraging and must be interpreted as good news for those committed to increasing their use. However, work is still to be done to overcome the attitudes from some responses to the questionnaire be it because they have had first-hand negative experiences or they are yet to be introduced to how in 2020 vehicle recyclers are overcoming problems that have existed in the past.
The full report is available FREE online for anyone to view/download here, alternatively go to www.abpclub.com
