With today’s vehicles evolving rapidly in design and complexity, the motor insurance and repair industries face new challenges in categorising and processing salvage. From bonded aluminium to mega castings and advanced electronics, repairing modern vehicles is often far from straightforward, and in some cases, simply not viable.
To reflect this technical evolution, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has recently updated its Salvage Code of Practice. ATF Professional spoke to Adam Murray, Head of Policy Standards and Accreditation at Solus, for his expertise on what prompted these updates, how the industry shaped the final version, and what the changes mean for vehicle recyclers, insurers, and consumers alike.
ATF: What prompted the ABI to update the Salvage Code of Practice at this time?
AM: The reasoning behind the changes is based on the technical advancement of motor vehicles, particularly body construction, bonding and riveting and dissimilar materials and mega casting, making repair complexity more technical and, in some instances, impractical to repair the vehicle body.
ATF: What were the most pressing concerns raised by stakeholders that highlighted the gap between vehicle damage assessment and the actual feasibility of repair?
AM: The key issues stem from feedback from stakeholders across all divisions of the sector, which included and were not limited to salvage vehicles returning to road use where the vehicle damage, when investigated, was not repairable, coupled to advancements in vehicle design and construction making repairability less likely due to the complexity of design.
ATF: Can you explain the role and importance of cross-sector stakeholder engagement in shaping the updated Salvage Code, and how this input was incorporated into the final version?
AM: In line with any review stakeholder engagement was key to the end product, all sector of stakeholders who were previously consulted regarding the revisions were engaged, the final document was reviewed by ABI legal Team and Motor Committee also, DVLA, MIB and the team that worked through the update included members of the Thatcham Research team to take account of the technical development of vehicles.
ATF: How does the revised code strike a balance between categorising vehicles for safe disposal and supporting the circular economy through the reuse of reclaimed components?
AM: The purpose of the code is not necessarily designed to go to the reaches outlined within your question, the code is merely designed to categorise motor vehicle salvage for safe disposal, the code does however reference reuse of suitable components, also to identify vehicle which are suitable to be repaired and vehicles that should not be returned to road use, these vehicles as they do today are a source for reclaimed components creating a circular economy.
ATF: Why do you think attempts to formalise regulation in this area have not progressed, and how effectively does the current Code of Practice meet the expectations of self-regulation?
AM: The ABI and stakeholders have tried several times to make progress towards regulation; it appears government officials want self-regulation, which the Code of Practice provides.
