The Thatcham Model - Collision Repair Magazine

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Volume 6

Issue 1

The Thatcham Model

Written by Lesley Upham

Thursday, 11 October 2007

What happens when insurers drive training? Find out in this exclusive article by Lesley Upham, Director of Communications for the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre, better known as Thatcham.

The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre, or Thatcham as we are generally known, (after the town in Berkshire where we are based), is an insurer funded research centre.

It was established in 1969 to contain the cost and ensure the safety and quality of crash repairs for the benefit of the motoring public. Since that time our research scope has grown and now Thatcham also works closely with vehicle manufacturers to influence the design of new vehicles to improve safety and security.

Thatcham is owned jointly by all the members of the Association of British Insurers and Lloyd’s Market Association and is primarily funded by a levy on these member insurance companies, as well as generating our own income through selling research, data and training.

The Goal
Our mission is to set the standard and raise the skills across a wide range of automotive activities including the rating of vehicles for theft of and theft from, the effectiveness of seat design for the prevention of whiplash injuries, the availability of accident prevention technology such as Electronic Stability Control and crucially, the standards to which accident damaged cars are repaired. The centre is also heavily involved in improving the skills base of our repair technicians and engineers.

However, recently the main thrust of Thatcham’s output has been the establishment of a recognised industry standard for crash repair. Why is this necessary?

Five years ago vehicle manufacturers gave their response to the twin pressures of improving vehicle safety as driven by the new car assessment programmes which demanded higher vehicle strength, whilst reducing vehicle weight to meet evermore strict targets.

Real Challenges
How did they do this? By the introduction of new “exotic” materials and at this point generic, one size fits all repairs, became obsolete. Every new vehicle became demanding and different, posing real challenges for repairers.

Mild steel content of vehicles fell from 90 per cent to 30 per cent and today in some cases to just 10 per cent, to be replaced primarily by high and ultra high strength steels.

This complexity of HSS and aluminium drove new joining techniques, such as laser stitch welding and smart production processes which are impossible to replicate in the collision repair workshop

The same grade of HSS and the same type of production joining processes now require a vehicle specific repair solution to maintain the vehicles structural integrity.

The repair of a B Post in the same materials, by two different manufacturers must now be approached differently and model/manufacturer specifically.

Proactive
Challenging times for the independent repairer - so how is Thatcham helping the UK market, repairers and insurers, to proactively embrace strategies to ensure safe quality crash repairs?

The key solution to this is the Thatcham/British Standards Institution (BSI) Kitemark for Vehicle Body Repair, which was launched in February of this year after a year long consultation with all involved in repairs. For more on this, please see the sidebar on the next page.

Since the scheme was launched in February, 500 enquiries regarding Kitemark have been received, with over 100 applications and 50 audits taking place. The first eight collision repair facilities have just received their accreditation and Thatcham expects this number to grow over the next few months.

Benefits of Discipline
All the shops accredited will agree the audit was very rigorous and challenging, however they also feel their business has benefited overall from the discipline which comes with demonstrating their commitment to safety and quality repairs.

The UK collision repair market is very serious about safety and looks to Thatcham to provide the detailed knowledge and practical skills to enable them to achieve the high goals they have set themselves.

We in turn recognise and welcome the trust and expectation our industry has put on us - we are all serious about safety.

For more information on Thatcham and its activities see our web site at thatcham.org. If you are in the UK please do visit us. We welcome over 4000 visitors a year and you could be one of them!

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