Toronto, Ontario — Enterprise published its length of rental report for Q4 2022 on Tuesday, with results that, in one respect point to pre-pandemic levels of stability, but otherwise bear much of the same disheartening news as LOR reports of the recent past.
Enterprise says that despite an average length of rental (LOR) increase of 4.3 days year-over-year, resulting in a new national average of 17.1 days, the quarter-over-quarter findings of this report are in line with historical LOR trends of Q3 and Q4 pre-pandemic.
The rental car company points to the U.S.’s year-over-year increase of only 1.7 days from Q4 2021 as a marker of some return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
On a provincial level, Ontario yet again posted the highest LOR nationally, with the province experiencing a 5.3 day year-over-year increase, thus bringing its average Q4 2022 LOR to 19.6 days.
Nova Scotia tailed Ontario just slightly, recording an average LOR of 18 days, up 4.6 days from this time last year. Quebec saw the most significant change in LOR over the past year, with the province’s average jumping 5.8 days from 11.9 to 17.7.
On the other end of the spectrum, Newfoundland and Labrador posted the lowest LOR across the board at 14.3 days, followed by Alberta and Prince Edward Island, coming in at 15.7 and 15.3 days respectively.
Ryan Mandell, director of claims performance at Mitchell International, was asked to provide insight on the findings of this latest LOR report.
“Average total labour hours increased to 21.78 hours, an increase of 0.61 labour hours from Q4 2021. This is significant as we expect there to continue to be significant development of this number as only about 60 percent of supplements expected have been accounted for thus far,” said Mandell.
“Luxury vehicles continue to increase as a percentage of the repairable car parc, accounting for 17.91 percent in Q4 2022 compared to 17.77 percent in Q4 2021. Tesla repairable market share increased from 1.04 percent in Q4 2021 to 1.55 percent in Q4 2022.”
Rental length for drivable claims rose by 2.4 days from last year, bringing the Q4 2022 average to 12.4 days. Ontario posted the highest drivable LOR at 14.5 days, a 3.2 day increase, while New Brunswick recorded the lowest at ten days.
Non-drivable claims saw a spike of 10.3 days, bringing the Q4 2022 average to 31 days nationally, down slightly from 2021’s LOR of 31.4 days.
Ontario and Quebec occupy both extremes of non-drivable LOR, with the former coming in at 34.2 days, while the latter is up 8.2 days, bringing Quebec to an LOR of 24.9 days.
Concerning total loss claims, the national average LOR is 25.5 days, up 8.1 from last year.
Newfoundland and Labrador was the only province to experience a total loss LOR of less than 22 days, coming in at 17.8 days.
Fellow Maritimers in PEI, however, are dealing with the highest LOR for total loss claims in the country, experiencing an average 29.8 days—a 12.6 day increase.
In summary, Enterprise wrote that “The results for the fourth quarter of this year are significant, with results exacerbated by supply chain disruptions, parts delays, collision repair backlogs, and technician shortages.
“With the complexity of vehicle repairs only increasing, for both internal combustion engine (ICE) and battery electric vehicles (BEV) models, the entire industry must play a part in ensuring all collision-related businesses are aligned—not just for procedural solutions, but to ensure our mutual customers receive safe and proper repairs, an excellent experience and peace of mind.”
One Response
LOR is up. It’s time the players woke up to the reality that is. It takes time to repair these vehicles. Squeezing the repair industry for lower LOR is not the answer. Adjusting your business practice is. LOR never should have been the shops issue to the degree that it’s been made to be.