CCIF reports progress on standardized First Notice of Loss

By Mike Davey

Toronto, Ontario — February 2, 2016 — A standardized First Notice of Loss (FNOL) could be of benefit to both repairers and insurers, streamlining a portion of the pre-repair claims process. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Canadian Collision Industry Forum (CCIF), the industry is closer to realizing these benefits than ever before.

As previously reported on collisionrepairmag.com, CCIF achieved a major milestone at the September 2015 meeting when five of Canada’s leading auto insurers agreed to a list of 18 items that would form the basis of a common FNOL assignment. Since the agreement, other insurers have indicated their intention to adopt the shared 18 items as separate fields in their FNOL assignment to repairers.

Past CCIF Chairman Larry Jefferies updated CCIF attendees on the progress that has been made at the latest CCIF event held in Vaughan, Ontario. He predicted that repairers would start to see the effects of FNOL standardization within the next few months. For more on this event, please see “Technical advances, KPIs and the need to scan hot topics at CCIF Cars & Technology Showcase.”

“Many of the changes will happen by mid-2016 but some will take a little longer. Once it’s completed, all of the repairers will see a nearly identical first page of the assignment form coming from insurers,” said Jefferies. Jefferies also noted that within the next year, repairers would start to see the benefits. These include creating a better customer experience and improving cycle time by reducing labour costs not directly associated with the repair.

CCIF is managed by the Automotive Industries Association of Canada (AIA Canada). AIA Canada has been instrumental in bringing repairers and insurers together to work on the project.

“While all insurers will continue to maintain individual approaches to the First Notice of Loss, participating insurers will adopt all of the critical items listed below as separate fields as system changes permit. This is a major milestone to improving the collision claim and repair process for customers and the industry,” according to a statement from AIA Canada.

It should be noted that this type of collaboration is rare on the global scale. Many countries do not have an organization equivalent to CCIF. The Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in the US is somewhat similar, but it has not had anything like the success of CCIF in bringing insurers to the table. See “CIC needs diversity of voices, more action, according to committee” for more on this.

There are a number of positive benefits to a standardized FNOL. For insurers, any reduction of total cycle time will result in an improvement in policyholder satisfaction. It should also reduce the total number of rental days. For repairers, a standardized FNOL should help to get cars in and out faster, and reduce the need for calls and emails throughout the process.

First Assignment Critical Item List

1. Insured’s Name, clearly itemized into First & Last Names

2. Insured’s phone numbers

3. Insured’s Physical Address

4. Insured’s Email Address

5. Adjuster’s Name

6. Adjuster’s Email

7. Adjuster’s Phone Number(s)

8. Claim Number

9. Date of Loss (DOL)

10. Deductible Amount

11. Coverage for Rental • Yes or No