CCC Information Services Inc.’s 2008 Crash Course, an annual report on the many factors affecting collision repair and total loss costs, reports an increase in paid claim frequency last year, the first such increase in nearly a decade. The report also looks at how the increase in specialty substrate materials and the proliferation of electronics and safety features are impacting the collision repair industry. A full copy of the report, in its 13th year of publication, is available at www.cccis.com.
Additional outside factors such as rising inflation, gas price increases and an injection of new vehicle technology had a strong downstream influence on the auto-physical damage (APD) industry in 2007. The report says these factors contributed to an increase in claims frequency, an increase in average vehicle repair cost and an invigorated focus on the customer’s insurance and collision repair experience.
The 36-page Crash Course begins with a broad look of the national economy, followed by detailed analysis of categories affecting vehicle insurance and collision repair. This analysis includes five- and 10-year historical comparisons assembled through many industry resources.
CCC’s data warehouse, which contains vehicle and repair-related information from 100 million estimates processed through its system, is the primary source of trending information included in Crash Course. CCC also includes third-party research to highlight broader industry trends.
