Fresh from a tour talking to more than 700 aligned repairers, the Suncorp Group has outlined the changes it is making to its business and clarified how they will affect repairers.
Suncorp executive general manager of claims, Jason McCracken, said that with more than half a million customers' cars needing repair each year, a strong motor repair industry was a vital business partner.
"We share the same key objectives as laid out under the Joint Code – ensuring safe repairs and a high quality service are provided to our shared customers," he said.
"We need to work together to achieve this, which is why we are working hard to step up our discussions with repairers about the way forward as we make changes to our business."
He said the feedback from the meetings was that there were two key points for repairers from the work Suncorp is undertaking to simplify the back-end of its business and put one claims system in place.
"Firstly, after these changes all aligned repairers will have access to work from across our Suncorp, GIO and AAMI brands through the same process, and ultimately all will be working from the same agreement," McCracken said.
"Secondly, when a Suncorp or GIO customer asks us to handle the repair process, rather than choose their own repairer, we will seek two quotes for them and choose the most complete and competitive, as we do with AAMI.
"Where necessary some of these vehicles still go direct to repairers if it's not practical to seek quotes because of the type of damage or the area is rural or remote."
While the timeline for the changes has not been laid out, they have already been partly introduced in Brisbane and will be phased into place across the rest of the country.
McCracken also responded to claims from industry groups that under the two-quote system repairers deliberately underbid and then carry out unsafe repairs.
"Both insurers and repairers have an obligation under the Joint Code of Conduct to ensure the structural safety, integrity, presentation and utility of our joint customers’ vehicles are restored and maintained," he said.
"In the past 10 years almost two million cars have been repaired under this system with AAMI. It is wrong to suggest that aligned repairers would routinely ignore the code to secure a job, or that our assessors would allow this to happen and ignore our obligations.
"There is absolutely no evidence to support this, as the Productivity Commission found when it investigated the issue. These false claims do nothing but damage the reputation of both the smash repair and insurance industry."