| Headlines |
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| Staff rights need to be addressed, say FPB 01.04.10 |
| The next government urgently needs to rebalance workplace law in favour of employers, according to the Forum of Private Business (FPB). |
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| Bluecycle adds weight to Giveacar 01.04.10 |
| The Giveacar scheme, a not-for-profit initiative to encourage the donation of unwanted vehicles for charitable causes, has secured the support of Bluecycle. |
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| Allianz take to the road 01.04.10 |
| Allianz Insurance will be hosting a series of roadshows for their Approved Repairer network. |
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| Last chance to enter the bodyshop Awards 01.04.10 |
| The bodyshop Awards nomination deadline has been extended until 12 April. |
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| Autospray is CZ's repairer of the month 01.04.10 |
| Call Zebra has awarded Autospray its March 2010 Repairer of the Month award to Autospray. |
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| Employer demand drops 3% in March 06.04.10 |
| Demand from UK employers for new workers fell back overall in March, according to the Reed Job Index published today. |
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| Porsche name Shorade as Bodyshop of the Year 06.04.10 |
| Shorade Accident Repair Centre have been announced as the 2010 winner of the Porsche Centre Bodyshop of the Year award. This follows their previous success as winners in 2005 as well as its continual presence in the annual awards top five for the last six years. |
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| Craft Awards competition reaches Manchester 06.04.10 |
| Two more regional competitions in the bodyshop/Thatcham Craft Awards were held in association with SkillAuto (part of the IMI) and WorldSkills UK on 31 March 2010 at MANCAT. |
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| RMI Independents announce new head 06.04.10 |
| David Moran has been appointed as the new head of the Retail Motor Industry’s Independent garages division. |
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| 350 extra staff for Swiftcover 09.04.10 |
| Swiftcover will add an additional 350 people to its payroll, totalling over 800, after construction of Swiftcover's 25,000 sq ft building at the Portrack Interchange Business Park begun. The centre will be operational in January 2011. |
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| Groupama and Riskstop combine for SMEs 09.04.10 |
| Groupama Insurances has appointed risk management survey provider Riskstop to provide their commercial policyholders with an end to end risk management solution. |
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| Audatex launches workshop for VDAs 09.04.10 |
| Audatex UK has launched a Customer Development Workshop for Vehicle Damage Assessors (VDAs). |
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| Are you the Messi of the bodyshop industry? 09.04.10 |
| ...then prove it! BEN is hosting a five-a-side football tournament next month, which begins with three regional heats before a final on 6 June at the Soccerdome in Derby. |
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| Easi-Drive win AMC 2010 accolade 09.04.10 |
| Easi-Drive has been awarded the title of Nationwide Accident Management Specialist 2010 by the Institute of Transport Management (ITM). |
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| Think-tank calls for road network share giveaway 12.04.10 |
| THE SMF (Social Market Foundation) has published a new report, Roads to Recovery, arguing that each citizen should be given a free, tradable share in the road network, combined with the introduction of road user charges and the abolition of Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax). |
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| Revive! set challenge for bodyshops 12.04.10 |
| In response to his challenge issued in last month’s Bodyshop urging bodyshops to work in collaboration with Smart repairers, Revive! Managing Director Mark Llewellyn has received several calls and emails. |
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| Stoneacre triumphs in WNS awards 12.04.10 |
| Northern repairers have made a clean sweep of the top three prizes in WNS Assistance's annual bodyshop 'Oscars'. The ‘Gold’ award went to the Stoneacre Group, based in Doncaster, with ‘Silver’ going to Perfect Finish of Bolton and ‘Bronze’ to Benfield Accident Repair Centre of Newcastle. |
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| Equity seals Kia affinity deal 13.04.10 |
| Kia Motors UK has appointed Equity Direct Broking to administer its car insurance scheme. The three-year deal will see Equity providing branded policies through Kia’s network of 150 UK dealerships. |
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| John Matthews leaves Fix Auto UK 13.04.10 |
| After over five years as the Head of Fix Auto UK, John Matthews as stepped aside to develop other business interests. |
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| Craft Awards hit the south! 13.04.10 |
| Six painters took part in another exciting regional heat at Southgate College on Friday 9 April to try to earn their place in the bodyshop/Thatcham Craft Awards final which will take place at Thatcham during Triple Focus 16-17 June 2010. |
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| Young Craft Awards moves to Scotland 13.04.10 |
| The Young Craft Award regional heats continued to gather pace as three young painters and four panel technicians travelled to Motherwell College to compete for a place in the final, which will be held at Triple Focus in June. |
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| The world’s most popular colours 15.04.10 |
| Silver the most popular car colour in the world (25 percent), followed by black with a market share of 22 percent and white with 16 percent, according to Standox In the current ranking of the most popular automotive colours, grey takes the fourth position with a market share of 13 percent. Standox analyses the major colour preferences every year to note trends early and to supply the required refinishing materials for future OEM colours before they are needed. |
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| BEN Ball goes for Diversity 16.04.10 |
| Diversity have been announced as the headline act for the 76th BEN Ball which will be held on 8 December at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. |
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| Poll reveals hung parliament 19.04.10 |
| A hung parliament would result if people vote with their heads, based on the leader they would turn to for work advice, according to a new poll of 1,900 voters from campaign group Keep Britain Working, published today. |
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| Retirement back on the radar 19.04.10 |
| Business owners in the automotive sector say their retirement prospects are finally beginning to improve as the UK begins to emerge from recession. |
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| Volcano postpones NI region Craft Awards 20.04.10 |
| With the aviation industry recovering from the recent chaos, the bodyshop/Thatcham Craft Awards regional competition in Northern Ireland has had to be postponed. Due to be held at Riverpark Training and Development Centre on 21st April, the regional heat has been rearranged for the 14th May. |
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| MKPE head south for expansion 21.04.10 |
| MKPE has expanded its operational coverage into the south of England with the acquisition of ATS/Allpaints from Alliance Automotive. |
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| Me and My Audatex 21.04.10 |
| Audatex UK has launched a new-design web portal packed full of useful hints, tips, FAQs and updates, exclusively for users of its Global Claims Centre (GCC) claims management and estimating solution for bodyshops. |
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| RMI reassures members over Quinn Insurance 21.04.10 |
| Following the Irish Financial Regulator’s appointment of administrators to Quinn Insurance, the RMI received numerous calls from concerned members seeking advice on the status of the company. |
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| 2010 Top Technician named 21.04.10 |
| Surrey mechanic Stuart White has been named Top Technician 2010, after winning the annual competition which recognises and rewards the best automotive technicians in the UK |
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| Tanfield apprentice aiming high 22.04.10 |
| TANFIELD BODY REPAIR’S Michael Airey has made it through to the City & Guilds Apprentice of the Year regional final after beating off stiff competition from hundreds of apprentices in the north east. |
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| Key parts of SEL-Imperial case against BSI dismissed 23.04.10 |
| Mr Justice Roth has today dismissed key parts of the claim made against BSI by SEL-Imperial claiming that BSI has acted anti-competitively against SEL in respect of BSI's Kitemark scheme based on PAS 125. This was an interim application to decide whether or not the allegations should be allowed to go to a full trial. |
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| SEL/BSI case - SEL's response 23.04.10 |
| Response just received from SEL-Imperial, below. |
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| Insurers still losing popularity vote 28.04.10 |
| Insurance brands fell in popularity by seven per cent in the past year but that 'looks almost like growth' when compared with the 48% drop in 2008, according to the BrandZ report by market research firm Millward Brown. |
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| Crash hotspots highlighted 28.04.10 |
| Centenary Way, Trafford Park, Manchester, is the UK's top crash for cash hotspot, according to Direct Line, who note that investigations into this practice mean insurers delay payments to genuine claimants at these hotspots by as much as three weeks. |
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| Three and easy for 3M 28.04.10 |
| 3M has launched a trio of new products, including a world first, aimed at making repair jobs quicker, easier and more cost-effective. |
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| Roads filling up with more crashed cars 28.04.10 |
| The number of crashed cars being put back on the road has increased by over 10% in the last two years, with more than 100,000 written-off vehicles hitting the streets last year alone, as people strive for cheaper motoring. |
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| Healthy Workplace Campaign 28.04.10 |
| To mark the World Day for Safety and Health at Work today, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has launched its new Healthy Workplaces Campaign for 2010/11, promoting safe maintenance across Europe. |
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| Standox starts tweeting 28.04.10 |
| Bodyshops can now follow the latest Standox news and products on Twitter at www.twitter.com/standox. |
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| Clegg winning business vote 29.04.10 |
| The Leaders’ debates have propelled Nick Clegg into an outright business lead of 30 points as the person that employers most want to work for them, according to contrasting poll results from more than 400 organisations before and after the first two TV debates. |
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| Fortis improves handling of motor claims 29.04.10 |
| Fortis has implemented a new system that will enable it connect to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) portal for processing low value road traffic accident claims directlly via its internal IT systems. |
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| 'Cash for crash' suspension 29.04.10 |
| Two men who staged a car accident in a bid to secure thousands of pounds of compensation from QBE have received suspended sentences and another has been given a conditional discharge. |
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| Thatcham in focus 29.04.10 |
| Vehicle security specialists, insurers and repairers will be amongst the visitors to Thatcham's Triple Focus, which will be held on 16 and 17 June. |
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| AkzoNobel appoint UK Sales Manager 29.04.10 |
| AkzoNobel Coatings has appointed Jon Amor as its new National Sales Manager UK. With a 20 year career in the automotive industry, Jon joins AkzoNobel from Invista, where he was most recently Key Global Account and European Sales Director. |
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| BASF named 2009 GM Supplier of the Year 29.04.10 |
| BASF has been named as General Motors’ Supplier of the Year Award for 2009. It is the sixth time in the last eight years that BASF has received this award. |
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| Are you the best worker there is? 29.04.10 |
| A brand new initiative called Dickies UK Worker of the Year is being launched today. The competition aims to find the person who truly epitomises the spirit of the UK worker. |
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| Value of ARC's continue to fall 29.04.10 |
| 189 companies in the UK Accident Repair Centres industry have lost over a third of their value in a year according to new research by analysts Plimsoll. |
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| Quinn to restart writing motor insurance 30.04.10 |
| Ireland’s Financial Regulator says detailed discussion with the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) have allowed it to permit to Quinn Insurance to begin writing motor insurance in the UK. |
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| Final day for Craft Award entries! 30.04.10 |
| Today is the final day for technicians to be entered into the bodyshop/Thatcham Craft Awards senior catagories. |
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| Fortis unveils new Ageas logo 30.04.10 |
| Fortis shareholders have given the green light for the Fortis group to adopt the new name Ageas. During Fortis’ AGMs held in Brussels and Utrecht this week, shareholders approved the name change with overwhelming support – 97% and 99% approval respectively. |
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| Quinn Insurance could go up for sale 30.04.10 |
| The Quinn Group has admitted that it is now seriously considering selling Quinn Insurance in a move to 'protect the maximum number of jobs.' |
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