Covéa highlights vehicle safety with PACTS
Covéa Insurance recently hosted Lucy Amos, research and communications officer for the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) at its Halifax office.
Lucy was there to explore the ways in which insurers can improve road safety and review the measures currently undertaken by the company to ensure vehicle safety on the UK’s roads.
PACTS is an All-Party Parliamentary Group that provides advice to the government on all matters of transport safety. The visit to Covéa Insurance was arranged to give Lucy an overview of what insurers can do to invest in road safety and to facilitate further discussion and debate surrounding transport safety matters.
Barry Street, head of engineers at Covéa Insurance met with Lucy and outlined practicalities involved with ensuring vehicle safety for all the cars it repairs and also the importance of ensuring that vehicles classified as ‘end of life’ are disposed of in a safe manner through authorised facilities so that they do not return to the road.
Barry explained, ‘Ensuring a safe repair is carried out on every vehicle is the cornerstone of our repair philosophy, the complex construction of modern vehicles makes it imperative that correct methods are used and therefore it is essential to only use BS10125 or Vehicle Manufacturer accredited repairers, to ensure that vehicle safety is not compromised. For this reason, Covéa Insurance mandates that all its Approved Repairers hold these accreditations, thus removing the risk of any incorrectly repaired vehicle placing the policyholder/driver and occupants at risk and to also avoid posing a serious hazard to other road users. Furthermore our Quality Assurance team carry out audits using Thatcham Integrated Methods and Manufacturer data to qualify that correct vehicle repair methods and materials are being used.’
Lucy commented, ‘It was an interesting day and gave me a valuable insight into some of the issues facing insurers and how the industry can have a significant influence on road safety’.
