Apparently a fire captain in Las Vegas couldn’t put out a fire on his own vehicle he allegedly torched. He filed a fraudulent claim and has now been indicted. Click here for the story.

Crazy as it sounds, two auto body shop workers who were messing around and things got out of hand. One lit the other on fire! Click here for the story.

In a survey of all files processed through AutoClaims Direct’s DirectLink in 2009,  61.36% of all vehicles were inspected at an owner’s home while 15.88% were seen at a repair shop. The vehicles seen at repair shops and tow yards had higher supplement percentages while those seen at a residence or owner’s place of work were much lower. 

In an analysis of key guideline issues which have been driving factors with insurers during the first half of 2009, these five have been the key points of contention with auto repair facilities thus far. The leading guideline factor was the issue of masking a vehicle for overspray or jambs. Many companies have differing guidelines on covering labor vs. materials etc. Second in line was the issue of clear coat closely followed by flex additive.

Speed is a key to any auto damage appraisal firm’s success. While speed must be meshed with quality, slow cycle times create rental delays, angry vehicle owners and frustrated adjusters. With the “average” auto damage appraisal firm delivering a snail pace of 4.5 days, AutoClaims Direct has maintained results more than 2 times faster than this average. Even with such speed there will always be situations where files take longer than 3 days. This is a measure we track at AutoClaims Direct as customer service, data and results are key drivers within our firm . In 2009 thus far, this graph shows the top reasons for file delays.  Owner contact difficulty is the leading factor followed by an owner requesting an inspection beyond the 3 day time frame. This is just a small sampling of the metrics AutoClaims Direct analyzes for each company the firm works with.