What did we learn from analysing 2 billion vehicle records
At RAVIN AI we just love data. Data is our fuel, it feeds our vehicle inspection algorithms and we can’t get enough of it.
So you can imagine the celebrations of having recently surpassed the milestone of 2 billion (!) vehicle records processed by our platform, over hundreds of millions of inspections performed worldwide.
And what else can we do as a form of celebration? Of course, we dig into that data and discern some insights for our clients.
As costs of damage repairs continue to rise due to supply chain disruptions and general shortage in qualified labor force, it is particularly important for both vehicle owners (private and fleets) and insurance companies to understand what drives costs of repairs, and how to minimize those costs where possible.
The below points have been collected from damage claims data across multiple geographies, including the US, European countries, and Asia Pacific.
What are the most frequent damaged parts?
This may come as obvious to industry experts. The most frequently damaged vehicle part is by far the rightfully-named bumper. Nearly half (!) of the accidents involved this vehicle part. The fast follower is the wing / fender, with doors coming in third place.
Average repair order in $$
Across most Western countries, there’s an almost even split in repair bills between sub $500, $500-1,500, and more than $1,500. Moreover, approx. 10% of repairs tended to be considered ‘total loss’ ranging between 40-60% of the vehicle current value and therefore not requiring actual repair.
Nearly 70% of repair orders tend to be ‘simple’. What we define is ‘simple repair’ is considered typically (1) single impact area (2) no more than 3 affected major parts (3) repair could be carried out through simple methods of either paintless dent repair, paint / finishing / scrubbing or single part replacements. Only 21% are ‘complex repairs’ that fall between the ‘simple’ and the ‘total loss’, involving more than 10 parts and sub-part to be removed, replaced, and refinished.
Repair order breakdown
The breakdown of the most frequent cases, ‘simple repairs’, reveals perhaps an untold truth about the collision industry. In developed economies, where labor rates are ranging between $50 and $150 / hour, the cost of labor is the largest chunk of the repair bill. Parts, surprisingly, play a relatively smaller role in the overall repair bill.
Given the globalization of vehicle part supply chain, the underlying value of parts is becoming more similar across different geographies, mainly affected by logistics and local taxes.
This means that the reliance on local part pricing catalogues has declined substantially when developing repair estimates.
We invite you to explore this data further and understand how RAVIN AI’s virtual vehicle inspection platform works for fleets, car dealers and insurers.
