Multipart 'Save Your Van' scheme avoids LDV write-offs
LDV official parts supplier Multipart has introduced the ‘Save Your Van’ scheme to help reduce instances in which accident damaged LDV vans and minibuses are written off as being uneconomic to repair.
When an insurance assessor looks at a damaged vehicle he has to make a judgement about whether it can be viably repaired based on the cost and availability of parts, the labour involved and the residual value of the vehicle.
Without manufacturer support, the residual values of LDV vans and minibuses were declining steadily. But thanks to the efforts of Multipart in ensuring good parts availability – now running at 96% – and in cutting parts costs by up to 15%, owners are now seeing the value of their vehicles improve.
“Many of the 100,000 plus LDV vehicles still in service have had expensive modifications made to them, such as special tool racking or, in the case of minibuses, fully belted seats or wheelchair lifts,” explains Multipart Sales & Marketing Director, John Cascone. “The value of these modifications is particularly relevant when major crash repair is required and too often perfectly repairable vehicles are being written off as being not viable to repair.”
‘Save Your Van’ provides a fast and simple mechanism through which it can be quickly determined whether or not it is economical to repair a vehicle. It involves a one-off project for each vehicle in which there is co-operation between Multipart, the local LDV dealer and the vehicle repairer to offer parts and labour at a cost that makes repair of the van or minibus viable when otherwise that might not have been the outcome.
Central to this is the LDV dealer who activates the process by sending an electronic form to Multipart with details of the vehicle, a parts list and the estimated cost of the repair. Staff at Multipart with extensive knowledge of LDV vehicles (Multipart holds the original IP rights to all the technical information on LDV products) assess the work and aim to respond within 24 hours with a proposal that enables the job to be re-priced and saving the vehicle if economically possible.
“Large fleet operators such as the Royal Mail look for up to seven years out of their LDVs,” says John Cascone. “Many are in service with cash-strapped local authorities, schools, charities and the military and they too will want to obtain the optimum economic life they can from them. So the ‘Save Your Van’ programme will greatly assist these owners as well as general users.”
As the official supplier of parts for LDV products, Multipart is well placed to support its innovative scheme. At its Lancashire headquarters it carries LDV parts valued at in excess of £10 million with a further £4 million at the 80 LDV dealers across the UK. They’ve also set up a team dedicated to sourcing captive parts that are no longer in production, such as body panels. And they’ve reduced prices significantly by up to 15%.
Information on the ‘Save Your Van’ scheme is available from any of the 80 LDV dealers around the UK whose details can be found on ldv-parts.com.
