On Thursday, AAMC, one of Australia’s largest providers of motor accident management services, launched Land + Road. The offering, according to publicity material, is an “all in one incident management and repair solution for all truck, farm and commercial machinery claims.” The key improvements for insurance policyholders include the ability to immediately appoint a repair assessor and, says AAMC, a streamlined claims process.
“Land + Road offers a rapid, efficient response that will minimize business interruptions for commercial enterprises when their vehicles, trucks or equipment are damaged,” said Daniel Lukich (pictured below with AAMC team, second from right), AAMC’s sales and strategic relationship manager.
Lukich told a gathering of colleagues and customers at a launch event that the offering is a response to “two persistent industry issues.” The aim, he said, is to satisfy industry demand for “a more streamlined solution and service model” in the motor insurance repair management space.
Lukich said the “two persistent industry issues” were clear to his firm from years of interactions with customers and motor industry stakeholders. However, to confirm this feedback, he said AAMC recently conducted 12 months of research using an independent consultancy. The research included interviews with customers and stakeholders in the heavy vehicles and machinery sector.
The first major issue, he said, was significant delays in assessor appointments that “severely disrupts” the policyholder’s business operations.
“By working with clients open to addressing this issue we’ve been able to jointly determine criteria for immediate appointment,” said Lukich. “In other words, when an incident type or location is identified as best suited for AAMC to engage, we are advised directly post lodgment or registration.”
He said the new offering allows the AAMC team to “immediately engage with the policy holder.”
The second challenge, he said, was inefficiencies caused by the multiple touch and decision points throughout the claims process.
“By establishing an administration team to work with the policy holder, intermediary, repairer, our technical experts and other stakeholders as required, we do not need to wait for a claims officer to obtain all the information traditionally required before assessor appointment,” said Lukich “Land + Road is a full-service incident management proposition.”
However, he said the new offering is based on collaboration and “a small shift in mindset” rather than “major technology investments or large scale transformation.”
It’s also AAMC’s – and arguably the motor insurance industry’s – first major effort to deal with recent years of challenging inefficiencies in the intermediated motor claims space.
“Land + Road is our first foray into addressing much of the complexity and, in our view, inefficiencies in intermediated motor claims,” said Lukich.
In previous Insurance Business interviews, the AAMC leader has expressed excitement and optimism about the advancements in technology that are improving the customer experience and creating efficiencies in the insurance claims process. However, the big issue, argued Lukich, is that few of these advancements are making it to the intermediated motor claims space.
“The focus [for Land + Road] is on commercial motor at first and addressing the common problem of significant business interruption being experienced due to the loss of a transport vehicle or machinery,” he said.
The new repair management offering is designed specifically, he said, for “a cornerstone of the business” since its founding in 2002: the heavy commercial vehicles used by trucking firms and on farms.
Managing director and co-founder Steve Chapman (pictured at top, left side with fellow co-founder and director Simon Manolaros) also spoke at the launch event. He told the gathering that the truck and farm emphasis was also to keep AAMC focused on its origins even after years of expansion into new motor industry business areas and increasing industry specialization.
“We actually started this business as an ag heavy motor machinery company and obviously, over time, we’ve broadened the scope of our services,” said Chapman. “How do we make sure that it's [ag heavy motor] not lost with specialist assessors, a specialist team of managers and a specialist administrative team?”
He said continually problem solving and supporting this area of the business “is very important.”
Insurance Business attended the launch event in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
Are you a business or customer in the motor or heavy vehicle sector? Please tell us about your insurance challenges below
