Many insurers brought in specialists from either around New Zealand or other countries to assist with vehicle repairs as they faced a downpour of hail damage claims last year. However, several repairers have since taken a hit from the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic – slowing down the repair process for hail claims.
Smart Fix, a hail repairer temporarily operating in South Canterbury, said replacement car parts would take approximately four to five months to arrive due to air freight bans – leaving repairers no choice but to rely on cargo ships.
Adam Marks, Timaru site manager at Smart Fix, offered assurances that they were taking a proactive approach to resolving coronavirus-related issues.
“We are ringing people and pushing the anticipation times back. We’re all in the same boat at the moment, so there’s a big uncertainty within the industry and the community. Things can happen and get a lot worse very quickly,” Marks told Stuff.co.nz.
Shane Griffin, director of Dent Devil, said some of his team members could no longer come to work as the country’s borders closed.
“We have technicians from Europe [who] can no longer come over. We also have a Canadian who was self-isolating for 14 days to prepare for coming over, and now he can’t,” he told Stuff.co.nz. “It’s business as usual. Our team is just a little bit leaner. We just need to replace five guys or so.”
