Body shop makes a dent in insurance premiums

October 22, 2009 - 9:02 AM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life 

body shopIn a country where there’s nary a car that’s not pocked with dents, scrapes, and nicks, I’ve been extremely fortunate to have escaped being involved with any road accidents that required involving insurance companies. Until last week.

An older lady turned right at a stop sign, without really looking left, and sideswiped my car as I drove by. When we pulled over, I really wanted to wail on her, over how she typified the aggressive, sloppy Israeli driving style. But she was so apologetic and shaken up that I ended up telling her it wasn’t so bad and that she shouldn’t worry.

And it wasn’t that bad, just some paint scraped away, one door guard ripped off and a slight dent. I told her I would bring it to the body shop next door to my usual mechanic and see how much it cost. It the estimate was less than her NIS 1,000 deductible, which I was sure it would be, then we could avoid going through our insurance companies and the accompanying hassles.

The next day, I brought the car to the body shop and was given an estimate for NIS 1,600. So I tried a couple other places, but received similar estimates. Of course, at that point, the lady decided to go through her insurance company, which triggered a series of bureaucratic forms, faxes, phone calls and a visit to an accident assessor that over the next few days kept me busy for hours.

It’s an odd arrangement when the victim of an accident ends up having to do all the work to repair the damage caused by the other person. But that’s just a sideline to the main point here – yes, there is one.

I finally got the car repairs completed yesterday at the original body shop I went to and went to the office to settle up (I also didn’t know that I had to pay for all the repairs and accident assessor costs, and then file a claim with the lady’s insurance company to get reimbursed.)

When I asked the manager who to make the NIS 1,600 check out to, he said ‘no, that’s not how much it cost – it’s NIS 3,450.’

Now, I’m getting reimbursed anyway, but I couldn’t resist asking him, ‘You told me when I was going to do the repair privately that it would be NIS 1,600. You’re doubling the price because the insurance company is paying for it?’

He just shrugged and said the Hebrew equivalent of ‘That’s the way it is.’

Maybe I’m just naive, and this is the way of the world, not only in Israel but in most countries when it comes to insurance claims. But it just doesn’t seem right, does it. I’ve always wondered why our car insurance premiums are so outrageously high. And yesterday, I found out why.

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Zipping around temporarily

October 2, 2008 - 11:19 PM by Harry · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Environment, General, Travel 

Zipcar number one!In 17 of North America’s largest cities, over 200,000 people nicknamed “Zippies” have begun using a service called Zipcar. The company allows members to reserve cars to drive, which they pick up using special credit card-like devices at specified locations. A cross between a communist (yet still for-profit) rent-a-car and public transportation, Zipcar allows people who don’t need cars every day (and whose lifestyles make parking, maintenance and other car ownership parameters impractical) to easily use cars on an hourly or daily basis, and people love it (pictured).

For frequent Zippies, there are even “Extra Value” membership options to match car use needs, and many European cities offer similar programs.

Now Haaretz reports that a similar initiative called CarShare, courtesy of a company called Car2Go, will soon launch in Tel Aviv, where there’s a major need….

The calculation is simple: The average car in Israel is driven 17,000 kilometers annually (the average in Tel Aviv is less), and the average speed is 35 km/hr. So the average car drives 378 hours a year, or one hour and three minutes a day. The rest of the time they just sit there, taking up space.

The obvious solution is to get rid of private cars. That isn’t a terribly popular idea. What’s the solution if you need to get to dinner at grandma’s in Pardes Hannah, or buy a new closet at Ikea?

How will it all work?

The idea is to start with 10 cars owned by [rent-a-car company] Sun Car – a Chevrolet, a Hyundai Getz and other models. The cars will be offered for rent in several ways; for example, the City option, costing NIS 19 per hour plus NIS 1.90 per kilometer, and the Freedom option, costing NIS 39 per hour plus NIS 1.90 per kilometer after the first 100 kilometers. Or the customer may choose to rent a car for the whole day for NIS 139 plus NIS 1.9 per kilometer, or rent a car for the day for NIS 269 including the first 100 kilometers.

The plans are not just cool – they’re remarkably ambitious:

So far the Car2Go entrepreneurs have invested $150,000 of their own money in the project, they say. “Our goal is to reach a fleet of 60 cars and 1,000 active users by the end of 2008,” says [CEO Yonatan] Gadish.

“Within five years we want to reach 1,000 cars and 27,000 users. In the longer run we want to reach other cities in Israel, such as Haifa and Jerusalem, and later to expand abroad – to Greece, Turkey and Eastern Europe too, where the model doesn’t exist.”

Hopefully the business model, a proven one abroad, will translate well to a city with major decongestion needs – even if it’s not a town known for good-natured sharing.

Image courtesy moon_child from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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