Drive in Florida during the winter months and you’ll see that birds aren’t the only migratory guests of the state—each year more Canadians visit Florida for the winter than any other state.

Additionally, Canadians tend to have more auto accidents in the Sunshine State than those from any other state.  However, handling those repairs and claims across the border can be challenging.

CARSTAR North America has opened the door to a growing list of Canadian insurance partners through its CARSTAR Care Center.  With nearly 20 million Canadians visiting the U.S. each year, the Care Center, a call center for assigning claims to CARSTAR locations, makes it easy by becoming the main point of contact between the customer, the U.S. CARSTAR collision shop and the Canadian Insurer.

“Each year, Canadians make more than 11.9 million trips to the U.S., and unfortunately, sometimes they have fender benders or other vehicle issues while they are in the country,” said Michael Macaluso, President, CARSTAR North America.  “We want to make it seamless for these drivers to get a high-quality repair on their vehicle through their Canadian insurance carrier.  This program makes it much easier to handle the repair and helps take the stress out of the situation.  And it allows CARSTAR North America to offer unmatched coverage in North America.”

According to Statstics Canada, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Canadians made 3.7 million visits to Florida in 2015.  Not only is the number of visits high, but also, Canadians stay an average of 23 nights.  With 11 CARSTAR locations in the state of Florida, the CARSTAR Care Center is available to help Canadians if they need repairs done to their vehicle while visiting the Sunshine State.

As the single point of contact for everyone involved, the CARSTAR Care Center is designed to streamline the process of the claim, the estimate, repair and payment process.  The Care Center is responsible for updating all parties on the status of the repair process and claim.  The Care Center is also designed to help with the transfer of warranty, obtains priority service for the insured and their vehicles, adds additional accountability in the repair stage of the system, eliminates potential blocks in the appraisal process and generally expedites the cross-border claims process.