Days billed are down, claims are up, but still far short of pre-pandemic levels.
Like virtually every other industry, the collision repair sector has endured a choppy 18 months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enterprise Rent-a-Car, which measures Length of Rental (LOR) in both Canada and the U.S., recently released its Q2, 2021 report.
Compared to the same period in 2020, this year, saw average days build for rental vehicles (nationally) decline by 1.2 days to 10.2, versus, 11.4 during Q2 2020.
Ontario sees biggest declines
Additionally, among the provinces, Ontario saw the biggest decline in days billed (2.1), resulting in 11 days billed for the quarter, versus the same period in 2020. Newfoundland and Labrador saw the second-biggest decline in days billed (1.9), while all other provinces, barring Prince Edward Island, saw days bill decline, ranging from 1.2 days in Quebec to 0.4 in Nova Scotia.
In PEI, days billed actually increased in Q2 2021 versus the same period earlier, by 0.3, to land at 9.9 days billed overall.
The Enterprise Q2 report showed that on a monthly basis, LOR declined in April and May this year, followed by a slight rise in June, as the number of drivers and vehicles hitting the road increased.
Largest decrease
Looking at claims, Total Loss claims saw the biggest decline in days billed for Q2 this year compared with a year earlier, they were down by 2.6 days, from 16.0 days in 2020 to just 13.6 days this year.
On a provincial basis, Alberta saw the biggest declines in days billed for Total Losses, from 16.1 to 13.5, while Ontario was second, witnessing a decline of days billed from 16.2 to 14.2.
For Non-Drivable claims, LOR dropped by 1.4 days during Q2 2021 compared with the same period in 2021. Here, Ontario saw the biggest decrease (2.1 days), followed by Quebec (1.5 days) and Alberta (1.1 days).
Interestingly, Prince Edward Island actually saw an increase of 2.1 days, with Nova Scotia also seeing a rise in days billed for LOR (0.6 days).
Drivable claims saw a decline in one full day nationwide during Q2, 2021—down from 9.1 to 8.1 days.
On a provincial basis, Ontario witnessed the biggest decrease—by 1.9 days.
All other provinces with the exception of PEI also saw declines during the same period, while in PEI, LOR for drivable claims actually rose slightly, by 0.1 days.
Volume still lower
Overall, while claims volume is up in 2021 versus last year (17.1%), according to Ryan Mandell, Director of Performance Consulting at Mitchell International, it is still way below pre-pandemic levels—by 38.1 percent, compared with Q2 2019.
More details regarding the report can be found here.
