Every insurer, assessing company and approved repairer knows the shape of a motor claim. What is harder to see is where each claim is right now, and which ones have quietly stopped moving. This guide walks through the stages of a typical South African motor claim and the places where time, and money, leak out.
1. Registration and allocation
The claim is registered, and an assessor is allocated. The first delay often happens here: an allocation that nobody accepts, or a claim that waits because the assessor’s workload isn’t visible.
What to watch: unallocated claims, and each assessor’s open allocations. A daily view of both catches a stalled claim on day one instead of day five.
2. The assessment
The assessor inspects the vehicle, captures the damage, and attaches photos and notes. The quality of this step decides how smoothly everything after it goes: a thin assessment leads to disputed quotes and supplementary claims later.
What to watch: assessments still pending after your agreed turnaround, and the documents attached to each claim. If photos live in someone’s phone or inbox, they are not on the claim.
3. Moderation
A moderator reviews the assessment before quoting. This is also where possible write-offs should be spotted early, before a repairer spends time on a quote for a vehicle that won’t be repaired.
What to watch: a moderation queue with a clear “to moderate” list, and a separate write-off watch so borderline vehicles get a decision quickly.
4. Quoting and authorisation
The approved repairer (MBR) quotes, and the quote is checked and authorised. Claims wait longest at this handover: the repairer waiting for authorisation, and the insurer waiting for a quote, each assuming the other has it.
What to watch: two separate lists, “awaiting quote” and “awaiting authorisation”, each with the number of days the claim has been there. A shared, live view settles who is holding the claim.
5. The repair
Once authorised, the vehicle is in the workshop. Two costs run on quietly during this stage:
- Car rental. Every day in repair can be another hire day. Rentals should be visible against the claim, not discovered on the invoice.
- Customer patience. Complaints raised during the repair need to be logged against the claim and the repairer, so they are handled and counted.
What to watch: repairs in progress by age, active rentals per claim, and open complaints.
6. Collection and close
The vehicle is collected, final costs are recorded, and the claim is closed. If final costings are captured late, month-end reporting becomes a reconstruction exercise.
What to watch: vehicles awaiting collection, and closed claims without final costs.
Measure what the claim already tells you
None of these checks needs a separate spreadsheet if the claim lives in one system. The reports that matter most are the ones that come straight out of the work:
| Report | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Daily report | What happened yesterday, and what is due today? |
| Exception report | Which claims are outside the agreed turnaround? |
| Final costings | What did each claim actually cost? |
| CSI and complaints | How do customers rate each repairer? |
| Repairer rating | Which repairers deliver on time and on quote? |
Where software helps
The stages above don’t change with software, but the visibility does. When the assessment, the moderation, the quote, the authorisation, the rental and the complaint all sit on one claim, everyone involved sees the same picture, and a claim that stops moving shows up in a queue instead of a phone call.
That is what the RC Technologies Claims Management System is built for: assessors, moderators, insurers and repairers working from one live claim, with queues, dashboards and reports built around the South African claims process. Repairers who run the My Bodyshop System receive the claim as a workshop job automatically, and status comes back to the claim without anyone retyping it.