Top States for Fastest Collision Repair

ST. LOUIS -- Aug. 22, 2014: North Dakota – followed closely by several nearby states – just might be the best place in the country to get your car repaired after a fender bender. That's the state where drivers get their cars back from repair shops the fastest, according to new data just released by Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Data gathered during the second quarter by Enterprise's Automated Rental Management System (ARMSŪ) tracks the length of time a replacement vehicle is rented to collision center customers.

According to the ARMS data, the U.S. average length of replacement rental (LOR) was 10.7 days in the second quarter of 2014. The states with the lowest collision repair times, measured in days, are:

North Dakota (8.0) Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota (8.1) Iowa (8.3) Utah (8.8) Idaho, Maine, Vermont (8.9) Enterprise began sharing this information – at no cost – with collision repair centers five years ago in an effort to highlight below-market-average cycle times and provide critical performance data for consistent industrywide comparisons. In fact, Enterprise first developed ARMS in 1999 in response to feedback received from focus groups and the collision repair industry. In 2007, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent and trademark for ARMS, reflecting Enterprise's significant investment in resources, initiative and intellectual capital.

Today, ARMS data helps collision repair centers increase operating efficiencies, enhance customer service and streamline communications with insurance companies and customers. The ARMS digital management platform enables repair centers to book rental reservations and send vehicle status updates to insurance partners and customers. In addition, repair centers can track, measure and forecast labor needs, and generate monthly reports through ARMS.

These LOR metrics have gained traction with insurers and repairers as a means to track and improve cycle time. In fact, CollisionWeek magazine and Mitchell Industry Trends Report regularly publish the Enterprise data as a comprehensive industry resource. The importance of such metrics were recently noted in a comprehensive SearchAutoParts.com editorial: "You need to know your score in real-time so you can adjust your strategy."

With more than 5,500 airport and neighborhood offices located within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand is able to provide replacement rentals to customers of collision repair centers and insurance companies all around the country.