Centrus, a non-fault accident management companies, and subsidiary of Avis Europe plc, has launched CentrusReturn, an estimate management service for UK franchised and independent bodyshops. Centrus, which has so far concentrated on non-fault accidents, will extend its remit to include at-fault accident claims.

A dedicated team at Centrus will receive repair estimates from participating bodyshops and convert these into bookings by liaising with the driver, the insurer and the bodyshop. Centrus will guarantee that all customers are contacted within 24 hours of an estimate being carried out by a bodyshop, a pledge that few accident management companies in the industry are able to make.

If a bodyshop is supplying its customer with an Avis hire car the service Centrus provides will be free of charge. In other cases a small fixed fee is charged to the bodyshops.

The Centrus approach is claimed to be beneficial to bodyshops as it removes the wasted time and effort of carrying out estimates that do not convert to repair work, and to Centrus as it gets the referral business from the bodyshops, an area of our business it is keen to expand.”

Centrus has 160 employees and a turnover in excess of £35m. The company has access to the Avis hire fleet of over 20,000 vehicles.