The SAMBRA Regional General year-end meetings, which were hosted in October and early November 2022, ended on a high with members taking time out of their busy work schedules to attend the face-to-face and online meetings. For those that missed it, her is a recap of what was discussed.
Resilience was the underlying theme of the meeting, particularly taking into account the many obstacles the MBR sector has had to manage post Covid. In spite of these challenges, SAMBRA has maintained its position as the leading MBR association in South Africa and has used its roadmap of strategic objectives to deliver the tangible benefits promised to members a year ago.
SAMBRA ends the year on an extremely healthy financial position. Our accumulated reserves have allowed us to focus on delivering the special projects identified by the NEC. Our finances are monitored monthly allowing us to manage the budget closely resulting in the growth and sustainability of this unique association.
The following projects were highlighted during the meeting:
- OHS Member Guide – Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) standards are critical in your business. Safety and accident prevention is everyone’s responsibility and to assist all SAMBRA members, SAMBRA confirmed that the SAMBRA OHS guides are now available to view, here. John Kilian from Safety Solutions Africa and his team attended and presented at most of the regional meetings.
- Write-off Register – The SAMBRA Write-off Conference held earlier this year was an overwhelming success with most of the key industry stakeholders attending. It was agreed that the Vehicle Salvage Database is a necessity in South Africa. SAIA (South African Insurance Association) called for comment earlier this month from all industry role payers. They are now building the case
study and have undertaken to engage with industry later this year. - Sealants Calculator – The sealants calculator is now live and can be accessed through the member portal of the SAMBRA website. There has been a tremendous uptake to the calculator, both by repairers and insurers, and those using the calculator are realising the benefits. The updates are being affected timeously to stay on trend with current pricing.
- SAMBRA Website – The SAMBRA website now has an average of 30,000 page views per month being viewed by close on 3000 users. The members portal of the website gives members access to Member Events, the latest industry news, a Learning Portal, and a host of other useful information pertinent to running a body shop in South Africa. Members were encouraged to customise their business profiles on the SAMBRA website.
- SAMBRA App – The SAMBRA App is having to undergo extensive remodelling because of contractual challenges with the service provider. The long hours of demanding work by the NEC App development team are not lost. The scope for development document is our roadmap to ensuring that a suitable service provider is found and that the governance and compliance requirements by the RMI are met successfully.
- SAMBRA Toolbox – The skeleton and the content for the toolbox has been completed. Two potential service providers have been approached and we are awaiting their final tender documents. Once those are in hand, the NEC will be awarding the project to the successful service provider so that the project can commence.
In this last year, we have seen the landscape change. From insurers that are behind on the interpretation of the new Right to Repair guidelines to conflicts of interpretation of the POPIA Act.
SAMBRA has maintained a level-headed approach when engaging insurers, third party intermediaries, body shop auditing firms and OEM’s. Our focus has always been to reach a sustainable and favourable outcome for SAMBRA members and we thank all of our members for your continued support and encourage you to get actively involved, by attending and participating in industry related events.
