Getting onto an insurer's repair panel
What the Competition Commission's aftermarket guidelines expect of insurers' repair panels, and what an independent body shop should prepare to apply.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Automotive businesses in South Africa
For an independent body shop in South Africa, insurance work is the backbone of the business. Most accident repairs are paid for by insurers, and insurers send that work to the repairers on their panels. A body shop that is not on the panel sees the customer only when the customer insists, and often not even then.
Getting onto a panel used to feel like a closed door: unclear criteria, no explanation for a rejection, and the same repairers renewed year after year. The Competition Commission's aftermarket guidelines address each of those complaints. This article explains what the guidelines expect of insurers, and how an independent body shop can prepare an application that shows it meets the standard.
Published standards and published panels
The guidelines say insurers must publish the standards they use to accredit repairers, and publish a list of their panel repairers. For an applicant, that changes the starting point. Instead of guessing what the insurer wants, the body shop can obtain the published standards and work through them one by one.
Start every application by downloading the insurer's current standards and the current panel list. The list shows who you are competing with in your area; the standards show what you need to prove.
Formal reasons when an application is rejected
The guidelines also say insurers must give rejected applicants formal reasons. A rejection with reasons is useful, even if it is disappointing: it tells the body shop what to fix before it applies again. Keep every rejection letter, and keep a record of what you changed in response, so the next application can show the gap has been closed.
Five-year caps and repeated renewals
Two further provisions deal with panels that never change. The guidelines say insurers must not appoint any repairer to a panel for a period exceeding five (5) years, and must not keep renewing the same repairer where that unreasonably excludes other capable repairers.
The same limits apply to manufacturers. The guidelines bar manufacturers from appointing approved motor-body repairers for a period exceeding five (5) years, or continuously renewing them to the unreasonable exclusion of capable independent providers. They also bar exclusive arrangements within a designated geographic area.
For an independent, this means panel places should come up for review over time. Knowing when existing appointments in your area are due to be reviewed tells you when to have your application ready.
Why the guidelines carry weight without binding the courts
The guidelines were prepared under section 79(1) of the Competition Act and are effective from 27 March 2025. The Commission states that they are not binding on the Commission, the Competition Tribunal or the Competition Appeal Court. They are a statement of how the Commission expects the industry to behave, not legislation. An insurer that ignores them may attract the Commission's attention, but the guidelines themselves do not give a body shop a right to be appointed.
The Commission's guidelines for competition in the automotive aftermarket set out the panel provisions in full, together with the rules on servicing, parts and technical information.
What to have ready
Insurers' published standards differ, but most applications draw on the same evidence. A useful pack:
- Business documents. Company registration, tax and VAT details, B-BBEE certificate, and any industry association membership.
- Certificates and qualifications. Technicians' trade qualifications and manufacturer or paint-system training records. The guidelines say manufacturers must give independent providers technical repair information on terms no less favourable than approved dealers get, and training at a reasonable cost not exceeding what approved dealers' staff pay, so keep evidence of the training your team has taken.
- Equipment. A list of the major equipment, such as spray booths, jig or measuring systems and welding equipment, with photos.
- Insurance. Your commercial insurance schedule, showing cover for the work and for customers' vehicles in your care.
- Quality record. How you handle comebacks and complaints, and how repair quality is checked before a vehicle is released.
- Financial position. Recent management accounts or financial statements.
The guidelines note that damage caused by an independent's work or parts fitment may void certain warranty provisions, while others remain enforceable, and that a consumer harmed by a defective product can claim against any party in the supply chain under section 61 of the Consumer Protection Act. An insurer will want to see that you understand that exposure and are covered for it.
Figures from the books
Achekam's management accounts show an income statement for a chosen period beside the period before, and a balance sheet at period end, both added up from the business's own journals and exportable as PDF or CSV. That gives the insurer a current view of the body shop's trading and financial position. If the insurer asks for audited or reviewed financial statements, those come from your accountant.
Sending the pack and keeping a record
Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them, and a new version keeps the earlier ones. Build one folder per insurer application, holding exactly the version of each document you submitted.
A document can then be shared by e-mailing a personal link with an expiry, an optional one-time code, and downloading allowed or not, and the share can be revoked. Sending the application pack that way, rather than as a stack of attachments, gives you a record of what was shared, with whom and until when. If the insurer later says a document was missing, the folder shows what was sent.
For billing insurers and customers once you are on a panel, see insurer and excess billing; for in-warranty work outside insurance, read servicing in-warranty cars at an independent workshop.
A well-prepared application cannot promise a panel place, but it makes a rejection without good reason much harder to give.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
