Roger West, Secretary General of the BVSF reveals his thoughts about becoming an Appropriately Qualified Person (AQP), a title required by the ABI Code of Practice in order to categorise vehicle salvage.
Having been an Insurance Engineer for many years and subsequently an Engineering Field Manager for a large Insurer I always considered myself as qualified for the role of vehicle inspection and estimation. However, following the announcement of this qualification requirement, that effectively all stopped.
As the Secretary General of the British Vehicle Salvage Federation (BVSF) if I were to be able to discuss salvage categorisation from at least an equal footing if not a position of strength I would need to become an AQP.
I paid the dues and made the booking for an examination. I visited the website of the Institute of Automotive Engineer Assessors (IAEA) and found some example questions and answers. I have to say that I didn’t initially agree with a couple of the answers and made that known at the CARS event last year but that is another story.
I admit that I entered the examination room with a degree of trepidation, after all, I hadn’t taken an examination in over 40 years. Particularly a multiple choice one.
I could never honestly say that the examination is easy but, if you study the code of practice and the sample questions fully you should be able to pass, perhaps not first time but a pass is very achievable.
I have to say that it is absolutely correct in my opinion that only previously qualified persons in the field of Vehicle Repair should be allowed to sit the exam.
I am pleased to say that I passed, I don’t know what “score” I got so therefore have no idea if it was a good pass or borderline as, in this instance it is a simple pass or fail scenario.
This qualification, as far as I am concerned, means that any member of the Federation can come to me with what they may consider a dubious categorisation and I can offer advice from an equal position to that of the inspecting engineer.
Wasn’t the new salvage code meant to resolve categorisation issues or to give it the proper title of “Commercial Categorisation for profit”, issues I hear you ask. Well, yes, that is so but sadly some insurers have been proven to resorting to these tactics, indeed the Federation have brought the matter to the attention of the ABI. Only recently the BVSF were contacted by a member on a case whereby the categorisation is, in my opinion totally incorrect and this case is ongoing.
Prior to the AQP qualification being attained I would have been unable to challenge these cases and therefore of little use to the Federations membership in this regard.
Visit the BVSF at www.bvsf.org.uk and for further information on the AQP qualification visit the Institute of Automotive Engineer Assessors at www.iaea-online.org
this article is car of https://atfpro.co.uk/aqp-qualified-to-be-or-not-to-be-that-was-the-question/
