Zurich Insurance, which axed nearly one-third of its approved bodyshop network last month, continues to reject compensation claims from repairers.

The insurer has also refused to talk to any trade association other than the MVRA, which helped to broker the original contract.{*examplequote*}

Approval was reliant on MVRA QA membership as well as equipment criteria, such as the Motex estimating system. The MVRA has held several meetings with Zurich over the past two weeks and its spokeswoman said that the issue of compensation was raised. “We have put the repairers' thoughts to them, but so far we are no further forward,” she said.

In a bid to ease some of the costs incurred through the deal, systems provider Motex has offered to release repairers dropped from the Zurich network from their contract obligations with immediate effect.