July/August - MTA

National Motor
Vehicle Theft
Reduction Council
StratPlan series
forum
The NMVTRC held their
annual StratPlan series
forum on June 8 in Adelaide.
These forums provide the
stakeholders in theft reduction
a chance to listen to the current
progress and activities of
the council. Representatives
attending this year’s forum
included the insurance industry,
SA Police, government
departments and industry
representatives including the
MTA.
National APRAA Chairman
George Papillo and Divisional
Manager and South Australian
theft committee member Peter
McMahon were invited along
with John Chapman in his dual
role as NMVTRC member
for MTAA and also MTA
Executive Director.
During the course of 2009
there has been an overall
reduction of 13 per cent in
thefts across Australia, while
South Australia achieved a
very impressive reduction of
18 per cent in stolen vehicles
contributing one-fifth of the
total reduction across the
country.
Profit motivated theft has
reduced by 27 per cent over a
five-year period. As readers may
be aware in 2007/08 there was a
massive jump in the price paid
for scrap reaching in some cases
$400 a tonne. This correlated
with a spike in stolen and not
recovered vehicles, which has
Geoff Hughes and APRAA National Chairman George Papillo.
returned to pre 07/08 figures
since the global financial crisis
of 08/09.
The topic of a ban in NSW
of all repairable write-offs was
discussed and thoughts given
as to what will happen if any
legislation tabled in NSW
was successful and its possible
outcomes in other states.
The recently released report
by the NMVTRC into
damage assessment criteria was
discussed, this is one of three
reports being produced by the
council and others will include
best practices for vehicle identity
and safety inspections into
written-off vehicles and the
“end of life” process.
The MTA and our committees
representing both recyclers
and collision repairers have
commented on the first report
released. Recycling members will
also be meeting with consultants
for the council in regards to “end
of life” of vehicles.
One interesting point
throughout the day was the
statistic that vehicles 11 years
and older are most subject to
theft, as later model vehicles
have increased security systems
and are usually subject to theft
only when the keys are stolen.
If members are interested
released reports can be found on
the Car-Safe website at
www.carsafe.com.au
Riverland business surviving and thriving
Darran vander Woude
admits that running a
small business is not easy.
But despite this Darran
and Naiomi have as much
passion for River Murray Auto
Wreckers, a business created by
Chris and Eve vander Woude,
that they are willing to take on
the challenge to not only keep
the local business going, but to
make in grow.
“Chris and Eve are gradually
passing over more and more
responsibility for running the
business. The challenge for us
is to build on their great work
and to keep building up the
business, only changing our
business practices to keep up
with the times. We find this
really interesting,” Mr vander
Woude said.
With experience gained by
working in all areas of the
business, Darran makes sure to
continue his parents’ practice,
which makes customer service a
high priority – giving the right
advice and service which suits
them best.
While there are no plans
to start at another location
or make drastic changes,
Darran said maintaining MTA
membership was another
important factor for a the
business.
“It helps to know that
the support of the MTA is
behind us, and the fact that
they (MTA) does a lot of
background work for us means
we can concentrate on the dayto-day
running of our business,”
he said.
Naiomi and Darran vander Woude.
www.mta-sa.asn.aumotor trade 15