AutoRaise, like all charities and business organisations, have been significantly impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic and have been unable to carry out some of their main fundraising activities, especially the AutoRaise REAL Rally in 2020.
This prompted a call on some of their existing partners to consider making an additional funding pledge and LV= were the first to offer their support. “In many ways, I wasn’t surprised at all when LV= offered a further contribution” comments, Bob Linwood, AutoRaise CEO. “For all of our existence, LV= have stood shoulder to shoulder with us, totally understanding that the vehicle repair industry needs to invest in young people to create a sustainable workforce in the future. They have supported everything we have done, have even created their own initiatives to raise awareness of the charity’s aims and are always first to offer their support. Their whole management team, from Martin Milliner, to Brian Hodge, Chris Payne, Michael Golding and their teams, absolutely get it. I just wish that every other insurer could offer something close to this level of support – the industry would then be almost guaranteed a better future, helping AutoRaise work with repairers to create a workforce full of young, fully trained and qualified technicians.”
Martin Milliner, LV=’s GI Claims Director, fully endorses AutoRaise, saying “We totally believe in AutoRaise and the work that they carry out. We’ve supported from day one and a great example of their work showed recently in their intervention with apprentices being made redundant. I’m really impressed and very grateful for the work they do on behalf of the industry.”
Brian Hodge, Director of Motor Customer Claims, adds, “Here at LV= we are incredibly proud of our long-standing association with AutoRaise and we have seen first-hand the impact they have made on new apprenticeship starts in our own repair network. We are acutely aware that our young people are the future and we all have a responsibility to ensure we support their development if we are to have a truly sustainable and capable industry to meet the ever changing needs of our customers.
“AutoRaise have been the catalyst for many of our approved repairers to adopt apprenticeship programmes and we need a fully functioning AutoRaise in our industry to ensure sustainability. I personally would urge every significant stakeholder in our industry to consider what their business model will look like in 5, 10, 20 years’ time with a continuing decline in numbers of qualified technicians in the industry. It’s a significant challenge and one we need to address collectively for the greater good.”
To find out more about how you can support AutoRaise, please contact Jen Evans at jen.evans@autoraise.co.uk