We have been assigned an unprecedented 3,000 flood damaged vehicles on just one day, following the UK’s third consecutive weekend of heavy rain.
The flood damaged vehicles were assigned to us from locations all across the UK on February 17th. A substantial proportion will be recovered from the south west and relocated to our Operations Centre in Bristol.
Copart’s surge management team
Phillip Briggs, Director of Operations Centres, Transport & Engineering at Copart, said:
“That’s the most vehicles we’ve ever had from the insurers we work with on one single day and demonstrates the sheer scale and impact of the latest floods on communities. “
Minimising Impact
Other victims of the torrential rain in the south west included two car dealerships in Pontypridd, who between them assigned us 250 vehicles flood damaged vehicles on February 20th.
Flooding in Pontypridd
We also assisted with the removal of stranded vehicles from two roads in the village of Pentre in Wales, to support the emergency services in clearing routes and help local businesses get back to work.
Briggs added:
“These floods cause such misery to people – on top of the damage to their homes, they’re often losing their cars.
“As they become unfortunately more common, we are investing in our future transporter fleet capability and have really comprehensive response plans in place.
“The quicker a vehicle can be collected and processed, the quicker insurers can process people’s claims.”
Operational Capacity
Our surge management team is on standby 24/7 ready to deploy recovery teams immediately to any location across the UK, and a dedicated flood response unit – a mobile ‘pop-up’ office – with all the equipment needed to carry out all the necessary tasks at the scene.
Vehicles are collected and delivered to Copart’s 15 operations centres around the UK by its transporter fleet. We have recently invested in 150 new multi-car transporters, boosting our fleet to 250 by next year, to ensure we can meet growing demand.