Whats it like being... a female vehicle repair assessor?
Samantha Perkins is one of a handful of female vehicle repair assessors at Enterprise. DRIVE caught up with her to find out more about her career and why she loves her job.
What’s your job like?
My work is varied and interesting as no two claims are the same. Assessing damage is quite intuitive: you have to really use your knowledge and experience to determine the best approach. We are constantly learning to stay up to date with technology as vehicles change so much.
What does it involve?
We cover every aspect of the vehicle repair assessment when one of our vehicles is damaged. I currently work with Enterprise Car Club and Enterprise Rent-A-Car vans and I’m training in varied responsibilities including Flex-E-Rent vehicles so I can assess long-term rentals as well as specialised vehicles, like accessible buses and refrigerated trucks.
Commercial vehicles on long-term rental come back with a lot of damage and need careful assessment. We are also training in the salvage process. It is great be involved in varied tasks.
Our target is to assess 65 vehicles a day, which are varied from smaller jobs like wing mirrors or bumper scuffs you can get through them quite quickly. Larger damage like the roof or the quarter panel or structural damage can take more time.
How did you join Enterprise?
I joined Enterprise a year ago having worked my way around the vehicle repair industry.
My family had a haulage company in Hastings and from the age of about 17 I was working for my father’s company and also worked for myself on vehicle salvage using equipment at my family’s company to repair and sell them. After about 10 years, I started working for a local vehicle rental firm, and then I worked as a service receptionist for a local garage. I then decided that I wanted a more professional career.
I’ve been lucky enough to work in places and positions where gender is not an issue. Everyone is assessed on his or her abilities. I’m very comfortable being part of our repair team and the repair networks.
I knew I wanted to work in insurance so I started working on the sales team at Hastings Direct. Then I saw an internal advert for a trainee motor engineer. I got the job because I had kept a record of all the hundreds of vehicles I had salvaged, repaired and sold and this impressed the recruiters.
After spending several years in insurance I was looking for a new challenge. Many years ago I had looked at Enterprise. It came across as a company where people are supported to develop and grow throughout their career. It was very refreshing to read the success stories and see the opportunities Enterprise gives to its staff. I don’t know many other businesses that do that.
What’s it like being a female technician?
I’ve been lucky enough to work in places and positions where gender is not an issue. Everyone is assessed on his or her abilities. I’m very comfortable being part of our repair team and the repair networks.
