Most of what a vehicle assessment relies on is a photograph. This guide sets out what to capture, how an image becomes evidence rather than illustration, how to treat images other people supply, and how to keep them so they still prove something years later.
A vehicle assessment is decided largely on images: the practice's own from an inspection, a repairer's from the workshop, a customer's from a phone at the roadside. The assessment, the estimate, the total loss decision and any expert opinion rest on them, and when any of those is questioned the first request is for the photographs.
The difficulty is that an image proves something only when its context is known: which vehicle, which area, taken when, by whom, with what, and in support of which finding. An image that has been moved from a phone to an email to a folder has lost most of that. Images supplied by a party with an interest in the outcome carry less weight still unless the practice records what it received, when, and what it could verify.
At volume, the practical problems compound. Thousands of images a month, named by a camera, stored wherever they landed, with no link to the findings they support and no record of when they were taken or received. The practice cannot find the image that matters, cannot say where it came from, and cannot show that it has not been altered.
Every image is captured or received through the case and attached to the finding it supports: this photograph shows this damage on this panel of this vehicle. The case records the origin, whether the practice's own inspection, a repairer, a customer or a third party; the capture data the image carries, including time and device where present; the time of receipt; and the person who attached it. The original is kept unaltered and any annotated or cropped version is a separate derived file.
A capture standard tells engineers what to photograph: identification, the whole vehicle from each corner, the odometer, each damaged area in context and close up, the undamaged areas, pre-existing damage and wear, and the underside or structural areas where the instruction calls for it. Captured through the case on a structured form, the standard is applied every time and the images land in the right place.
Images supplied by others are assessed, not assumed. The practice records what was received, the stated source and date, what the capture data shows, and whether it was consistent with the account given. A desktop assessment from supplied images states what could and could not be seen. The record then shows both what the practice relied on and what it knew about it.
Follow these steps so that every photograph the practice relies on can be found, explained and defended.
Define the set of images every inspection includes and the additional sets by instruction type: identification, four corners, odometer, each damaged area in context and close, undamaged areas, pre-existing damage, interior, underside or structural areas where relevant, and the items an expert report will need. Build it into the site form as prompts.
Engineers photograph through the site form on the case, so each image lands on its finding with the capture time and device recorded and nothing has to be uploaded or matched later. Images taken outside the case are imported with their origin recorded.
For images from repairers, customers and third parties, record who supplied them, when, by what route, and what the capture data shows. Where the data is missing or inconsistent with the account, record that too. The assessment states what it relied on and what it could not verify.
The original file is stored as received and never edited. Crops, markings and enhancements for the report are saved as derived files linked to the original, so the practice can always show what the camera recorded.
Each image cited in an assessment or expert report has a reference on the case, and the report cites the reference. The reader can go from the statement to the evidence, and the practice can produce the evidence for any statement.
For desktop assessments, record the coverage and quality of the images supplied against the capture standard, what could not be assessed from them, and whether a physical inspection was considered. The assessment says so in terms.
Images are kept with the vehicle record and the case under the practice's retention policy, which should run as long as the assessment might be questioned. The retention period, the storage and who can access them are written down.
Storage is cheap and structure is what makes volume useful. The image nobody thought they needed is usually the one that settles the question.
If the practice cannot say where an image came from and when, the assessment should not depend on it, and if it has to, it should say so.
Context shots, undamaged areas and the identification images are what let a later reader place the damage images and rule out substitution or later additions.
They are valuable and often the only images of the scene, but they are supplied by a party with an interest. Record them as received, assess them, and say what they establish.
Time, device and, where present, location are part of the evidence. Do not strip them in processing, and record when they are absent.
Sample inspections against the capture standard periodically and feed the results back to engineers. A standard nobody checks drifts within a year.
Set turnaround targets by instruction type and client.
Every assessment is a number somebody will argue with. This guide sets out a workflow that gets a practice from instruction to an estimate it can stand behind, consistently across assessors and at volume.
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Bring us an inspection's worth of images and we will show you what they look like captured through the case: attached to findings, with their origin and timing recorded, and findable for the vehicle years later.
