Alaska recorded the highest LOR at 20.8 days, a 0.1-day increase from Q1 2024. West Virginia had the next-highest LOR at 20.7 days, followed by New Mexico at 19.8 days. North Dakota had the lowest LOR at 12.0 days, a 1.1-day decline from Q1 2024. Hawaii followed with 12.6 days, ahead of District of Columbia at 13.0 days. Nebraska and Vermont had the highest LOR increases at 0.6 days; Iowa, New Hampshire and Arkansas all recorded higher LOR this quarter versus Q1 2024.
Overall length of rental (LOR) for collision-related rentals in Q1 2025 was 16.7 days, a 0.9-day decline from Q1 2024, according to a quarterly report from Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Last year, in Q1 2024, Enterprise observed a decline of 1.1 days from Q1 2023, when overall LOR was 18.7 days.
The post-COVID effects of vehicle production and supply chain issues has affected the industry in recent years, most notably in 2022 and 2023.
When comparing Q1 2025 to Q1 of 2020, overall LOR is still 3.5 days higher. LOR in Q1 2020 was 13.2 days, and in Q1 2019, overall LOR was even lower at 12.8 days.
John Yoswick, editor of the weekly CRASH Network newsletter, offered some insights from data he’s received:
“Some trends suggest there might not be significant drops to LOR moving forward this year if claims count doesn’t fall further. Two years of decline in the average shop backlog of work ended in the first quarter of this year. The “Who Pays for What?” survey conducted in January by Collision Advice and CRASH Network found that among more than 750 responding shops, the average backlog of work was 2.6 weeks, up half a week compared to prior quarter. An increase in backlog between the fourth and first quarter is not unusual, but this increase was slightly larger than typical, perhaps indicating the industry is finding its new ‘normal’ range after eight consecutive quarters of backlog declines.”
Greg Horn, PartsTrader’s chief industry relations officer, “The quarter-over-quarter reductions seen in LOR align with PartsTrader’s median delivery days (plus two standard deviations); the parts median delivery days have improved in Q1 2025 compared to the same quarter in 2024. A lower claim frequency seen by many of PartsTrader’s clients has also resulted in quicker shop throughput, which reduces cycle time.”
Parts are the largest cost portion of the repair estimate and delays in parts delivery affect cycle times.
Ryan Mandell, director of claims performance for Mitchell International, also added some relevant insights:
“Frequency of diagnostic operations in the U.S. rose to 87.4% in Q1 2025, up from 84.3% in Q1 2024. Calibration frequency also increased to 25.3%, up from 23.4% in Q1 2024. The average number of calibrations per estimate (when calibrations are present) also increased to 1.46 per estimate in Q1 2025, compared to 1.38 in Q1 2024. We expect the frequency number of 25.25% to increase above 30% once the data is fully mature, as calibration operations are often added as supplemental items and are not reflected on original estimates. The calibration frequency number for Q4 2024 ended at 29.4%.”
Among the highlights of the quarterly report:
- Drivable: For rentals associated with drivable claims, LOR was 15.2 days in Q1 2025, down 0.6 days from Q1 2024’s results of 15.8 days.
- Non-Drivable: LOR for non-drivable vehicles was 22.8 days, a 2.2-day decline from Q1 2024.
- Total Loss: LOR associated with total loss claims in Q1 2025 was 14.9 days, a 1.5-day decline from Q1 2024.
While LOR continues to decrease from the post-pandemic, outlying highs, challenging market and economic conditions could affect future results.
Yoswick added, “Perhaps the biggest unknown is the larger economy. Should it falter, vehicle miles traveled (which has rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels) could decline, further lowering claims count, and overall financial uncertainty may lead more drivers with moderate vehicle damage to forego having it repaired.