IT’S hard trying to win a race against Mother Nature, Lachlan knows that only too well.
The building contractor can find himself anywhere on a job site in the Toowoomba region on any given day.
On one particular afternoon this year, he could see the storm clouds building and made a mad dash for home in Withcott, a small rural town in the nearby Lockyer Valley. He missed victory by a whisker.
“I tried to race home to beat it but didn’t quite get there,” Lachy said. “I was about to get home and just before I was able to park in the garage, I had to pull over because I couldn’t drive or see. I was only a few kilometres away – in Withcott.”
While Toowoomba City was relatively unaffected by the storm, below the range was pummeled with golf ball-sized hailstones.
“That’s the way it goes most times,” Lachy said. “A lot of people in Toowoomba had minor damage, but once it hit the bottom of the range, a fair few people suffered from it. The Lockyer Valley definitely got it.”
It was only in the light of day next morning that Lachy could see the extent of the damage to his 2018 silver Toyota Hilux 4WD Ute.
The vehicle had suffered hundreds of dents – in the door pillars, bonnet and roof but also hard-to-get-at places including structural parts of the roof.
Except for behind the headboard on the tray, virtually the whole Ute was damaged.
“When I looked at it, I thought it had to be a write-off. But it’s incredible what specialists can do these days,” Lachy said.
Lachy made the call to his RACQ vehicle insurer at 9am the day after the storm. By lunchtime, an assessor from Platinum Hail Management Solutions (PHMS) had been out to his job site to inspect the Hilux.
The remainder of the repair work was just as smooth and efficient.
He said, “I had an email from RACQ that it was all good to go. There was an address in Toowoomba where I had to drop the Ute off and it was fixed within two days. They (PHMS) got every single dent out, I’m really happy with it. In under a week (from the storm), I was back driving again. I’ve known of a lot of insurance claims and none of them have been this good,” he said.
Just like the building game, strong foundations and attention to detail have made PHMS an industry leader in hailstone repair solutions.
“Overall, I was very impressed with everything,” Lachy said. “Everyone I spoke to was exceptionally helpful. Even waiting times: you don’t have to sit on the line to get on to (PHMS). It’s straight away. It’s fantastic. That makes the process so much more straightforward.”