Glossary

An independent adjuster is a licensed adjuster who handles claims on an insurer's behalf under contract rather than as an employee, usually through an independent adjusting firm and usually paid per assignment. Insurers use them for surge, coverage gaps and specialist work.

In process inspection is the checking of work while it is still in production, at defined points between operations, so that a nonconformity is found and corrected before more value is added to the part or before a later operation buries the evidence.

An inspection audit is a re-examination of a sample of completed inspections, carried out to establish whether the work behind the records really happened and whether the judgements recorded in them were sound. It is the check on the checkers: it inspects the inspection records rather than the assets.

An inspection audit trail is the chronological record attached to an inspection showing who captured each piece of evidence, when and where it was captured, who reviewed or changed anything afterwards, and whether the files are still the ones originally received. It lets a third party reconstruct the inspection months later without trusting anyone's memory.

An inspection backlog is the set of inspections past their due date and not yet completed, measured by both count and age. The count alone says very little. Nine items three days late and nine items nine months late describe two completely different estates.

Inspection bias is any systematic influence that pushes an inspection result away from the condition of the item and toward something else: the previous result, the answer the inspector expects, the time of day, or the inspector's own stake in the outcome. Systematic is the key word.

An inspection checklist is a structured list of items an inspector must check during a single inspection, in a fixed order, with a recorded outcome for each item. It turns a procedure into a sequence of prompts, so completeness does not depend on what the inspector happens to remember that day.

Inspection completion rate is the share of required inspections that were actually carried out in a given period, calculated as inspections completed divided by inspections required. It is also the easiest inspection metric to hit dishonestly, because closing a record counts the same as inspecting an asset.

Inspection coverage is the share of the required inspection population that was actually inspected to standard within a defined period, expressed as a percentage. It answers one question: of everything that had to be examined this period, how much of it was.

Inspection criteria are the stated standards each item in an inspection is judged against, expressed precisely enough that two competent inspectors reach the same conclusion. They answer what good looks like, which is a separate question from what gets examined.

Inspection cycle time is the total elapsed time between an inspection being requested and a usable report being available to act on, counted in calendar time across the whole process rather than in working hours anyone spent on it. It splits into four segments, and the dominant one is rarely the one teams try to fix.

Inspection evidence is the material captured during an inspection that supports a finding: photographs, video, measurements, instrument readings, spoken commentary and the recorded answers to the questions asked on site. It is what turns a stated conclusion into a checkable one.

Inspection frequency is how often a given asset is formally examined, expressed either as a fixed calendar interval or as an interval derived from risk, usage and failure history. It is set per asset class rather than per fleet, and statutory duties override whatever the operator would otherwise choose.

An inspection interval is the elapsed time, running hours or usage cycles permitted between one completed inspection of an asset and the next. It is set per asset rather than per fleet, and every due date in a schedule is simply the last completed date plus the interval.

Inspection management software is the system an organisation uses to plan every inspection that is due, give the inspector a structured form, hold the evidence collected, turn findings into corrective actions and reports, and keep an audit trail of the whole cycle. Its value depends entirely on the quality of what is captured at the point of inspection.

An inspection report is the issued document stating what was inspected, when, by whom, against which criteria and what was found, written so that someone who was not present can rely on it later. It is the output of an inspection, not the working notes behind it.

Inspection scheduling is the work of assigning every due inspection to a date, a competent inspector and a location, so each asset is examined before its interval expires. It does not change how much work exists. It only decides whether that work gets done in time.

Inspection scope is the defined boundary of what a given inspection covers: which items, which characteristics, at what level of access, at what point in time. Everything outside that boundary is not a pass, and it is not a fail. It was simply never examined.

An inspection sign off is the act of a named, authorised person attaching their identity to an inspection record and stating what they will stand behind. It is the point where a set of observations becomes somebody's professional assertion rather than a collection of files.

An inspection standard is a published document that defines what an inspection covers, how it is carried out and what counts as a pass or a fail, so that two competent inspectors applying it to the same item should reach the same result. It fixes the meaning of good before anyone looks.

Inspector competence is the demonstrated ability of a person to carry out a defined inspection correctly and consistently, combining training, knowledge, skill and experience with the judgement to apply them to the item in front of them. A certificate records training. Competence shows up in the work.

An installation checklist is a fixed, ordered list of the steps and verification points a technician completes and records during an installation. It controls the sequence of work and doubles as the record that proves the job was done correctly, not just finished.

Insurance telematics is the use of driving data recorded by a vehicle, a plug-in device, or a smartphone app, covering speed, braking, cornering, mileage, time of day, and impact forces, to price motor cover and to support claims decisions. It is also sold as usage-based insurance or black box insurance.

Interactive video is video the viewer can act on rather than only watch: buttons, forms, links, chapters or branching choices sit on or beside the player, so the decision the video is asking for can be made in the same place the video is played.

Internal work is the pay type on a dealership repair order where the workshop performs labour and fits parts for the dealership itself, billed to another department rather than to a customer or the manufacturer. Reconditioning, pre-delivery inspection and lot damage are the classic examples.

An internet lead is a sales enquiry that reaches a dealership electronically rather than on foot, submitted through a form on the dealer website, a third-party marketplace, the manufacturer's site or a chat tool, and landing in the CRM with contact details and usually a vehicle of interest.

An inventory clerk is an independent professional who documents the condition and contents of a rented property, producing the inventory and check-in report at the start of a tenancy and the check-out report at the end, without acting in the interest of either the landlord or the tenant.

An inventory report, in lettings, is the itemised record of everything in a rental property and the condition of each item, room and surface at the start of a tenancy, supported by dated photos. It is checked and signed at check-in, compared at check-out, and is the main evidence a deposit scheme uses to decide deductions.

Inventory turn is the number of times a dealership sells and replaces its vehicle stock over a period, normally a year, calculated as units retailed divided by average units in stock. It is the cleanest read on how hard the capital sitting on the lot is working.

IP intelligence is the practice of enriching an IP address with contextual data, such as approximate location, network type, VPN or hosting status and reputation history, to help judge where a digital submission came from. It describes a network path, not a person.

A job card is the shop-floor record of a single job: the sheet or screen that travels with the work and captures what the technician found, did, fitted and timed. The work order authorises the job. The job card records what actually happened on it.

Job completion rate is the share of scheduled jobs finished within their planned visit, calculated as jobs completed divided by jobs scheduled in the same period. It measures schedule reliability, and it is the field service metric most easily improved by changing paperwork rather than performance.

A knowledge base is a structured, searchable collection of articles that answer the questions customers and agents actually ask, maintained as a byproduct of resolving contacts rather than as a separate documentation project. How it is maintained matters more than what is in it.

Know your customer, usually shortened to KYC, is the set of checks a regulated business runs to establish who its customer is, who ultimately owns or controls them, and what the relationship is for. The detail of what is required differs by country.

A labour rate is the hourly price a workshop charges for technician time, applied to the hours a job is billed at rather than the hours it actually takes. Most workshops run several at once: a posted retail rate, a warranty rate, an internal rate and negotiated rates.

A ladder inspection is a visual check of a ladder or stepladder for defects that would make it unsafe to use. It exists in two forms: a pre-use check by the user at the start of every job, and a periodic detailed inspection by a competent person that is recorded, often shown on a ladder tag.

Last touch attribution gives 100 percent of the credit for a sale to the final recorded marketing touch before it, ignoring every touch that came earlier in the path. It is the default in most ad platforms and reporting tools, which is why it shapes more dealership budget decisions than any other model.

A lawful basis is the specific ground under Article 6(1) GDPR that makes an act of processing personal data legal, and every processing purpose needs one identified before the processing starts. There are six of them. They rank equally, and your choice has to be documented and disclosed.

Lead management is the process a dealership uses to capture an enquiry, route it to an owner, respond to it, work it through follow-up, and record the outcome. It covers everything between a customer raising their hand and the deal being either sold or genuinely closed out.

Lead response time is the elapsed time between a sales enquiry arriving in the dealership's CRM and the first genuine attempt to contact that customer. It is measured per lead and reported as a median, or as the share of leads answered inside a target window such as 15 minutes.

Lead source is the field in a dealership CRM that records where a sales enquiry came from, such as the dealer website, a third-party marketplace, the manufacturer, a walk-in or a phone call. It is the field every marketing spend decision is judged on, and the one most often recorded badly.

Lead to appointment ratio is the percentage of leads that turn into a booked appointment, calculated as appointments set divided by leads received in the same period. It is the first conversion in the sales funnel and the one most often measured against a denominator nobody agreed on.

Lease financing is a family of funding structures in which a funder buys an asset and grants a business the right to use it for a fixed term in return for periodic payments, with legal title staying with the funder for the life of the agreement.

A lease return is the handover of a leased vehicle back to the lessor at the end of the contract, covering collection, the condition assessment made at the same time, and the settlement of any end-of-contract charges. The return is the event. The inspection is the assessment carried out during it.

Lettings inventory software is the tooling inventory clerks and letting agents use to produce the inventory and schedule of condition at the start of a tenancy, the mid-term inspection and the check-out report at the end, with dated photographs embedded in each report and the tenant's agreement recorded. It is also called property inventory software.

A lighting check is a capture-quality control that tests whether there is enough usable light on the subject before or during recording, so the person reviewing the result later can tell what is actually in the frame. Too dark, blown out or lit from the wrong side, and the step is flagged for a redo.

A LOLER inspection is any check carried out on lifting equipment to satisfy the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 in the UK. The term covers two separate duties: the periodic thorough examination by a competent person, and the pre-use check the operator carries out before each use.

Lone working is any work carried out by someone with no close or direct supervision and nobody immediately on hand to help if something goes wrong. It covers field engineers, drivers, contractors on empty sites, care and housing visitors, and anyone left in a building after hours.

A loss adjuster is an independent claims professional appointed and paid by the insurer to investigate a larger or more complex claim, establish its cause and extent, test it against the policy, and recommend a settlement. The title is standard in the UK, Ireland and much of the Commonwealth.

Loss ratio is the share of earned premium an insurer pays out in claims, calculated as incurred losses divided by earned premium and shown as a percentage. It is the clearest single measure of whether a book of business is priced correctly for the risk it carries.

Marketing attribution is the practice of assigning credit for a sale to the marketing touches that preceded it, so spend can be judged by what it produced. A car purchase involves many touches over weeks, so every attribution model is a rule for splitting credit, not a measurement of cause.

A marketplace listing is the advertisement for one vehicle on a third-party shopping site rather than on the dealer's own website. It carries the photos, video, price, specification and dealer details, and it sits directly alongside near identical cars from competing stores.

Market share by rooftop is the share of vehicle registrations in a defined geographic area that one dealership location accounts for, measured site by site rather than for the group or the brand as a whole. It is the number a manufacturer's field team opens a review with.

Menu pricing is the practice of setting one fixed, published price per maintenance job in advance, so the customer is quoted from the menu instead of from labour time multiplied by the labour rate plus parts, calculated on the day.

Metadata is data about data: the descriptive, technical and administrative information attached to a file rather than contained in what the file shows, such as when a photograph was taken, on what device and with what settings. It is the first thing an investigator checks and the last thing to rely on alone.

Metadata verification is the checking of the data attached to a submitted photo or video, chiefly capture time, location, device and software, against records the submitter does not control, to judge how far the file can be relied on. File metadata on its own can be edited or stripped, so it is a starting point, not proof.

A method statement is a written description of how a specific job will be carried out safely, setting out the sequence of work, the equipment and people involved, and the control measures that the risk assessment for that job identified. It tells the crew how, not just what.

A MEWP pre-use inspection is the operator's own visual and functional check of a mobile elevating work platform (scissor lift, boom or cherry picker) before each shift or each use, recorded as evidence that the machine was safe to operate. It is separate from the six-monthly thorough examination a competent person carries out under LOLER.

A mid-tenancy inspection is a scheduled visit by a landlord or agent during a tenancy, typically every three to six months, to check the property is being looked after and to catch maintenance problems such as damp, leaks or faulty alarms early. It is carried out with written notice and recorded with dated photos.

A mid term inspection is a condition check scheduled partway through a contract, tenancy, or service interval rather than at its start or end. Its purpose is to surface problems while there is still time and contractual room to act on them cheaply.

A minimum evidence set is the smallest defined group of images, measurements and readings that must be present before an inspection record counts as complete. It is chosen so the record can still answer the questions asked of it months later, by someone who was never there.

A mobile web app is an application that runs inside a phone's browser and is reached through a URL rather than installed from an app store, using the same web technologies as a website but built around the interaction patterns and screen size of a phone.

The MOT, short for Ministry of Transport test, is the annual roadworthiness and emissions test required for most vehicles used on UK roads. It checks that a vehicle meets minimum road safety and environmental standards on the day of the test, and it is not a service or a mechanical health check.

A motor claim is a request for repair, replacement, or payment made under a motor insurance policy after a vehicle is damaged, stolen, or involved in an incident causing injury or third party loss. The process scales with severity, from a windscreen chip settled in a day to a total loss taking weeks.

A move-in inspection is the walk-through of a rental property at the start of a tenancy, recording the condition of every room, fixture and fitting with dated photos and notes that landlord and tenant both sign. It is the baseline the move-out inspection is compared against. In the UK and Ireland the same record is called a check-in report.

A move-out inspection is the walk-through of a rental property when the tenant leaves, comparing its condition against the move-in record to establish what has changed, what counts as fair wear and tear, and what may be deducted from the deposit. In the UK and Ireland it is called a check-out report.

A multi point inspection (MPI) is the standard check a technician carries out on a vehicle's key systems at every service visit, working a fixed list of items and grading each one red, amber or green. It turns a booked job into a documented list of what the car needs now and what it needs soon.

The Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), also known as the sticker price, is a term that is commonly used in the automotive industry. It refers to the price that the manufacturer of a vehicle recommends that the dealership sell the vehicle for in the consumer market. The MSRP is often found on the vehicle's window sticker and is typically used as a starting point for negotiations between the buyer and the dealership.

Mean time between failures (MTBF) is the average operating time a repairable asset delivers between one failure and the next, found by dividing total uptime by the number of failures. It is the standard reliability measure, and it applies only to assets that get repaired and returned to service.

Mean time to repair (MTTR) is the average time needed to restore a failed asset to working order, found by dividing total repair time by the number of repairs in the same period. It is the standard measure of maintainability, and it is reported under four different definitions.

Non destructive testing (NDT) is a family of inspection methods that assess the condition, integrity or properties of a material or component without damaging it or taking it permanently out of service. The item is still usable after the test, which is the whole point of the discipline.

A no-app inspection is an inspection the person on site completes from a link in their phone's browser, with nothing to install and no account to create. Also called a web-based inspection, it is the form that works when the participant is a customer, tenant, driver or contractor rather than a trained employee.

Non-repudiation is the property a system aims for when it tries to make it hard for a party to credibly deny having sent, approved or submitted something. It is a design goal supported by signatures and logging, and in law it is an argument you can make, not a guarantee you can rely on.

A no-show is a customer who books an appointment and then neither arrives nor cancels beforehand. It is the most expensive appointment outcome a dealership has, because the lead cost, the set and the held slot are all spent before anyone knows the appointment failed.

Notice of loss is the policyholder's first formal communication telling the insurer that an event which may be covered has occurred. It triggers the insurer's duty to investigate, opens the claim file, and starts almost every clock a claims operation runs on.

A notification is a message a system sends to tell a person or another system that an event has occurred, or that something now needs attention, delivered outside whatever screen the recipient is currently looking at. Email, SMS, push and webhooks all count.

Net promoter score (NPS) is a loyalty measure built on one question: how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague, scored 0 to 10. It is the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors, and it runs from minus 100 to plus 100.

Object detection is the automated location and labelling of things inside an image, returning a bounding box, a class label, and a confidence score for each item it believes it has found. It answers where and what, not whether the finding is correct.

Optical character recognition (OCR) is the automated reading of text out of an image or a scanned document, turning pixels that look like characters into characters a computer can store and search. It is highly accurate on clean printed text and much weaker everywhere else.

An odometer reading is the distance figure shown on a vehicle's odometer at a specific moment, recorded with a date so it can be compared against earlier readings. A single reading is a data point about a display. The sequence of readings over time is what tells you whether to trust it.

OEM co-op advertising is a manufacturer paying a share of a franchised dealer's local advertising cost, on condition that the advertising follows the brand's rules on logos, claims, disclaimers and approved media. The dealer pays first and claims the money back with proof.

An OEM lead is a sales enquiry passed to a dealership by the vehicle manufacturer, generated on the brand's national website or campaign and routed to a dealer by geography. There is no per-lead fee, but the leads carry manufacturer response standards and are funded from marketing money the dealer already contributes.

The term Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is a concept that is widely used in various industries, including the automotive sector. It refers to a company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. In the automotive industry, an OEM is the original producer of a vehicle's components, and these parts are often used by the car company in the vehicle's assembly, and they are also sold to customers by the car company's service department.

Off hire is the point at which a hirer notifies the owner that hired plant or equipment is finished with and available for collection, ending the charging period. It is one of the most disputed moments in hire, because collection usually happens later than the notification.

One to one video is video made for a single named recipient and sent directly to that person, rather than produced once and broadcast to an audience. One sender, one viewer, and content that refers to the viewer's own car, quote or question. Also written one-to-one video or 1:1 video.

On hire is the status of an asset that has been released to a hirer and is accruing hire charges, running from the moment it leaves the owner's control until it is formally off hired. It is also the point at which condition should be recorded, because that record sets the standard the asset is judged against on return.

Online car buying is the practice of completing part or all of a vehicle purchase over the internet: selecting the car, agreeing the price, arranging finance, valuing a part exchange and signing, without the buyer being in the showroom for every step.

Opportunistic fraud is when a policyholder with a real incident and no prior intent to defraud inflates, adds to, or invents part of a claim once the loss has already happened. It is the larger half of the standard counter-fraud split between opportunistic and organised fraud.

Organised insurance fraud is premeditated fraud committed by a network of people acting together, where the incident is staged, induced or invented and the policy often exists only to be claimed on. It is the second half of the standard opportunistic and organised split.

Part exchange is the UK term for handing your existing car to a dealer as part of the payment for the next one. The dealer values the car, deducts that figure from the price of the vehicle being bought, and the customer settles the difference in cash or finance.

Parts availability is the share of jobs where the right part is on hand at the moment the work needs it. In field service it only counts at the point of use, on the job, which is why a well stocked central warehouse and a poor first-time fix rate sit together comfortably.

Parts fill rate is the share of parts demands a dealership parts department satisfies immediately from its own shelf. NADA's parts guide puts first-time off-the-shelf fill rate at 90 percent and same-day fill rate at 95 percent, which are the two numbers most parts managers get measured on.

Parts markup is the amount a workshop adds to the cost price of a part to reach the price charged to the customer, expressed as a percentage of that cost. It drives the parts line of every repair order, and it is not the same number as gross margin.

Pass fail criteria are the rules that convert an inspection measurement or observation into a binary verdict: this item is accepted, or it is rejected. They sit downstream of the standard itself, and they are where a measured value becomes an operational decision.