The four business areas – Assistance, Healthcare, Training and Emergency – between them represent the Danish Falck Group’s activities, which are aimed at preventing accidents and illness, providing assistance during disaster, accident and emergency situations, and helping people to recover after illness or accident.
The Emergency service is also a supplier of a large number of services in the areas of health, security, roadside assistance and other kinds of assistance to companies and private citizens in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Estonia. As the biggest ambulance operator in Europe, Falck provides ambulance services for residents of seven countries in close collaboration with the authorities, and also performs a number of tasks for the police and the road authorities.
But the main country is of course Denmark, where two thirds of the total of 15,000 employees are based. “In general terms our credit risk is considered low, because by far the majority of our biggest customers are public authorities,” explains chief accountant Martin Ahlgreen from his office in Århus, Denmark’s second largest city. This is one of the reasons why they decided against having an in-house debt collection department in the company.
Another reason is that at Falck they want to maintain a focus on key services and instead let external specialists take care of some of the underlying functions. “We have a good partnership with Intrum Justitia as regards debt collection matters. They don’t actually do anything that Falck could not do itself. But we felt it was the right move to outsource this element to Intrum Justitia, because they have the experience, the whole setup and are professional,” explains the chief accountant.
One of the areas where many of the debt collection cases originate is roadside assistance. This is where Falck is called out to car drivers who have broken down, run out of petrol, had a puncture or have other mechanical problems. “Some customers are subscribers, so our service is of course covered. But non-subscribers also call us, and even though we try to obtain payment on site, it’s not always possible. If the customer is already short of money it can happen that our bill doesn’t get paid. In such instances, Intrum Justitia is good at setting up repayment arrangements, so that we get what is due to us,” says Martin Ahlgreen.
A typical debt collection case starts once Falck has sent the customer three reminders. “We send about 1,000 new reminders every two weeks. After three reminders this figure has been reduced to between 50 and 100. At this point we have no more contact with the customer, and Intrum takes over. In most cases, the payment comes in straight away, or another scheme is arranged, and we’re very satisfied with that,” he says.
It happens quite frequently that Falck is requisitioned by the Danish police because a broken down car is causing disruption or even posing a threat to the safety of other drivers. It may be a breakdown on the motorway, or perhaps poorly parked cars at festivals and the like, where fire service access or evacuation routes are obstructed. “In such cases, the police ask us to remove the cars, and of course the car owner must pay for this.
But there can be a few people who are unhappy with the course of events and refuse to pay the bill. As a rule, these cases are usually settled amicably thanks to the way they are handled by Intrum,” explains the 44 yearold chief accountant, who has held his position for five years.
But there are also “hard-core” poor payers, determined cheats who consistently refuse to pay what they owe. “After a period when Intrum has tried in vain to collect what we are owed – perhaps because the customer actually has no money – these people are designated for monitoring. This means that we stop the dialogue, but still keep an eye on them.
At the same time, these people are registered in a public register of poor payers. So if, for example, a few years later they want to buy a flat or something similar that requires creditworthiness, Intrum Justitia moves in once more and resumes the debt collection process,” says Martin Ahlgreen.
It is not only Danish car drivers who end up as debt collection customers of Intrum Justitia. Falck also has cases in which private individuals or companies hire a so-called safety package consisting of fire extinguishers, fire blankets and so on. “Some of these customers forget to pay their subscription. If it’s a company that has gone bankrupt, of course we can’t do anything. But if the company closes down and is not bankrupt, the owner occasionally forgets to return the hired equipment. And this can end up in a case for Intrum Justitia,” he explains.
Falck also provides assistance in the event of damage to buildings. Global warming appears to be having the effect that we are experiencing more extreme weather situations, with storms and high volumes of rain and snow. In Denmark in recent years there have been a significant number of floods in residential areas because of high rainfall or storm flooding.
This has resulted in lots of flooded cellars in Danish houses, and here too Falck has been called out to help. “After a flooded cellar has been cleared up we can supply a dehumidifier that removes the last traces of moisture from the foundations and walls.
But in some situations the customer has to pay to hire the dehumidifier, and we have some debt collection cases as a result of failure to pay for this service. Some customers are covered by insurance, while others aren’t,” says Martin Ahlgreen.
The partnership between Falck and Intrum Justitia has been in progress since 1999, and the chief accountant feels that this will continue in the future. “We buy a service that we’re very satisfied with. I doubt that we would be able to achieve the same results ourselves with the same staffing level,” he confirms, adding that by far the majority of debt collection cases involve smaller sums of DKK 1,200-1,500 (EUR 160 – 200. ) ◗
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