From other's (hopefully stays that way :-) experiences, it seems the swiftest resolve to a non fault claim is to go directly to the third party insurer, assuming of course that their client has told them the truth.

If you give them the chance to avoid accident management and credit hire sharks they will move heaven and earth to sort the job out switfly and at no cost and minimal inconvenience to the non fault party.

Obviously this can't always happen, but it has to be the best method for all concerned to mitigate overall losses.

I tried that when a truck took my VW Touareg's door mirror off, got a quote from my local dealer and sent it direct but the prevaricated for several weeks - I lost patience and gave them an ultimatum which they ignored so I went through VW Ensurance who got the repair done and hired me a M-B GLE as a like-for-like hire car - the total bill was probably double with the hire car than the quote I got for them - but they had their chance.

I suspect you were dealing not with the truck owner's insurance but the accident management company the operator has paid to 'manage' such things for them (not especially well it often turns out), which from what i'm seeing only serves to see longer delays than should be with vehicles off the road for months instead of days. before anyone gets their act together.

The third party's own insurer should have ripped your arm off, but even before that the sensible truck operator should have settled this claim out of their own funds, unfortunately once operators reach a certain size various depts get involved and instead of one person acting quickly sensibly to mitigate costs all emphaisis is put into disciplining the hapless driver...boxes ticked and non jobs justifed, praise be.