Who are AVUS: After World War II, Josef Pscheidl (1921-2007) established a company, which specialized in transportation between the sectors of the Occupying Forces in Austria. The freight-forwarding company prospered really well, but the consequences of traffic accidents led to considerable losses. The insurance sums were simply too low. Other freight forwarders were confronted with the same problem.Josef Pscheidl saw a niche market and therefore in 1960 he founded the “Allgemeine Versicherungs-, Unfall und Schadenberatungsbüro” (General Insurance, Accident and Claims Handling Bureau) or “AVUS”, for short.
At the beginning, business was limited to representing the interests of injured parties. With the increase or motorization in Europe, Josef Pscheidl – together with his son Dr. Dieter Pscheidl – started to build up an international network, which concentrated on cross-border claims services in an increased manner. By the end of the Sixties more and more large insurance companies entrusted AVUS with the handling of their foreign claims. The business concept proved right. During the following decades the network was expanded throughout all of Europe and beyond.
