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Fleets and garages debating cost of car sanitation

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Fleets and garages are currently working out ‘who pays the cost’ of sanitisation on cars and vans that undergo service, maintenance and repair (SMR).

That’s according to epyx, which says that while there appears to be general agreement among all parties that vehicles will need sanitising thoroughly before they are handed back to their usual driver after undergoing work, who actually will pay for cleaning products, PPE equipment and the time taken is very much open to debate.

Tim Meadows, Vice President and Commercial Director at epyx, said: “This is a development that we are just starting to see through our 1link Service Network SMR platform… Sanitisation is becoming recognised as an essential part of almost any visit by a vehicle to a workshop. The car or van is potentially touched by many people as part of almost any SMR process, and the potential spread of infection needs to be minimised.

“However, that santisation has a cost and is starting to appear as a formal charge on some job sheets. The question is, who pays? Garages see it, understandably, as an additional cost that they shouldn’t have to bear. Their fleet customers, equally understandably, feel the same.”

Meadows said that issue was especially acute where, on lower SMR bills, it could be interpreted as a disproportionate amount.

“If you are having £1,000 of work done, then a potential £10 item doesn’t stick out but, if your car is in the workshop for an MoT test or even just having a small repair, it becomes more noticeable

“Some of the fleets that use 1link Service Network have hundreds of thousands of maintenance jobs every year and adding £10 to each suddenly becomes a very large sum of money.

“Equally, this is a significant cost for garages to absorb. However efficient they become at sanitisation, this is something that takes time and money.

“One thing that we have found during the coronavirus crisis, though, is that a very strong spirit of co-operation has emerged across our industry. Everyone recognises that they are facing the same issues and they need to resolve them together. We are sure that sensible solutions will be found to this problem.”

Daily rental firms keen on ‘ready-to-retail’

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Daily rental companies are looking to ensure that the cars and vans they remarketed are in ready-to-retail condition, with the trend shifting from ensuring vehicles reach the used market from grade 2-3 condition to grade 1-2 condition in 2019.

That’s according to research by automotive e-commerce specialists epyx, with Vicky Gardner, head of remarking at the firm, stating: “There are really two convergent trends behind this. One is that the used sector today overwhelmingly prefers ready-to-retail stock but it remains in short supply, relatively speaking.
 
“What this means is that it really pays for companies such as daily rental operations to ensure that their cars and vans are presented to buyers in grade 1 or 2 condition. The premium being paid over grade 2-3 is very much worth it and they have moved to meet this demand over the last year or more.
 
“The second trend is that, thanks to technology, rental companies are much more aware of the condition of their vehicles on a day-to-day basis and are able to keep them in better shape.
 
“With handheld devices, the thoroughness of checking and recording of data every time that a vehicle is hired vastly exceeds older, largely manual processes. This means that vehicles stay in better condition throughout their life on the fleet.”
 
Vicky added that, as a result, the results being achieved by daily rental companies were much more impressive today than even just a couple of years ago.
 
“We work with a number of daily rental companies and the improved results that we have seen across the market in recent years have been very encouraging. All of them are achieving noticeably higher remarketing returns through presenting better quality stock but also through using online options very intelligently. 
 
“For example, where they have a quantity of similar stock coming off their fleet at the same time, which is sometimes an issue for rental companies, they are using online tools to distribute it across the market more effectively.”
 
A recently-introduced Damage Module by epyx helps to maintain the condition of hire vehicles for users of the 1Link Hire Network platform. 

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

Epyx targets fleet remarketing with tracking reports

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Epyx has launched new online reports designed to help fleets gain a better picture of their remarketing activity in the face of burgeoning data points.

The Insights Reports are being made available to businesses that use the company’s 1link Disposal Network platform to defleet company cars and vans through a wide variety of channels.

The initial rollout focuses on both vehicles available for sale and sold vehicles using three key graphs. Each of these provides an informative overview over a range of timescales as well as giving the option to drill down to a granular level.

The first graph shows a vendor which vehicles have been published for sale by different channels – such as specific online and physical sales and auctions.

The second plots total vehicles for sale, including the ability to drill down into each channel to see where they are being advertised, for how long, and by manufacturer and model.

The third graph, for sold vehicles, shows the user the number of sold units and allows them to access details such as cars and vans sold by channel and by manufacturer and model, alongside metrics such as results against CAP, against reserve or days to sale.

Vicky Gardner, head of remarketing at epyx, said: “The amount of data that fleets have to handle as part of their day-to-day remarketing grows all the time. For example, we saw sales through 1link Disposal Network rise by 15% last year, which is a pretty substantial increase. Fleets that remarket tens of thousands of cars every year, as some of our customers do, face particular issues just tracking their activity.

“This means that there is an onus on providing tools that make their online remarketing activity as easy-to-understand as possible and the new Insights Reports are our latest development in this area.

“What we have delivered, we believe, is a graphical format that allows the user to quickly gain an overview of their activity with the option to quickly drill down into all kinds of details that they may want to access. The initial reaction has been very positive.”

Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay