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More focus required on reconditioning as fleet stock ages

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The ageing of the UK’s cars and vans caused by new stock shortages means more resources need to be invested in reconditioning.

That’s according to the Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA), with the organisation’s Chair Philip Nothard saying that it’s not just a question of dealers and others in the remarketing industry spending more money on bringing vehicles up to the expected retail standard, but allocating additional time and enforcing new standards.

He said: “Post-pandemic production issues mean we’re in a situation where used car and van buyers are being asked to pay more for older vehicles, and the remarketing sector needs to respond accordingly.

“Much is being asked of suppliers in our sector who valet and recondition vehicles and our advice is that resources need to be built into used car and van processes that allow these experts to do the best possible job.

“It’s not just a question of deciding to spend more money on bringing vehicles up to scratch in a mechanical, electrical and cosmetic sense but acknowledging current customer expectations and allowing time to ensure they are met.”

He was speaking following the VRA’s latest member meeting, which looked at what the remarketing sector needs to do to make older vehicles as appealing as possible to used car and van buyers.

Speakers included Derren Martin of cap hpi, on the factors causing the vehicle parc to age; Jon Butler of Geldards on the legal implications of selling older vehicles; James Hopkins of ASKE Consulting on the latest trends in vehicle preparation and reconditioning; and Lee Coomber of Assurant and the RAC Dealer Network on trends in warranties and wider dealer propositions.

Nothard added: “The ageing vehicle parc presents a range of remarketing conundrums. These are cars and vans that are likely to reach retailers with higher mileage, more faults and an increased propensity to break down in future.

“The remarketing sector is working hard to ensure that these vehicles retain maximum appeal for used buyers and are presented in such a way that might minimise future problems. It’s a question of developing processes and propositions that meet these changing conditions, something which our meeting suggested is underway. Certainly, the trend towards the industry having to retail ever older stock is unlikely to reverse anytime soon.”

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

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:

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
By:

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