ORLANDO, Fla. -

As noted in its mid-year Auction Industry Report, the National Auto Auction Association is anticipating a “noticeable overall gain” in auction volume next year, given the projected turnaround for fleet/lease and manufacturer/factory numbers.

Such an increase would likely not only help auctions, but also aid dealers in finding more inventory for their used-car lots. However, wholesale volume rising certainly comes with challenges for the auction environment.

In fact, auction lane space will be “a big deal” throughout the U.S. in 2013, says Manheim Pennsylvania vice president and general manager Tim Van Dam.

Auto Remarketing was talking with Van Dam and Manheim Pennsylvania auction manager Darren Teague at the recent NAAA Conference about a variety of wholesale topics, including their auction’s investment in its employees.

Taking the time and effort to invest in employees, they said, can bring about innovative ideas to help in problem-solving, among other benefits. In fact, this approach helped spur an idea that Manheim Pennsylvania is using to handle lane space issues.

“You’ve got the commercial volumes increasing dramatically; dealer volumes have increased dramatically at some locations like ours; so how are we going to handle lane space?” Van Dam said. “That is — if not the most important thing — one of the most important things on a dealer’s mind.”

And it’s also important to offer “equitable space” for all consignor parties, be they commercial, OEM or dealer consignors, he later added.

So, Manheim Pennsylvania pulls in its employees for this type of problem-solving, he noted, and they have responded.

“They came up with something called the Quad Zone, which is kind of an old idea brought into this year,” Van Dam said.

Explaining it more detail, Van Dam noted that the concept involves double-blocking a lane and using it only for medium and smaller-size dealers.

While Manheim Pennsylvania does have dealer customers that will sell 15,000–20,000 wholesale units a year, these medium and smaller dealers “are critical to a proper growth and for the health of an auction,” he said.

“So, we’ve developed this Quad Zone, and we’re going to put another in next year,” Van Dam added. “And you can’t put more than five cars in it … that helps the smaller dealers grow. Well, that came from one of our employees.”

Granted, the auction already had done double-blocks before — Manheim Pennsylvania is a 28-lane facility with 34 numbered lanes — but not in this way.

“We never did this kind of approach,” Van Dam.  “We never did the approach of trying of bringing it in just for medium- or smaller-sized dealers.

“It was very successful,” he concluded.

Editor’s note: See more insight from Van Dam and others in the Nov. 1 print edition of Auto Remarketing, where we look at the fleet, lease and rental volumes flowing into the wholesale markets and much more.