Describing it as “the industry’s first mobile vehicle undercarriage imaging tool,” ACV Auctions developers have created a portable system that they say offers a “never-before-seen look into a vehicle’s undercarriage.”
The product, called Virtual Lift, produces high-resolution undercarriage reconstructions.
The tool provides “unprecedented insight into vehicle condition,” according to ACV Auctions, a dealer-to-dealer online wholesale automotive marketplace.
The company describes the device as lightweight and low profile. In less than one minute, using ACV’s proprietary mobile hardware and software technology, it offers a full bumper-to-bumper view and image of the vehicle’s undercarriage, ACV said.
ACV describes Virtual Lift as elevating "the level of trust and transparency in the ACV Auctions online marketplace” with its undercarriage imaging. The inability to access a vehicle’s undercarriage is one element of buying risk, and ACV says the Virtual Lift can help overcome that risk.
The company says technology helps produce a fast, simple process for ACV Auctions vehicle condition inspectors while they are creating a condition report for each vehicle before it becomes listed on the app.
ACV describes the Virtual Lift as a portable, drive-over product, and a single inspector can operate the mobile device technology that the product uses.
The ACV app produces a detailed image of the undercarriage, and as part of the condition report available to all buyers, a user can upload the image.
ACV will begin rolling out the new tool nationwide to ACV Auctions vehicle condition inspectors starting in August, with plans for customers to begin seeing in-app photos as part of condition reports in October.
“Virtual Lift is just one more way for ACV Auctions to solidify the business as the most trusted and transparent marketplace for dealers to buy and sell their wholesale inventory,” ACV Auctions chief executive officer George Chamoun said in a news release.
Chamoun continued, “Our teammates thrive on providing new technology solutions to solve challenges for buyers and sellers, and we couldn’t be more excited to share Virtual Lift with our dealer partners. We sound like a broken record with our relentless focus on being the most trusted way a dealer buys a used vehicle. AMP and Virtual Lift demonstrate our commitment, and we are just getting started.”
ACV cofounder and chief technology officer Dan Magnuszewski said, “Virtual Lift is exciting because we are solving a big problem for the auto industry with a truly unique and innovative technology solution. I’m so proud of our team; we were able to invent a scalable solution to image the undercarriage without cumbersome lifts or expensive infrastructure.”
When a seller has more precise pricing with a higher degree of accuracy for the actual 17-digit VIN for the car that’s being remarketed at a point in time, the odds of the seller getting the most money for that car increase.
That’s one of several benefits that DRIVIN vice president of commercial solutions Terrence Wynne sees in KAR Auction Services’ new DRIVIN-powered Pricing Insights. KAR describes the product as “a robust, data-driven solution.”
With the product, commercial consignors can use optimized pricing to “maximize the net economics of their portfolios,” according to KAR, which acquired DRIVIN in 2017.
The newest product in the DRIVIN Insights product suite of portfolio management solutions, Pricing Insights uses proprietary, state-of-the-art data science algorithms that create predictive models that determine VIN-level market channel and pricing, according to KAR. The company said the analytics and valuations are uniquely tailored and can help consignors achieve targeted conversion rates and remarketing financial objectives. And KAR says the company can achieve those objectives whether the primary goal is to increase upstream conversion, increase overall net economics or both.
KAR says Pricing Insights’ proprietary, data-driven model includes various input variables that go beyond the variables of traditional pricing approaches. Those variables are unique to the KAR ecosystem, with the company saying they generate pricing models that are tailored to each consignor’s unique remarketing goals.
The application programming interface-driven technology is fully integrated with private-label platforms and other third-party marketplaces. According to the company, that provides seamless, robust and real-time analytics in a single workflow. It also minimizes manual assays and opportunities for error. The technology provides daily views, which allows consignors to understand real-time performance, impact and results.
The company said the new Pricing Insights product uses data across KAR’s ecosystem. It integrates the data with DRIVIN analytics and modeling. The product moves beyond traditional algorithms that are grounded in broad assumptions, according to the company.
According to KAR, the product is dynamic and customizable for each consignor brand. That customization means it aligns the technology with the strategic objectives of each customer. The product adjusts as remarketing priorities change, and KAR says it can quickly change as objectives evolve.
Each consignor is paired with dedicated DRIVIN resources, serving as an adviser that monitors and adapts for effective pricing recommendations.
“Pricing Insights enables customers to benefit from Big Data at an industry-leading level,” Wynne said in a news release. “The customizable analytics and precise valuations of Pricing Insights deliver the returns our consignors are looking for.”
These new DaaS capabilities are powered by DRIVIN, and by using data and technology from across the KAR platform and also by using proprietary algorithms, they deliver actionable intelligence to customers, according to the company
“Pricing Insights has achieved proven results for a number of our commercial consignors,” said Don Gottwald, president of KAR digital, data and mobility solutions. “By customizing the solution for each consignor and its brands, we have achieved a $170 per-unit net economic gain overall — potentially creating more than $86 million in annualized value for those customers.”
The second benefit that Wynne sees with Pricing Insights is the way the company designed the tool to understand how pricing impacts the saleability of a vehicle.
“So we understand if we move price up or down, by certain incremental movements, we can expect to either sell more … if we lower the price, or fewer cars if we increase the price, based on what our customer is trying to achieve,” Wynne said in a phone interview last week. “It allows price to be a strategic lever, not just sort of a fixed price, set it and forget it.”
Wynne sees the third benefit or value of Pricing Insights in terms of the digital nature of the product.
“Everything we build at DRIVIN is API driven,” he said.
That means DRIVIN can integrate directly with a private label site or integrate directly to an in-lane provider, he said.
“And we can deliver on price directly to the platform in sort of real-time fashion, in milliseconds,” he said.
“That reduces the human workload for our customer in terms of generating prices for a list of vehicles, that reduces the workload associated with delivery of those prices to the platform and also eliminates a lot of the opportunity there for human error or process error or procedural error,” he said. “So I think those are the three … big benefits or the value we’re adding with the solution.”
He said that the company wants its customers to be able to enter what he called the “KAR ecosystem” and have a seamless experience. That means the users don’t have to go to one spot to sell their car online, for example, and then have to go to a completely different spot to sell their car in lane and then have to go to a completely different spot or vendor to get a second key cut for the car, he said.
“We want that customer to be able to come in, have all of those products and services available in a digital manner, and they can come in, zero friction … get everything they need from vehicle acquisition to all the ancillary support services we offer to either sell the vehicle they need to sell or acquire the vehicle they need to sell so that … our customers and the buyers can get to the real business of ultimately retailing those cars back out to customers.”
Columbus Fair Auto Auction is encouraging dealers to “skip the phone call.”
Dealers should submit their requests for flooring services, gate passes, reports, transportation and inspections through “Post Sale Assist,” powered by AuctionVcommerce.
AuctionVcommerce says Columbus Fair Auto Auction is the first independent auto auction to integrate a digital service option allowing customers to manage their post-sale activities directly through their simulcast screen. With the Post Sale Assist feature, users receive an immediate confirmation of the department’s receipt of the request. That is followed by continual updates until the request is completed.
AuctionVcommerce says the initiative is part of CFAA’s ongoing effort to “optimize its operation for more efficiency and to improve the customer experience.”
“Post Sale Assist has enabled CFAA to identify opportunities for process efficiency and customer satisfaction,” Columbus Fair Auto Auction president and chief operating officer Greg Levi said in a news release. “Dealer Service Center continues to help differentiate CFAA from our competition.”
AuctionVcommerce says it is focused on providing Independent Auto Auctions with an infrastructure to support digital growth. The company in early 2018 introduced the Dealer Service Center, which is the parent system of Post Sale Assist. The system, which was deployed to several auction partners, is intended for release to all participating auctions, CFAA said.
The Columbus Fair Auto Auction Dealer Service Center can be accessed via cfaa.com, and the CFAA DSC app is available through the App Store and Google Play. Post Sale Assist is available under the Help tab in the Live Simulcast window.
“Independent Auto Auctions are up against disruptive technology that is appealing to the frustrations associated with traditional auction workflow,” AuctionVcommerce president Kelly Bianchi said. “In fact, when you look at recent articles with regard to digital advancements, independent auctions have fallen from the discussion. Our auction partners are making strides that deserve to be recognized and entered into the digital conversation.”
A support initiative at the center of the AuctionVcommerce business model serves as a catalyst for new product development and content that Bianchi says is aimed to reinforce the auctions’ relationships with digital customers.
“We provide the apps to fill the gaps,” Bianchi said. “With a smooth process in place, Independent Auctions can focus more on growth.”
CFAA says auctions currently using the Dealer Service Center have reported favorable results “consistent with the company’s objects.”
The auction also says AuctionVcommerce is currently working with Integrated Auction Solutions to deliver Post Sale Assist to AWG Simulcast Auctions. Auction Vcommerce says it welcomes the inclusion of Post Sale Assist in all Simulcast products.
“As vendors, it is our obligation to strategically align ourselves in the best interest of our clients. Requiring dealers to pick up the phone to complete their online transaction is not the best we can do and it is not a recipe for sustainability,” Bianchi said.
CFAA also released comments from auction leaders who are pleased with Dealer Service Center.
Clark County Auto Auction director of special projects Trevor Schroerlucke said Dealer Service Center has helped Clark County Auto Auction streamline communications for its transportation department.
“The multiple methods we used prior required spending a good deal of time making sure all requests were received and completed,” Schroerlucke said. “With the DSC, we can easily track and manage requests through a single program, allowing our department to function much more efficiently and with more accountability.”
Greensboro Auto Auction general manager Jerry Barker said his auction prides itself on customer service, and he said that with Dealer Service Center, his customers can engage with Greensboro any time and receive an immediate confirmation day or night.
“Communication is streamlined to each department and digitally prioritized for faster response times” Barker said. “Centralized communication means greater efficiency and less headaches for our customers.”
Charleston Auto Auction e-commerce manager Jeff Burgess said Dealer Service Center has played a strong role at his auction in creating a centralized platform to monitor transport requests and in cutting down on the amount of wasted time for phone calls and emails.
“Before the DSC, we would be doubling or even sometimes tripling the work that was needed,” Burgess said. “The DSC allows our entire team to stay on top of the process and efficiently make sure all requests are handled. It has brought a calm to the transport process, which I thought was merely a pipe dream.”
Technology service provider AutoIMS says keys are a main reason for cost concerns and administrative burdens for its clients.
That is why AutoIMS and High Tech Locksmiths have launched a new service that they say streamlines the key-ordering process for recovered vehicles entering the auction marketplace. The companies say the service will provide transparency to auctions, consignors and dealers through their preferred information sharing platforms.
The service provides real-time access to workflow information that includes chain of custody notes and key requests between AutoIMS and High Tech Locksmiths, according to the companies. High Tech Locksmiths, a mobile automotive locksmith service provider that provides transponder, remote, smart key and proximity key services, is a business unit of KAR Auction Services.
AutoIMS and High Tech Locksmiths say that historically, the key ordering process has been a tedious, fragmented and manual “cut and paste” communications process. Now, it is automated and accessible in near real-time.
“This new integration provides consignors and auctions with an accurate key status such as keys complete, keys found or redemptions more quickly, thus avoiding unnecessary key cuts,” AutoIMS vice president of client experience Joe Miller said in a news release. “Similarly, the order status will be easier to obtain, approvals streamlined and issues more quickly resolved, ultimately reducing days to sell.”
At no additional cost, consignors can opt-in to the integrated service, and once the service is configured, clients can access information, and respond and enter their own notes directly into the service. High Tech Locksmiths vice president of operations Ken Garbez said his company wants to create a “seamless experience” for customers, and the AutoIMS and High Tech Locksmiths say the service eliminates clients’ need for additional emails, phone calls or other communication.
“Our customers want convenient, easy to use tools and solutions that they can trust to help transition recovered vehicles to sold vehicles, and we are working to make that process faster and easier than ever before,” Garbez said.
