Manheim highlighted on Monday that dealers seeking tools to help them leverage the “mountain” of available data in the buy/sell process are reporting increased efficiency and improved in-lane sales with Manheim’s Seller Dashboard.
The company noted its clients are rapidly adopting the online tool — released this spring — that can deliver real-time sales statistics and historical data that help sellers make educated decisions before and during a sale, remotely and on the block.
To date, more than 2,000 clients have registered to use Seller Dashboard. This tool is growing in popularity with clients, as more than 680 run lists have been printed and some 12,046 floor prices have been updated across all Manheim locations.
“Manheim’s digital offerings are focused on helping our dealers, sellers and buyers, develop more economical operations expand their buying radius, increase vehicle access and mitigate risk,” said Derek Hansen, vice president of Manheim’s Digital Inventory Solutions. “Seller Dashboard is a key tool to help drive seller success.”
James Bingham with Hendrick Automotive mentioned, “We are now making better decisions based on real-time information.”
And Luben Mitevski of VW Credit estimated that the digital service saves him 30 to 40 percent of his time.
“It’s exactly what we need to maintain our momentum during a sale, and keep a few steps ahead of everyone else,” Mitevski said.
Offered at no additional cost to Manheim clients, Seller Dashboard can allow dealers to:
• Access a comprehensive snapshot of all their registered vehicles across Manheim channels
• Acquire current vehicle information such as national and regional MMR, floor, age days and times run
• Get key stats including gross and percentage sales, total run, sold, IF sales, no sales and floor variance
• Obtain an auction run list and block summary
• View and update floor pricing
• Generate, print and export customized reports that can be shared with others
“The accurate and timely information available from Seller Dashboard equips our clients with a clear picture of how their current sale inventory is performing,” Hansen said. “This value-added offering enables sellers to be smarter negotiators and decision makers, regardless if they are on site or across the country.”
To access Seller Dashboard, clients log in at manheim.com, click on the “Sell” dropdown menu and select Seller Dashboard. The application is optimized for desktop and laptop computers, tablets and smartphones, giving dealers anytime, anywhere access to vital information.
Once connected, Manheim clients can identify their account and choose a view of the block or the pre-sale run list. The block view can present live sales performance stats and details about the vehicle currently on the block. The run list view can produce a block summary to support pre-sale work and post-sale review.
Vendor Transparency Solutions (VTS) — a compliance monitoring and continuing education training provider for the recovery and finance industries — recently released its new, expanded library.
In an effort to better prepare VTS-subscribed companies with the various compliance-related requests from clients, subscribers now have access to 23 individual policy templates. This service is provided by VTS at no additional cost to its subscribers.
These policies have been reviewed and approved by attorney Michael Dougherty of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis; policies that are also covered as part of education training and testing in the VTS Training Center.
VTS claims that the company now maintains the most detailed and expansive collection of compliance policy templates available in the industry.
“Our main goal is to continuously provide tools to our subscribers that will empower them to reach the highest level of compliance and better mitigate risk,” VTS president Max Pineiro said.
The individual policies added to the library are:
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) policy
• Anti-bribery & corruption policy
• Bankruptcy policy
• Clean desk policy
• Code of conduct & ethics policy
• Complaint handling policy
• Confidentiality policy
• Drug free workplace policy
• Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) policy
• Equipment and facility policy
• Field operations/breach of peace/GLBA policy
• Information security policy
• Red flag rules policy
• Security policy
• Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) policy
• Social media & confidentiality policy
• Unfair Deceptive Abusive Acts and Practices (UDAAP) policy
• Workplace violence policy
• Workplace violence incident report
VTS can provide its clients with a secure portal that allows the live monitoring of their service providers and all of their compliance-related documents, audits and inspections.
“The addition of the expanded VTS Library, together with the VTS Complaint Handling Module, the VTS Profile, the VTS Training Center and the VTS Marketing Module, makes VTS the most powerful compliance monitoring service in the industry,” Pineiro said.
For additional Information on the VTS extended library or service offerings, visit www.vtscheck.com or call (520) 468-3990, ext.102.
Since the company believes its vehicle location data has “transformed” the recovery industry, Digital Recognition Network is integrating the company’s historical hit data through Clearplan in an effort to generate even higher recovery rates.
Through a program that started July 1, DRN affiliates can access historical hit data in Clearplan’s Business Plan for free during a 30-day trial period.
“DRN affiliates see 15 to 20 percent better recovery rates using historical hit data," DRN chief executive officer Chris Metaxas said in a blog post on the company’s website.
“At the same time, they have also seen tremendous gains in recovery efficiency via Clearplan. Adding DRN’s historical hit data to Clearplan takes the manual guesswork out of plotting historical hits, giving these affiliates even more actionable vehicle locations to improve their recovery rates,” Metaxas continued.
DRN’s historical hits will now be available as a Historical Hit Integration to Clearplan users on the Business Plan. After the trial, affiliates can continue receiving historical hits in Clearplan by paying a monthly integration fee.
To qualify to receive the historical hit data, DRN — lead sponsor of the SubPrime Forum at this year’s Used Car Week — indicated that its affiliates must have active cameras. The DRN historical hit integration can provide affiliates with mapped locations for historical sightings that can be integrated with live vehicle sightings for more efficient recoveries.
“Before the Historical Hit Integration was available, affiliates that wanted to take advantage of historical hits had to manually manage the hits and load them into Clearplan. This integration feature was driven by affiliate demand. Affliates testing the Clearplan Historical Hit Integration not only saved time, but they also saw improved recovery rates,” said Justin Zane at Clearplan.
For more details, go to DRNdata.com.
Officials highlighted on Wednesday that CDK Used Lot Intelligence now will offer live auction capability for dealers as part of a new relationship with TradeRev, a mobile vehicle appraisal and auctioning system for dealers.
The companies explained the new integration can enable dealers to efficiently and effectively receive instant, live bids at the point of vehicle appraisal.
Additionally, dealers can have the ability to auction aged inventory from wherever they are from the palm of their hands.
“Dealers want the ability to have a seamless integration to a virtual auction platform during the appraisal,” said Scott Johnston, director of operations at CDK Global.
“The integration through CDK Used Lot Intelligence gives dealers the flexibility to launch auctions quickly, and start receiving bids within minutes,” Johnston continued. It also provides the dealers with the ability to quickly and profitably move a trade-in or lease return through to auction."
By bringing together two discrete workflows into an efficient process, CDK Used Lot Intelligence and TradeRev can provide buyers with easy access to bids through a custom bidding network established by the dealer or via the open network even before the retail deal is done. All post-sale auction services are provided through TradeRev’s partnership with ADESA, a business unit of KAR Auction Services.
“Since we launched in 2011, TradeRev has been changing the way dealers do business, and we are continuously innovating and looking for new and unique ways to improve our solution and better serve our customers," said Mark Endras, chief executive officer and founder of TradeRev.
“Integrating with CDK Used Lot Intelligence allows us to provide our customers with an even more powerful solution, and we look forward to unlocking new opportunities with this integration,” Endras went on to say.
CDK Global insisted it is the only DMS provider to offer this integration through its Used Lot Intelligence solution.
To learn more about the integration, visit go to www.cdkglobal.com/used-lot-intelligence.
It’s more than just videos of cats playing the piano or Auto-Tuned oddballs from the local news.
YouTube has become “the powerhouse platform for video,” including automotive content, says video advertising technology firm Pixability.
The company’s Get Behind the Wheel: Auto in the Premium Video Ecosystem study released Monday said that auto-related YouTube content generated 2 billion monthly views in 2015 and that annual views climbed 42 percent between 2014 and 2015.
For much of the late 2000s and in the early portion of this decade, monthly views of auto content averaged 500,000 or fewer, though slowly but surely rising. It eventually eclipsed the 2 billion monthly view mark.
The Pixability study also says that there has been stronger interest in searching for the term “car review” on YouTube over the past five years than on Google.com.
“This means today’s consumers are turning to online video to shape their brand preferences, and ultimately making brand decisions on YouTube,” Pixability said in the study.
(It should be noted that Google, of course, purchased YouTube in 2006).
On Friday, Auto Remarketing caught up with Eric Linder, digital strategist with Pixability, to discuss the study’s findings in more detail, beginning with the aforementioned search surge for YouTube.
Linder said that YouTube has “matured as a platform” and its content has evolved, and so now, “the user experience brings so much to the table.”
He says that it’s only been in the last three to five years that YouTube has had the same purchase-influencing content that Google has had for the last 10.
In terms of the automotive content on YouTube, the two categories with the greatest share of content are reviews (20 percent) and commercials (18 percent).
“What’s really fascinating about this space,” Linder said, “(is that) I work on studies of this type where we look at many different verticals from this level, and auto is the only vertical we’ve ever looked at where the brands actually own the conversation from both the views and engagement perspectives, in terms of what content gets the most types of views and the most views per published post.
“Brands really own the conversation on YouTube; usually, it's creators,” he said, referring to two of three categories of top auto content producers on YouTube: brands, publishers and creators. The brands category would include automakers and major dealer groups.
It gives automakers the opportunity to take a cue from what their peers have done and develop engaging content, Linder said. That might be in the form of commercials on YouTube, he said, or even investing in “more detailed” and “online-specific” content that might be off the beaten path, such as a review or a short film.
“But that also translates to opportunity at the dealer level or the local level. These dealers, just like the national automakers, can go on and post content. They can do walk-arounds, they can do reviews. It can be for new cars or used cars, maybe specialty custom models that the dealers are building,” he said. “The audience is there and they’re ready to consume that content, even if it is branded.
“So, there is a lot of opportunity for everyone to join the conversation.”
Dominion Dealer Solutions announced this week that its Dominion ACCESS dealer management system is the first system of its kind to achieve General Motors’ Vehicle Invoice Service (VIS) version 2.2 integration. This software can improve inventory management support to automotive dealers, so they can know which vehicles to stock based on the available data.
“Our development team has done an excellent job maximizing the tools provided by GM’s VIS version 2.2,” Van Koppersmith, president of Dominion DMS for Dominion Dealer Solutions, said in a news release. “Not only is this an incredible time-saving enhancement, it virtually eliminates posting errors, delivering the perfect blend of speed and accuracy for any dealership’s accounting department.”
Dealers who track their purchasing data with Dominion Dealer Solutions were previously required to input all of their invoice data manually into the system.
This new integration software will automatically reference the dealers’ previous orders and invoices to save order data faster. The company announced that this “integration changes what used to be a 10-minute process per vehicle into a 1-minute process.”
Dominion ACCESS is a Windows-based dealer management system that helps dealers archive documents, track previous deals and order new vehicles. DDS will provide assistance to dealers who wish to begin using this new integration feature of the software.
KAR Auction Services business unit Insurance Auto Auctions rolled out its newest offering on Tuesday, something the salvage auction company is calling IAA Express Notary.
Officials highlighted this service allows for the electronic assignment of title documents in an attempt to shorten the cycle time significantly for total loss settlements. This tool is the newest development in the IAA Total Loss Solutions suite of products that can directly allow for more management of costs, while simultaneously boosting customer satisfaction and retention.
Carriers that choose Express Notary as their document delivery service can tap into a national network of mobile notaries who will travel directly to the vehicle owner and execute documents on the spot. The electronic assignment ability can allow the notary requirement to be satisfied at a faster rate, leading to an overall enhancement of the customer experience.
“The mobile aspect of Express Notary markedly reduces the time typically required for a total loss settlement to be processed,” said Pat Walsh, senior vice president of business development at IAA. “Because the notary can meet the vehicle owner at a place and time of their choosing, rather than requiring the vehicle owner to execute the entire process on their own, the results are distinctively more efficient and more accurate, giving customers a greater sense of relief.”
In addition, improved cycle time can lead to a reduction in costs, as insurance carriers are able to save on vehicle rental fees and to better allocate employee bandwidth.
“By deploying mobile notaries, insurance carriers remove the step in the claims process that customers find most inconvenient, which in turn leads to increased policyholder satisfaction and retention,” IAA chief executive officer and president John Kett said.
“Every feature added to IAA Total Loss Solutions further demonstrates IAA’s dedication to consistently innovating as an industry leader to provide a seamless suite of technologies that streamline the total loss claims process for our customers and theirs,” Kett went on to say.
ADESA Boston raises more than $55,000 for JDRF
In other KAR news, fellow business unit ADESA announced that its ADESA Boston location has raised more than $55,000 for JDRF so far during the auction’s annual charity drive.
The main event of the charity drive was the auction’s 16th annual Classic Car and Motorcycle Show in May. This event raised more than $38,000 through a live auction, show entry fees and sponsorships.
“The success of this annual event is astounding,” ADESA Boston general manager Jack Neshe said. “Thanks to tremendous generosity from our employees, our customers, local businesses and law enforcement agencies, as well as the community, we’ve been able to support the important research that JDRF funds to cure, treat and prevent Type 1 diabetes.”
More than 50 motorcycles and 180 cars were on display. First-, second- and third-place trophies were awarded by a panel of judges in both the car and the motorcycle categories. Everyone was eligible to vote for the People’s Choice trophy, which went to auctioneer Mike Chambers’ 1975 Volkswagen camper van.
During the past 16 years, the auction’s annual charity drive has raised more than $600,000 for children’s charities including JDRF, a leading advocacy group for people with Type 1 diabetes. The drive runs through June 30.
“This event has become a favorite in the community, and we look forward to hosting it every year,” Neshe said. “The classic cars and motorcycles draw fans back year after year.”
KAR family generates $27,500 for NIADA Foundation
When the bidding ended in the NIADA Convention’s Expo Hall, Andrew Gurowitz was the last man standing.
The owner of Fairfax Motors in Fairfax, Va. — and Virginia's reigning State Quality Dealer — placed the winning bid of $27,500 on a 2015 Chrysler 300 Limited donated by ADESA, AFC, IAA and TradeRev, members of the KAR Auction Services group of companies.
All proceeds from the auction, which was held last week during the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Expo at The Mirage in Las Vegas, benefit the NIADA Foundation, which spearheads the association's commitment to charitable giving in addition to awarding scholarships to deserving college-bound students across the United States and providing training and educational opportunities to automobile dealers and the general public.
The vehicle, an ivory white 2015 Chrysler 300 Limited with a black leather interior, a sky-slider roof, a wood-grain dash and 9,320 miles on the odometer, will be delivered to Gurowitz free by ADESA/AFC/IAA/TradeRev.
Gurowitz prevailed in a spirited bidding battle with California's State Quality Dealer, Mehdi Chitgari of Classic Chariots in Vista, Calif.
Over the past four years, KAR company-sponsored auctions at the NIADA Convention and Expo have raised a total of $97,200 for the NIADA Foundation. During last year's event, Pennsylvania dealer Andy Gabler bid $27,500 for a 2013 Mercedes C250W.
With support from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Carfax has invested more than $5 million to expand its Centreville, Va., headquarters, invest in new technology and eventually create more than 120 new jobs.
This past Friday, McAuliffe joined other government officials, local business leaders, numerous guests and more than 700 Carfax members to celebrate this milestone.
“The expansion of Carfax is an excellent reflection of the strong business environment in Fairfax County and Virginia, and I am pleased to congratulate the company for their success,” McAuliffe said. “As we work to bring new jobs and investments to the commonwealth, we are also making significant strides helping existing Virginia businesses grow. We will continue to work with Virginia businesses to build on the success we are having building the new Virginia economy.”
“Companies like Carfax are a vital component in our new Virginia economy,” said state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones. “I want to congratulate Carfax on both the exciting new expansion and the deep commitment to their team members. Our workforce is our most valuable asset, and I thank Carfax for sharing our goal to make Virginia the best place to work and live.”
Carfax also announced it has earned national recognition as a Top Workplace in Greater Washington, a distinction based solely on employee feedback that it has received three times in a row. The company has been recognized for its distinct culture, focus on collaboration and commitment to innovation by numerous organizations over the years.
“It is an honor for us to share such an important day in Carfax history with the governor, our congressmen and all our invited guests,” said Carfax president Dick Raines. “Thanks in part to the support of the governor and Fairfax County, we will continue helping millions of people from a state-of-the-art workspace where our employees come to succeed and grow. Earning recognition as a Top Workplace speaks to the pride Team Carfax has in our products and the respect we have for one another.”
Raines was recently recognized as one of the Top Rated CEOs in the U.S. by Glassdoor.
The Carfax expansion project was secured for Virginia by the VEDP, working in conjunction with the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority and Loudoun County. To help support the project, McAuliffe approved a $150,000 grant from the commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. With help from architectural firm Gensler, as well as Cushman & Wakefield and Northern Virginia-based rand* construction, Carfax employees now enjoy a workspace designed to promote collaboration, transparency and wisdom of crowds, core principles of the Carfax Playbook.
“Working together with the Carfax leadership team, we designed a space that tells the Carfax story, promotes the brand, encourages collaboration, and offers a community space for casual meetings and fun,” said Jordan Goldstein, managing principal at Gensler.
Carfax has been part of the Northern Virginia business community for 23 years and was one of the first technology companies to help establish the Dulles Corridor as one of the nation’s leading tech hubs. The company maintains the largest vehicle history database ever assembled, comprising more than 16 billion records from more than 92,000 sources worldwide. Carfax also handles more than 2.7 million requests for vehicle history information every day.
“Congratulations to Carfax on its continued growth and expansion here in Virginia,” said U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly. “It is innovative tech companies like Carfax that have helped turn Northern Virginia into Silicon Valley of the East; providing hundreds of Northern Virginians highly skilled and rewarding jobs.”
“This expansion cements Carfax as an integral partner to Northern Virginia families, law enforcement, and businesses,” added U.S. Rep. Don Beyer.
“Carfax is an excellent example of a company that is diversifying the Fairfax County economic base as it grows,” said Gerald Gordon, president and chief executive officer of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “This is a leading firm in the automotive and data-analytics sectors that is taking full advantage of the excellent IT-based workforce we have, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to help the company expand its presence in the county.”
Team Carfax highlighted the company's history in Virginia, clear vision and core business principles during the governor’s visit. Guests also got to see the pet-friendly environment at Carfax and learn about the many other benefits that make Carfax a Top Workplace.
A vast majority of consumers said they would not buy another vehicle from a dealership after their data had been compromised, according to a recent survey given to both dealers and buyers.
The second annual dealership survey by Total Dealer Compliance also showed that fewer than a third of dealers employ a network engineer with computer security certifications/training.
“As car dealerships continue to be a real target for cybercriminals, with fewer data-protection measures in place than most other industries, we set out to discover the effect this is having on a car dealership’s bottom line,” Max Zanan, president of TDC, said in a news release. “Our report discovered that more than 70 percent of dealers are not up to date on their anti-virus software, and nearly a third of consumers lack confidence that their personal data is secure when purchasing a vehicle.”
Highlights from the survey given to dealers include:
— Nearly 85 percent have a contract with a 3rd party vendor to handle more complex IT work.
— Only 30 percent of dealers employ a network engineer with computer security certifications/training.
— Only 25 percent hired a third party vendor to try to hack into their networks to test their vulnerability.
— More than 80 percent employ an IT engineer to handle basic day-to-day work.
— More than 70 percent of dealers are not up to date on their anti-virus software.
Highlights from the consumer survey include:
— Nearly 33 percent of consumers are not confident in the security of their personal and financial data when making a purchase at a dealership
— Just under 84 percent of consumers will not go back to buy another vehicle from a dealership after their data has been compromised
TDC recommends that dealerships should regularly conduct IT vulnerability scans, Windows security checks, provide online courses on networking, as well as implement a solid computer security policy. TDC conducts vulnerability scans by using independent “White Hat” hackers to discover a dealership’s cyber vulnerabilities and based on those vulnerabilities discovered, create policy.
“Car dealerships need to put procedures in place to help prevent cybersecurity attacks. We help dealers focus on social engineering and how not to fall victim to hacking,” Zanan said. “As ever, our report turns a spotlight on the hot topic of data security, revealing the necessity of having strict policies and procedures in place that are being adhered to by all employees to ensure consumer confidence and loyalty.”
To think of online retailing in the car dealer world as simply a lead-generation tool for the store may be a bit short-sighted, says Max Steckler, vice president of products at CDK Global.
After all, when customers utilize an online retail platform, they expect that they are starting the actual transaction process and that they won’t have to start all over once they get to the dealership, he said in a phone interview with Auto Remarketing.
Consumers want to “get further down that process” of the transaction online and get their payment down to the penny level, Steckler said, and that’s part of what the company’s CDK Connected Store aims to provide.
The recently launched online car-buying solution allows consumers to complete certain deal structuring steps on the dealer’s website, including selecting a down payment, determining the trade-in value, calculating taxes and fees, and obtaining credit information.
“What makes our solution unique is that it bridges the online experience seamlessly into the store,” Bob Karp, president of automotive retail North America at CDK, said in an April news release on the Connected Store. “The integration with the DMS and our desking solution also helps ensure that the consumer and the dealer have payment information that matches the online quote.”
In that same news release, CDK shared findings from a March survey that illustrate consumer expectations around online deal-structuring:
- Nearly 70 percent of shoppers want to configure a payment on a dealer website
- 83 percent believe online buying technology can help them figure out which vehicle to select and how much they can afford
- 80 percent said they were likely to configure the payment online
- 60 percent said they would set up a payment and share their contact information
“Consumers have clearly indicated that they expect dealers to offer the ability to start the car buying process online,” Karp said. “Interestingly, our research found that among those same consumers, nearly 60 percent felt more comfortable starting this process on a dealer’s website compared to third-party sites. Dealers have a big opportunity to improve trust with this new technology, and to reduce the purchase time.”
In addition to making it a quicker process, CDK aims for its Connected Store solution to have online quotes match in-store desking.
Developing the tool “from F&I out,” Steckler said, fosters greater trust with the consumer because you’re specific about the price.
Broadly speaking, while dealers may have some trepidation in thinking they’re giving up control, Steckler points out that consumers seem to be willing to pay more when they don’t have to negotiate. The point is to reach a middle ground: profitability for the dealership, a good experience for the consumer, he said.
