Some smartphones no longer need a cord to recharge, and now Advantage GPS has a unit that doesn’t need wires to function in a vehicle connected with a retail installment sales contract held by an auto finance company.
On Wednesday, the Procon Analytics company that captures and translates raw data into actionable business intelligence, launched its suite of wire-free GPS tracking devices aimed at solving one of the most common problems with using these units to mitigate risk. The company believes Revo is a game-changing, wire-free family of GPS vehicle tracking devices that is designed to revolutionize the way buy-here, pay-here dealers and subprime auto finance companies protect their collateral and gain valuable automotive analytics.
“Over the past 10 years battery technology has steadily improved and has now reached a level of long-term, stable dependability,” said Bill Cheney, chief technology officer and managing partner for Procon Analytics. “This in conjunction with the advancements in 4G LTE cellular and GPS receiver technologies have made our Revo family of products practical and affordable.
“We believe these Internet of Things innovations will revolutionize the GPS tracking industry,” Cheney continued.
The company highlighted Revo’s sophisticated, battery-powered technology can be secured almost anywhere in a vehicle in five minutes or less. Because of Revo’s revolutionary technology, battery life and ease of installation, Advantage GPS contends the device can reduce the No. 1 reason for device failure — improper installation — to near zero.
“It was important to design battery-operated devices would hold up for the duration of long-term finance contracts to protect our customers’ vehicle assets,” said David Meyer, president of Advantage GPS.
“Working side-by-side with leading experts in battery technology, we did it. We developed three new wire-free devices that provide more flexibility, control and, in the end, reduce costs and the hassles of installation for our customers,” Meyer continued.
The company explained all three Revo devices — SmartStop, 3000 and 4000 — take only about 10 seconds to activate and are immediately connected to the platform via 4G LTE wireless technology. The three different Revo models can give dealers and finance companies the flexibility to match device to loan terms or risk factors.
Other capabilities of the units include:
• Revo SmartStop: Collects a continuous stream of data for all start and stop events of a vehicle up to 3,000 events or approximately one year.
• Revo 3000: Provides auto finance companies with flexible operating modes that gives them more control and help preserve the battery life of the unit. The unit is designed to capture 3,000 events just like the SmartStop, but this device has a life span of approximately three years.
• Revo 4000: Includes the three flexible modes and captures at least 4,000 events for at least four to five years.
The company went on to mention the discovery, standby, and recovery operating modes are an integral part of the Revo 3000 and 4000. Here is a further explanation:
• Discovery mode: Provides a detailed history of the vehicle for the first 250 events. This sets up the vehicle’s routine. Much is learned during this period, but once completed downshifts to the less power-consumptive standby mode.
• Standby mode: Reports a vehicle’s location and device health (such as battery life and tamper alerts) twice each day. Finance companies, when they see a need, can change to the third recovery mode. Despite the low-power consumption of standby mode, the company said valuable data is collected every day.
• Recovery mode: With a simple keyboard click, Revo reports a vehicle’s movement every five minutes and also sends stop events. To preserve battery life, Revo will automatically revert to standby mode (after seven days or 500 events) or SmartStop mode based on the customer’s product choice.
Importantly, the company added that Revo devices also have many of the same features that hard-wired devices do, including:
— Drive reports
— Stop reports
— Repo mobile tool
— Geofencing
— Tamper alerts
— Battery life indicator
— 4G LTE service
Meyer pointed out that what it has doesn’t come with is the average $55 installation fee, extra cables and accessories and a device service plan. He said the company has already started shipping Revo devices to auto lenders across the country.
“We also guarantee the number of events for each Revo device,” Meyer said. “That guarantee, along with the savings from not having to pay for hard-wire installations will save dealers thousands of dollars during the course of a year, with nearly no installation failures.”
On Friday, KAR Auction Services announced an addition to the management team for one of its business units, Recovery Database Network (RDN).
Joining the provider of specialized software and data solutions to customers across the repossession and disposition value chain as vice president of business development is John Sibbitt.
The company highlighted Sibbitt brings eight years of management, operations and asset recovery experience to RDN.
“John has a proven track record of success in the repo industry with strong leadership and customer relationship building skills,” KAR president Peter Kelly said.
“As part of what is now an integrated management team for RDN and Clearplan, John will help us expand our customer base and footprint as we deliver the most powerful software platform in the industry,” Kelly continued.
In his new role, Sibbitt will be responsible for managing current RDN client relationships, identifying opportunities for growth and expanding the client network.
Sibbitt previously served as vice president of operations at PAR North America, a leading U.S. provider of vehicle transition services with coast-to-coast solutions for recovery management, skip-tracing, remarketing and title services — also a KAR business unit.
Sibbitt was part of the team that launched PAR Platinum Compliance; the culmination of a year-long project to roll out a compliance, due diligence and transparency tool. He managed all of PAR’s vendor network, overseeing compliance and managing the relationships of more than 700 recovery vendors.
Before joining PAR in 2012, Sibbitt oversaw a large specialty portfolio for Liberty Recovery Services.
Before the federal government shutdown took hold, the Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that can impact phone numbers auto finance company collection departments might be trying to regain contact with delinquent contract holders.
The new FCC rules are designed to establish a reassigned numbers database that the regulator said will reduce the number of unwanted phone calls Americans receive.
The new rules establish a single, comprehensive database with information provided by phone companies that callers will be able to use to avoid calling reassigned numbers. Callers using the database will be able to find out if telephone numbers assigned to consumers who want their calls have been disconnected and made eligible for reassignment. Any such numbers can then be purged from their call lists, thereby decreasing the number of unwanted calls to consumers.
To further encourage callers to use the database, the FCC is providing callers a safe harbor from liability for any calls to reassigned numbers caused by database error.
“The problem is a simple one,” FCC chairman Ajit Pai said. “A doctor’s office is trying to reach a patient and calls what it thinks is the patient’s phone number. But the patient has changed numbers, and her old number has been reassigned to someone else. So someone with no relationship to the doctor’s office or the patient receives the call.
“This isn’t good for anyone,” Pai continued. “The new holder of the number is annoyed by a call meant for someone else. The patient misses out on what could be an important call from her doctor’s office. And the doctor’s office is unable to reach the patient and could face a lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for unknowingly placing the call in question.
Of course, this scenario applies to a wide range of businesses and customers beyond doctors’ offices and patients. And avoiding it benefits everybody. It’s good for individuals who receive a new phone number. It’s good for individuals changing phone numbers. And it’s good for businesses,” Pai went on to say.
The FCC insisted the rules respond to consumer groups, trade associations and state and federal authorities that asked the commission to establish a single, comprehensive database as the best solution to reducing calls to reassigned numbers while minimizing burdens on both callers and providers.
“This database will be managed by an independent third-party administrator selected through a competitive bidding process, and that administrator will receive information about permanently disconnected numbers from reporting providers,” Pai said.
“To ease the burden on small providers, we allow them an additional six months to begin reporting to the database administrator,” he continued. “Finally, we adopt a safe harbor from TCPA liability for those callers that rely on the database to learn if a number has been reassigned. This will ensure that a responsible caller who uses this database will not be held liable for accidentally making a call to a reassigned number because of a database error.”
FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly expressed concerns about what the FCC’s moves still lack. O’Rielly framed his assessment in light of decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit aimed at offering clarity about the TCPA.
“While our action helps in addressing abusive and predatory TCPA litigation, I do remain concerned about the costs of the database for service providers and users,” O’Rielly said. “Lessons from the private sector have taught us that requisite database dips to verify reassignment can become cost-prohibitive for businesses.
“Moreover, as structured in the order, data dips are likely to surge at certain times and will require additional investments by the administrator in server capacity to handle peak traffic days — the costs of which will ultimately be borne by users,” he continued.
“I urge the North American Numbering Council (NANC) — to whom we have delegated substantial discretion to develop a database administration plan — to focus on minimizing costs and burdens for users and service providers and ensuring that it is reasonably affordable for all to use.
“Today’s action is a positive development in reversing the previous FCC’s deeply-flawed 2015 TCPA Order,” O’Rielly went on to say. “However, much more work remains, particularly on narrowing the prior commission’s ludicrous definition of ‘autodialer,’ and eliminating the lawless revocation of consent rule. I am optimistic that our next steps will go a long way in reading the TCPA in a logical way and limiting wasteful and frivolous TCPA litigation that does nothing to protect consumers or stop illegal robocalls.”
Digital Recognition Network (DRN) has new ownership.
According to a news release distributed on Monday morning, Motorola Solutions announced it has acquired VaaS International Holdings, a data and image analytics company that includes DRN and is based in Livermore, Calif., and Fort Worth, Texas.
Motorola Solutions paid a purchase price of $445 million in a combination of cash and equity.
VaaS, a “video analysis as a service” company, is a leading global provider of data and image analytics for vehicle location. The company’s image capture and analysis platform, which includes fixed and mobile license plate reader cameras driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence, can provide vehicle location data to public safety and commercial customers. Its subsidiaries include Vigilant Solutions for law enforcement users and Digital Recognition Network (DRN) for commercial customers, including auto finance companies.
The company’s 2019 revenues are expected to be approximately $100 million.
“Automated license plate recognition is an increasingly powerful tool for law enforcement,” said Greg Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Solutions. “With this acquisition, VaaS will expand our command center software portfolio with the largest shareable database of vehicle location information that can help shorten response times and improve the speed and accuracy of investigations.”
The acquisition announcement comes on the heels of DRN highlighting that it secured several milestones in 2018, including that its live hotlist exceeded 410,000 license plate recognition (LPR) assignments in 2018. That figure represented an increase of 33 percent year-over-year.
“Our extensive license plate data and AI technology have opened new commercial applications of our products,” said Todd Hodnett, co-founder of VaaS and president of Digital Recognition Network.
“We believe commercialization of these new applications can be accelerated under the Motorola Solutions brand and reach, and we look forward to working together to grow and diversify our commercial business,” Hodnett continued.
VaaS’ platform can enable controllable, audited data-sharing across multiple law enforcement agencies. Vehicle location information can help accelerate time to resolution and improve outcomes for public safety agencies, particularly when combined with police records. For example, law enforcement has used VaaS’ solutions to quickly apprehend dangerous suspects and find missing persons.
“We are very excited to be joining Motorola Solutions,” said Shawn Smith, co-founder of VaaS and president of Vigilant Solutions. “This acquisition enables us to continue to serve our existing customers and expand our footprint globally, while at the same time supporting a company with a commitment to innovation and growth, guided by a common purpose that aligns with our mission and culture: ‘To help people be their best in the moments that matter.’ It doesn’t get any better than that.”
The company went on to mention license plate reading is a highly specialized practice that requires purpose-built cameras and analytics. VaaS’ fixed and mobile license plate reader cameras can capture and analyze license plate information, which differs greatly by state and country, even when vehicles are moving at high speeds or in low-visibility weather conditions.
Traditionally, the 10th anniversary is celebrated with gifts of tin or aluminum. Well, Digital Recognition Network (DRN) closed 2018 with a series of critical milestones, representing all kinds of metal found during its 10-year history.
The artificial intelligence and data analytics company that provides vehicle location data and analytics to auto finance companies highlighted its live hotlist exceeded 410,000 license plate recognition (LPR) assignments in 2018. That figure represented an increase of 33 percent year-over-year.
Additionally, DRN — also a member of the Automotive Intelligence Council — reported that its affiliates attained more than 204,000 live vehicle recoveries by late December on behalf of their clients. The company computed that amount equates to more than $2.5 billion in recovered vehicles for 2018, contributing to a total of $10.5 billion in recovered assets since the company’s inception.
“We are extremely proud of the growth of our hotlist and the value that recovered assets provide to our lender clients,” said Todd Hodnett, executive chairman and founder of DRN.
“With that said, it is critical to note that our hotlist success simply would not be possible without our forwarder partners and our affiliates,” Hodnett continued. “They are the driving force behind its success and are the heart of the recovery industry.
“We are grateful for their hard work and honored that DRN’s revenue share program helped affiliates to generate $6.2 million in 2018,” Hodnett went on to say.
Back in August, DRN announced that it hit a new record of more than 20,000 live vehicle recoveries in one month. That momentum continued with each month setting new vehicle recovery records.
And now with 2019 in motion, Hodnett sees DRN generating even more sterling numbers.
“While we are extremely pleased with our hotlist numbers for 2018, we expect that this is just a preview of even greater benefits for our DRN affiliates to come in 2019,” Hodnett said. “We anticipate continued hotlist growth, which translates to increased growth in affiliate repossession revenue from their clients and increased revenue share that is paid by DRN.
“DRN is so committed to ensuring that our affiliate network reaps the benefit of their work that we have committed to a goal of $10 million for revenue share payments to our affiliate network,” he continued.
“We know that when affiliates win, everybody wins: lenders are able to better mitigate risk, providers make more assignments and affiliates pick up more cars and achieve greater revenue share. We look forward to working with our providers and affiliates to continue to achieve success for all,” Hodnett went on to say.
Two recovery industry providers aligned before 2018 to benefit their finance company clients.
MBSi Corp., a member of the Automotive Intelligence Council and provider of repossession assignment software and vendor compliance solutions, and Servicing Solutions, an organization specializing in primary and back-up servicing, announced a partnership to provide a seamless asset recovery process for auto finance companies.
“Partnering with MBSi will enhance our ability to recover our clients’ assets,” said Cesar Guzman, vice president of operations at Servicing Solutions. “Their compliance-enabled assignment management platform is an example of the type of cutting-edge technologies we are always on the lookout for, so we are very excited about how this partnership will benefit our clients.”
MBSi president Cort DeHart added, “We are excited to integrate with an industry-leading service provider like Servicing Solutions who delivers efficiencies for lenders,” said, of.
“Servicing Solutions has been easy to work with and we look forward to providing a seamless process to the collections and recovery industry by delivering assignments to qualified asset recovery professionals in MBSi’s assignment management ecosystem,” DeHart went on to say.
DeHart and MBSi will be part of the Automotive Intelligence Council hosting its first press conference during this month’s convention orchestrated by the National Automobile Dealers Association. MBSi will be joined by KAR Auction Services and Maryann Keller and Advisors.
More details about the Automotive Intelligence Council can be found here.
Members of the American Recovery Association (ARA) can leverage a new opportunity in 2019.
ARA, in partnership with Harding Brooks Insurance Agency, announced the newest benefit of the ARA membership and what the association believes is the first of its kind: a guaranteed $10,000 ($20,000 accidental death, no questions asked) life insurance policy that covers every executive member. Coverage is available for all employees at cost.
“We want to thank ARA immediate past president Jerry Wilson and Mike Peplinski at Harding Brooks Insurance Agency for putting this plan together,” ARA president Dave Kennedy said.
“This is just one example of the benefits that are possible by becoming a unified national trade association that large companies want to do business with,” Kennedy continued.
As a result of its recent unity initiative, which included a merger with Time Finance Adjusters, ARA unveiled a new membership structure set to take affect beginning this month. The deadline to sign up for ARA membership to be included in the 2019 directory is Jan. 15.
“We want to thank our new ARA members, and we invite all others to join us as one voice united for the good of the entire industry,” ARA executive director Les McCook said.
“We are embracing every stakeholder in the industry, and we’re excited about the opportunities to work together to reduce the operational costs to all sides of the recovery equation,” McCook went on to say.
There are several classes of membership available, including executive member, associate member, affiliated member and supplier associate member. Dues structures vary significantly depending on class of membership.
To learn more about membership options and to apply, go to this website.
For further questions about becoming an ARA member, send a message to ARA at [email protected].
The senior vice president of operations at Primeritus Financial Services now is the forwarding company’s first chief operating officer.
The company announced on Friday that Chris McGinness has been appointed as COO effective immediately. As chief operating officer, Primeritus highlighted that McGinness’ responsibilities will be expanded to include all of the company’s operating businesses. McGinness will continue to report to Mike Thomas, Primeritus Financial Services chief executive officer, who succeeded Scott Peters in that role as Used Car Week 2018 began.
McGinness has more than 20 years combined leadership experience in business operations and has served in numerous senior management roles across the automotive services industry. This promotion is part of the company’s commitment to ensure continuous improvement and acceleration of operational excellence.
As chief operating officer, McGinness will have the responsibility to lead in the development and execution of a consolidated operations strategy across all of the Primeritus entities.
“We are very pleased to announce Chris’ promotion to the position of chief operating officer at Primeritus,” Thomas said. “The Primeritus family now encompasses five different companies, with over 1,500 clients and 750-plus agency partners. The demand for our services has grown significantly over the last few years, and this role was created to help support our continued growth.
“As COO, Chris will oversee operations throughout the company and draw upon his more 20 years of operational and financial experience to drive performance,” Thomas continued. “We are fortunate to have Chris on our team, and his promotion to COO recognizes the many contributions he has made to our company.”
McGinness began his management career at ADESA where he served as the controller prior to taking on the role of general manager of its auction in Sacramento, Calif. His management experience spans a variety of operational functions including remarketing, transportation and repossessions.
Prior to entering automotive industry, McGinness was a senior accountant with Perry-Smith, a large regional accounting firm in Sacramento.
The relentless drive to reduce repossession related costs while, at the same time meeting the demands/expectations of regulators, may be catching up with us. As one of the largest repossession management firms, we stay very close to the dynamics of the marketplace and we have become concerned about the current situation and even more concerned about the potential impact in the future.
There are several dynamics that are affecting the current agent environment. First and foremost, the cost of operating has increased significantly in recent years. The investment that agencies have had to make in technology and compliance are really significant. Unfortunately, there has been little opportunity to pass on those costs. Some have managed to adapt well. Many others are just barely hanging on. Rarely does a week go by where an established agency somewhere does not close its doors. That trend is likely to continue.
The result is that the agent ranks have thinned and the high cost of entry/compliance makes it very difficult for new companies to enter. Add to that the emerging trend of agency consolidation (i.e. Location Services) and increases in cases emanating from the huge origination volume in recent years and you get the picture. Beyond the short-term operational impact, the situation may also leave the industry unprepared for the likely growth in repossession cases that will come from the inevitable slowing of the economy.
So, what does this mean to the lenders and their forwarding/skip partners? First, we may not have the density of agent network that is really needed to optimize recovery performance. Without going into a long explanation, suffice it to say that fielding a large enough agent network to have at least three agency options for any given assignment is important to performance management. A potentially bigger impact, which we are already starting to see, is that the better agents are choosing the business that they accept and, even within the business they accept, very conscious decisions regarding resource allocation are being made.
Who is grading who?
As a forwarding company serving many large lenders, we are used to getting score carded by our clients and we are used to score carding the performance of our agents. These scorecards are used to determine business flow to us and the agent. What we are not used to is getting a scorecard from our agents with guidance on which client portfolios are meeting profitability requirements and which are not. Granted, this trend is in its early stages but we see it growing and industry leaders, trade associations, etc. are actively educating their brethren on the merits.
The bottom line, repossession agencies have the data and volume of business to determine where it makes sense to deploy their resources and where it does not.
Understanding their metric
It is important to understand how the savvier agents are evaluating our portfolios because it gives important insights into how certain decisions we are all making may affect the success of our repossession efforts.
While there are a variety of different approaches, the metric that seems to be getting the most traction (and frankly makes the most sense) is “revenue per assignment.” This simple but elegant metric takes into consideration all of the key drivers including recovery rates as well as all ancillary revenue such as key cutting, storage, personal property handling, redemption related fees, etc. All of these elements work together to give the agent a true view of the client's business. It is not all about the repo fee.
For example, the issue of personal property and redemption related fees has been a very hot topic over the past year because of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau scrutiny. There is no question that the issue needed to be standardized by the lenders. Some lenders have understood the implication of setting costs and have set parameters that pretty clearly meet the “reasonableness” standard required under most state laws while, at the same, time providing reasonable compensation to the agent for the services. However, others have taken the position that “less is better” in the eyes of the regulator and they have mandated very little or no fees are allowed. For agents that use the revenue per assignment metric, this position is penalized heavily in the metric and you can bet that recovery rates are also impacted as a result.
The table below illustrates the issue across four different scenarios. Clearly, under the revenue per case metric, the most profitable client can be the one with the lowest fee, if the recovery rate is good and the other parts of the equation are reasonable. However, combine a low fee with a low recovery rate and the business just won’t make sense for the agent to put much effort into.
Note: Revenue per case of $125 per case is required to meet margin objectives
| |
Monthly |
Recovery |
Repo |
Average Storage |
Average PP/Redem |
Revenue Per |
| |
Cases |
Rate |
Fee |
Per Repo |
Per Repo |
Case |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| A |
10 |
15% |
$350 |
$10 |
$30 |
$93 |
| B |
10 |
40% |
$300 |
$10 |
$30 |
$160 |
| C |
10 |
50% |
$275 |
$10 |
$60 |
$208 |
| D |
10 |
30% |
$300 |
$10 |
– |
$100 |
The implication is pretty clear. Portfolios that offer the agent the opportunity to earn a reasonable margin will get the attention and resources. The ones that don’t … won’t.
Mike Levison is the chief executive officer of ALS Resolvion. More details about the company can be found at www.alsresolvion.com.
On the heels of landing a trio of clients as well as an enhanced relationship with Digital Recognition Network (DRN), Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems also added to its executive team.
Consolidated recently announced that it has named Jeff Rau as national software sales director for the IBEAM platform. In this role, Rau will promote and support the growing demand for IBEAM, which is used by finance companies, forwarders, consignors and repossession agencies to manage repossession and remarketing tasks.
“I am pleased to be a part of this rapidly growing technology company,” said Rau, who came to the company after most recently serving in a role with Del Mar Recovery Solutions.
“The IBEAM platform offers features and capabilities that I have not seen in other software products,” Rau continued. “Their focus on providing a single platform, single solution strategy for the entire workflow, from repossession through remarketing, is unique within the industry and provides efficiencies along with potential cost savings over disjointed technology approaches.”
IBEAM (Internet Based Electronic Asset Management) can provide a single platform used by finance companies to manage multiple forwarders and consignors through the IBEAM Global Marketplace, a comprehensive software solution that can provide detailed analytics and dashboards to manage both the repossession and remarketing process along with all ancillary services.
Additionally, for organizations that want to manage direct relationships, IBEAM can offer real-time communications with repossession field agents and auctions.
“We are pleased to have Jeff join our team,” said Terry Groves, senior vice president and co-founder of Consolidated. “His experience in the banking, technology and forwarding industries offers our clients an insightful perspective on how best to leverage technology in support of their repossession and remarketing initiatives.”
