NEWS

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the latest edition of the Autorola Group newsletter. As ever, I’m delighted to share some significant updates and success stories that highlight the innovative strides we are making within our various business groups, on a global scale.

Firstly, we shine a spotlight on our collaboration with Enterprise Rent a Car Turkey. They have successfully integrated Autorola’s Fleet Monitor to streamline their entire fleet process, from the initial addition of vehicles to remarketing. By leveraging Fleet Monitor’s advanced capabilities, Enterprise Turkey has not only improved fleet utilisation but also enhanced their fleet valuation success rate from 60% to an impressive 90%.

Additionally, the platform’s integration with INDICATA provides real-time used car pricing insights, enabling more informed decision-making. What’s more, the digitalisation of driver screening and vehicle onboarding processes has brought a new level of efficiency to their operations. If you’re interested in the full details of how Fleet Monitor and INDICATA are driving these remarkable outcomes, we encourage you to explore the complete article featured below.

We also interview INDICATA’s global business unit director Andy Shields who shares with us the success of our used car pricing insights platform and how he plans to double the size of the business over the next three years.

In other exciting news, we are proud to announce the upcoming launch of eRepair 2.0 in Q4. This upgraded vehicle repair management platform is designed to process over 1,100 repairs monthly, and its new features are particularly beneficial for our clients in the Australian rental industry. eRepair 2.0 introduces enhanced customisation, automation, and seamless third-party integration, offering comprehensive visibility into the repair process. These improvements will significantly help fleet managers optimise repair workflows, reduce vehicle downtime, and ensure that vehicles are back on the road as quickly as possible. Be sure to read the article below to learn more about how eRepair 2.0 can elevate your repair management strategy.

We catch up with Jurgen Claus, the country manager of Autorola Belgium and Poland , who shares his insights into the changing face of the used car markets in both countries, and how INDICATA provides pricing accuracy for OEM and Independent dealers while aiding with cross-border transactions.

As we continue to innovate and expand our solutions, we remain committed to providing the best tools and services to our partners around the globe. Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to sharing more updates in the future.

Best regards,

Peter

Enterprise Rent a Car Turkey has opened over 82 car rental offices in 37 provinces which has given it national coverage in a short space of time, all with the help of Autorola Solutions Fleet Monitor asset management and workflow platform.

Fleet Monitor now manages Enterprise Tukey’s entire fleet process from adding a vehicle to the fleet to managing the remarketing process, across 20 vehicle groups which span everything from a small hatchback to a family size SUV.

Life cycle management
The single platform touches all colleagues responsible for the in-life management of the fleet during its rental life cycle, including accounts, regional and national fleet managers, branch colleagues and those that manage the damage processes of the active rental fleet. It also extends to the remarketing de-fleet team whose job it is to manage the actual resale process of every vehicle.

One of the most immediate benefits of onboarding Fleet Monitor has been the significant improvement in fleet utilisation rates with total transparency of each vehicle’s status i.e., available for hire, on hire, in the repair shop being repaired or de-fleeted ready for sale.

Optimising INDICATA’s used car insights

The resale process has also been further strengthened by the integration of the INDICATA used car pricing and insights platform. It provides used car prices in real time region by region which helps Enterprise efficiently price each car to sell quickly and profitably.

When it comes to Enterprise understanding the value of its entire vehicle fleet its success rate was 60% prior to installing INDICATA. Since each vehicle has been identified and valued by the INDICATA system through Fleet Monitor, the fleet valuation success rate has increased to 90% which adds further value to the Enterprise business.

Driver integration

From a customer perspective, a Proforma integration helps speed up the efficiency and accuracy of driver identity and licence screening as part of the contract generation process.

And optimising document management with insurance systems integration, Fleet Monitor has also sped up the transfer of new vehicles onto the live rental fleet. Full digitalisation of the new vehicle go live process was made possible by developing a digital ‘Receiving/Delivering’ form integrated with Fleet Monitor which has created further efficiencies for Enterprise.

Dealers use INDICATA data to avoid the ‘lost billions’
“There are 140,000 dealers in Europe and our data shows that they are losing massive amounts of revenue each year in not pricing their used cars correctly. We call it the ‘lost billions’. That is where INDICATA comes in, our real time used car pricing can be used at a macro level by dealer groups and at a micro level by individual dealers in their local area to ensure they price their used stock against the current market conditions.

“Prices can rise or fall on some stock by a few hundred Euros in just a couple of weeks, which our data proactively tracks. The resulting data helps dealers and OEMs stay one step ahead of the game. That is why INDICATA is going from strength to strength within the dealer community as it provides actionable intelligence.

Adopting pricing strategies
“CEOs can gauge very quickly the performance of group stock and adopt a pricing strategy with the used car managers on individual brands and by region. Used car profitability for dealers is becoming even more important now that agency models are being introduced by OEMs. Making strategic data-led decisions on what stock to buy and that influences pricing is good for the business and their bottom line.

“But INDICATA supports dealers beyond selling used cars – it provides an additional resource when taking in part exchanges from customers as INDICATA data provides an additional reference point for what to pay for a used car. And that might mean offering a customer more for the right car rather than less money.

“And with prices on a rollercoaster for the past 12 months in the majority of European markets INDICATA’s wholesale pricing data becomes a powerful ally when bidding on used cars. Making sure you get the right stock for the right price at auction provides further peace of mind.

OEMS use INDICATA to measure network performance
“More and more OEMs are using INDICATA as a method of measuring and analysing their network’s used car performance either by country or on a pan European basis.

“They all understand that a successful used car market for their brand is vital to support their new car registration ambitions. INDICATA gives them all the data they need to measure performance, from residual values and volumes to stocking days and profitability.

“As well as measuring the performance of their own brand in the used market they can utilise INDICATA to compare it with rival brands and even how independent dealers are behaving.

“Renault and Toyota are just two brands that rely on INDICATA for pan European network performance data while in the UK Nissan, Kia and Skoda all use our data to gauge the ROI of used car sales dealer by dealer.

Leasing and rental companies rely on data insights
“The European leasing and rental industries have used our Market Watch used car insights report to assess and analyse patterns in the used car industry across 13 countries since it was launched in Q1 2020 just as Covid struck.

“Now in its 54th month of publication Market Watch is now seen as the go to place for a helicopter view of used car trends in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.

“Our assessment and analysis over the past few years has also provided real life insights into how used BEVs are performing and the key market drivers for prices, demand, sales and stocking days.

“INDICATA data is now being used to power our Residual Value Forecasting product in all the key markets and the response has been so positive the plan is that by the end of 2024 all 13 countries in Europe will be offer this to customers. RV Forecasting has two distinct advantages:

1. Its USP is that its pricing is totally transparent and based on real prices and is not AI-based.
2.  The INDICATA team has a desire and willingness to engage with customers rather than manage them remotely from head office or a salesperson’s home office.

“That’s why we are now recruiting new INDICATA salespeople to take the product to customers and to help them realise the full power of Big Data when managing their assets.

INDICATA benefits from global expansion programme
“Hot on the heels of expansion in Europe the next Autorola subsidiary Brazil has now gone live where it will bring a new level of scale and professionalism to used car data. The Brazilian financial services industry which is very sophisticated has already welcomed INDICATA’s launch to help support its compliance and governance.

“A host of new markets including Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Ireland are set to welcome INDICATA by the end of 2024.”

To download a copy of the latest Market Watch report, go to www.indicata.com

Polish new car sales were up 16.3% in the first half of 2024 and generally the economy is coming out of a slowdown with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU and an economy that expects to grow at 2.6% in 2024.

That spells good news for the used car market and in particular Poland for the INDICATA used car pricing insights platform. It is the only country where INDICATA is bigger than the Autorola MarketPlace wholesale used car platform with manufacturers such as Stellantis and VW using it to closely monitor the used car market and the performance of their individual networks.

INDICATA provides pricing accuracy
“INDICATA has been growing year on year and has built up a strong reputation for high levels of pricing accuracy. Toyota is also about to start using our Lead Generator module which sits on its used car website and enables consumers to value their own vehicles. It will create more traffic and interest in Toyota’s used cars which is good news for dealers,” explained Jurgen.

Autorola Belgium is also working with four large OEM brands with INDICATA including Stellantis Toyota and Mercedes. What they use INDICATA for currently is to gauge the demand and prices for used EVs and hybrids in their individual dealer networks. BEV sales now account for around one in four new cars sold in Belgium so INDICATA’s insights for asset owners and residual value forecasters are proving very valuable.

Monthly Market Watch report
“BEV prices have fallen across Europe and OEMs and their dealers and also leasing companies all want to see how they have moved each month in our Market Watch report. In Belgium alone they have fallen by just over 10 percentage points. We sit down with each company monthly and give them an overview of how BEVs are performing and how they might shape up in the future.

“The government is forcing the new BEV market with subsidies, reduced registration taxes and lower company car taxation in a bid to speed up reducing emissions. OEMs and leasing companies are having to support these incentives which have translated into very fast sales growth. However, predicting market values of BEVs in particular has been very difficult and that is where they find INDICATA data invaluable for current and future values,” said Jurgen.

Polish BEV sale volumes are much smaller
There are no such challenges in Poland where BEV sales have been very small with just fewer than 100,000 BEVs in the country as of the end of 2023 and as of July 2024 only accounted for 3.2% of used market sales.

“The Polish market is around three years behind that of Belgium, so the market has some more time before it needs to worry too much about BEVs. Currently Poland is also in the position that 100% of its used cars are sold domestically which means it does not have to deal with exporting.

One in three used cars exported
“That compares with Belgium where between 70-75% of used cars are exported each year. Autorola has built up a strong reputation over the past decade with exporting and importing used cars through its MarketPlace platform.

“We facilitate export of used cars to France, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Poland and Portugal which means we employ a number of multi-lingual staff who collaborate directly with dealers buying used cars from these countries.

Personal cross border service
“Each one of our colleagues knows every dealer personally and we offer a very personal service which is why our cross-border service is so popular across Europe. Leasing companies are some of our biggest cross border customers as they export cars to countries where they know certain cars are the most popular and will sell for the highest price.

“Countries like Denmark will buy BEVs from Belgium, but overall, with supply continuing to outweigh demand the country will need to find more used BEV buyers to reduce stock levels which is where we will help our vendors,” explained Jurgen.

Autorola is celebrating a new version 2.0 of its eRepair management platform, which is being launched in Q4 this year, which currently processes 1,100 repairs each month across the 50,000 vehicles on the system.

This latest version of eRepair will allow fleets to record Vehicle Summary, Quotation, Assessment, and Repair Information for each vehicle, while preserving the old order workflow.

New features
In addition to these features, eRepair 2.0 will unlock the full capacity of the event framework in Fleet Monitor, and introduce a range of new features:

• Customisation: Fleets can tailor the tool to their business needs and introduce customer-specific implementations.
  
  
• Extensive Automation: Extensive automation options, including automated email communication with fleets to inform them of the repair status of their vehicles in real time by vehicle and across the entire fleet.
  
  
• Third-party integration: Connect effortlessly with external ecosystems. Two examples for current rental customers are the ability to connect fleet inspection software which is used at the end of a customer rental and repair quoting module which calculates repair costs and times and the value of end of contract damage which are then passed onto the customer.
  
  

Australian rental companies 
Martin Bennie, Autorola Australia’s operations manager has collaborated very closely with an Autorola Solutions team in its Denmark HQ on developing version 2.0 as Australian rental companies are some of the system’s current biggest users.

Rental giants Enterprise, Sixt, Hertz and East Coast Car Rentals all use eRepair for their vehicle repair management in association with their individual supply chain which are also integrated into the eRepair system. A similar application to eRepair is also in use with fleets in Germany.

Repair management supply chain
A repair starts with the rental company inspecting a vehicle and then uploading the results into eRepair via API integration which then tracks the repair status via the entire repair management supply chain.

It gives complete visibility of every car and each step of the repair process right down to the individual type of repair such as a new tyre, windscreen, or body panel damage thanks to regular updates from supply chain suppliers.

Integration with repair quoting packages enable fleets to understand a repair cost as well as time which gives them some idea of whether a vehicle is going to be off the road and for how long. This process also powers the customer re-charge process.

Getting damaged cars back on the road
“The focus of rental fleets is to repair damaged vehicles quickly and efficiently to maximise vehicle utilisation and to have all the necessary documentation to settle claims as soon as possible. eRepair plays a big part in this process,” explained Martin Bennie.

“Meanwhile, on a macro level, the eRepair dashboard enables a fleet coordinator to view and manage all repair jobs for their location. At the same time, it gives fleet managers a helicopter view of daily operations from a national down to location level.

eRepair reporting
“Fleet managers appreciate the reporting eRepair provides. It enables them to review repairer and assessor performance. It also assists them when acquiring a new fleet by reviewing costs and repair delays due to manufacturer part availability.”

“And if the vehicle is a write-off, the operator can request it be sold through the fastSalvage system, which is a separate Fleet Monitor system allied to our MarketPlace wholesale used vehicle sales platform. Vehicles are then offered for sale online in situ to Autorola’s national network of registered bidders,” he added,” he added.

Find out more about our range of digital solutions visit: https://autorolasolutions.com/