By Richard Mallek, Director of Business Development, FLD Remarketing
August 28, 2024
One of the biggest concerns we hear about from customers – especially since the pandemic – is that they often lack visibility into their assets during the remarketing process. This is a problem that can have a wide range of negative consequences when it comes time to dispose of end of lease vehicles and equipment. In fact, a recent series of interviews with top fleet managers on our Customer Advisory Board shows that a lack of accurate and timely insights into their assets during the remarketing process was one of the biggest problems they’d experienced before working with FLD.
With this in mind, I wanted to take an in-depth look at some of the causes – and problems – associated with a lack of visibility into your assets during the remarketing process, and how FLD can help alleviate many of the negative consequences that come with it.
Lack of Visibility: Lots of Causes, Serious Consequences
Fleets, by nature, can be far flung. And remarketing assets can be a difficult and time-consuming process that traditionally has a lot of moving parts. Afterall, many fleets and the companies they serve are spread out across the country. This is a situation that can make it hard to not only manage the remarketing process, but in some cases, to even know where assets are physically located. This is a task made more difficult when fleet managers work far from the assets they manage.
And despite the fact that many fleets employ sophisticated software and telematics programs, managing and keeping track of assets while they wind their way through the remarketing process can be a daunting task – one that can cost fleets valuable time and money while forcing them to re-direct resources that could better be used elsewhere. This is a tough prospect for fleets that are already stretched thin and doing more with less than ever before.
Making matters worse, many fleets don’t have an easy way to accurately gauge an asset’s true condition – and therefore its value – when it’s being readied for sale. This is a time consuming and exacting process that’s best done in person by professionals trained specifically to assess vehicles and equipment.
Without a proper assessment, many fleets sell used assets for far less than they’re actually worth, further eroding their return on investment while driving up total cost of ownership. In our experience this is especially true of fleets that deploy vehicles with specialty upfitting or equipment that requires expert evaluation.
This leads many fleets to sell them for significantly less than their fair market value at auctions or to dealers who have little knowledge of their actual value and, further, get a cut regardless of what they’re sold for. And for fleets that have lost or had their assets damaged during the remarketing process, lack of visibility can be especially painful, costly, and time-consuming.
FLD: Leading the Way to Clarity and Transparency
In the 45 years that we have been pioneering the remarketing space, the team here at FLD has encountered – and helped fleets overcome – a wide range of problems. It’s what we do. But without a doubt, one of the most persistent and harmful issues we encounter is a lack of transparency into the assets our customers are remarketing.
As I’ve outlined above, this issue can lead to a litany of problems that extend the time to sale, bog down the remarketing process, and, in many cases, negatively impact a customer’s return on their asset investment. It’s an issue we work hard to fight on several fronts, but none more effectively than with our proprietary OVRView solution.
Developed by our in-house technology team in 1997 as the industry’s first electronic condition report solution, OVRView has evolved into a free app that empowers fleets to quickly and easily manage their entire remarketing process in real time from any device, anytime, anywhere.
With OVRView, customers can monitor the status of every vehicle they’re remarketing, view current condition reports, and store important documents and title work at their fingertips. And, because all of a fleet’s remarketing information is stored in the app, OVRView makes it easy for one person – or several – to seamlessly manage the remarketing process whenever – and wherever – it’s most convenient. With OVRView, customers can assign vehicles, receive quotes, authorize payment, and check the condition of any vehicle, all in a matter of seconds.
Besides our world class technology, one of the most important ways we give customers greater visibility into their fleet’s assets is through our world-class Condition Report Team, where members average 17 years of experience each in the assessment of vehicles and equipment – undoubtedly the best in the business.
The team’s work is the cornerstone of FLD’s ability to offer a risk-free transaction by purchasing any asset in any condition, upfront. And this is also why we’re still the only remarketer that will take an ownership stake in a fleet’s assets before they’re sold, leaving customers free to move on to more important things sooner. It’s their job to assess every vehicle and piece of equipment we purchase, leveraging their expertise to ensure our customers get the highest return on their asset investment.
Further, for customers that want to quickly and easily create their own condition reports, we offer our Onceovr Pro solution – yet another free app that makes it fast and easy for virtually anyone, even field techs and office personnel, to create a professional condition report from virtually any location. And because it’s integrated with our OVRView solution, all the information from Onceovr Pro is seamlessly stored in our OVRView app, allowing customers to access it whenever – and wherever – they want.
FLD: Let Us Make Remarketing Easy
Remarketing vehicles and equipment can be one of the most time-consuming processes in the fleet world – one that can cost your fleet valuable time, money, and resources. Don’t let the effects of lack of visibility into your assets during the remarketing process have negative consequences. Contact the experts at FLD to make remarketing fast, easy and painless, with an offer in days and payment in hours on any used asset in any condition – anytime.
About the author
Richard Mallek is Director of Business Development for FLD Remarketing and a 13-year veteran of the fleet industry. He can be reached at 800-754-1522 or by emailing him at [email protected].