Overcoming the challenges of moving vehicles in a world of social distancing
By Ed Hummel, Business Development Director, Auto Trader
Moving vehicles has proven to be a big challenge for retailers and fleet businesses since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. With retailers forced to close their showrooms during April and May, but vehicles still being marketed online, there was significant pent up demand, particularly for used cars, as showrooms opened in June.
Many shoppers who’d found their vehicle online during lockdown requested their new vehicle to be delivered to their home. This increase in demand came at a time when logistics supply was low, with many drivers furloughed or in the case of the self-employed; not working for fear of catching the virus from moving a vehicle that hadn’t been fully sanitised.
Many retailers struggled through, by using their own staff, even some Dealer Principals delivered vehicles to customers. As the market was quiet, retailers had spare capacity to do some of these moves themselves. But as demand for used vehicles increased during late June and into July, many retailers became more reliant on logistics companies to deliver their vehicles.
The social distancing measures in place have provided a real challenge to the operational model for drivers. Pre-COVID-19, 5 drivers would often depart in the same car at the beginning of the day, to then drop off at various vehicle collection points throughout the day. The 2 metre distancing rule made this impossible, but with this reduced to 1 metre in early July, the situation became more manageable.
Restricted public transport operating capacity during the crisis has added further restrictions on how drivers can get around the country. Some logistics companies thought innovatively about how to overcome social distancing challenges by using members of their family to collect and drop them off (as family members were in their bubble). We have been hugely impressed with the tenacity and creative approaches our logistics partners have come up with.
Today…
As we approach the end of July and some normality is returning to everyday life, we’re seeing a significant increase in logistics companies active on our Vehicle Moves marketplace bidding for work. During April and May we saw around 30 logistics partners logging into our logistics marketplace each day. In June, that improved to around 120 partners a day. As of this week in late July, we’re seeing around 250 logging in daily. Throughout the course of July, we’re on track to have facilitated the delivery of over 10,000 vehicles.
We’re also continuing to sign up more logistics companies that meet our stringent criteria for offering good service. Many of our partners are now also signing our consumer facing delivery SLA, where they commit to deliver a minimum level of service when delivering cars to customers’ homes. The SLA covers things like calling ahead to confirm time of arrival, being smartly attired and adhering to Government guidance to minimise any risks associated with the virus.
Vehicle delivery solutions to help retailers…
Successfully overcoming these challenges will allow retailers and logistics companies to make the most of the growing demand from shoppers for home delivery. To help retailers convert sales in todays’ trading environment, we added the option for retailers to display a flag to shoppers to let them know if they offer home delivery. In tandem with that, using a logistics marketplace like Auto Trader Vehicle Moves enables retailers to easily expose their movements to hundreds of logistics companies giving the best chance of the vehicle being moved quickly at the best market price.
If you’re a retailer and you haven’t yet taken advantage of our logistics marketplace, its ready for you to access today. To list a move now, simply click the ‘Moving’ button at the top of your Auto Trader Portal and follow the on-screen instructions. Or click here to find out more.