One of the noticeable trends we’ve seen in 2019 is that the sector has shifted from ensuring vehicles reach the used market in grade 2-3 condition to grade 1-2 today.
Vicky Gardner, head of remarketing, explains: “There are really two convergent trends behind this. One is that the used sector today overwhelmingly prefers ready-to-retail stock but it remains in short supply, relatively speaking.
“It really pays for companies such as daily rental operations to ensure that their cars and vans are presented to buyers in grade 1 or 2 conditions. The premium being paid over grade 2-3 is very much worth it and they have moved to meet this demand over the last year or more.
“The second trend is that thanks to technology, rental companies are much more aware of the condition of their vehicles on a day-to-day basis and are able to keep them in better shape.
“With handheld devices, the thoroughness of checking and recording of data every time a vehicle is hired vastly exceeds older processes. This means that vehicles stay in better condition throughout their life on the fleet.”
Vicky adds that the results being achieved by daily rental companies are much more impressive today than even just a couple of years ago.
“We work with a number of daily rental companies and the improved results that we have seen across the market in recent years have been very encouraging. All of them are achieving noticeably higher remarketing returns through presenting better quality stock but also through using online options very intelligently.
“For example, where they have a quantity of similar stock coming off their fleet at the same time, which is sometimes an issue for rental companies, they are using online tools to distribute it across the market more effectively.”
