Our Autocare Services business is revving up our fleet of vehicle transporters in a move to respond to the market shifts that have taken place since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown.
Autocare Services specialises in moving new vehicles from the docks to car dealerships and we are watching trends in the market in which buyers are showing a very strong preference towards used cars.
Whilst Autocare Services is a specialist in new cars, we are contacting our dealer clients to remind them that our trucks can back-load and transfer used cars between dealerships or move them to wholesalers and auctions.
Michael Brownlie, Autocare Services’ business development manager, told GoAutoNews Premium: “We are noting reports that the used car market is running at levels not seen for more than 12 months.
“It appears that people are cashing in more expensive cars and buying older cars with a lot of warranty left in them and there are buyers who have been laid off, seeking to replace their company car with a low-priced used car,” Mr Brownlie said.
“There also appears to be a trend for some families to get a second car and for some people to get a car for the first time because they want to avoid public transport for the time being.”
Mr Brownlie said this activity had seen a big lift in vehicle wholesaling with dealers’ attendance at online actions increasing by 50 per cent in May compared with April 2020.
There had also been record levels of activity on automotive classified websites.
He said that Autocare Services has for some time been moving to build its competitive advantage of being in dealerships delivering new cars on a regular basis and that it was emphasising that it was then able to move dealers’ used cars between dealership locations, wholesalers and auctions.
The business said that it has been watching the “significant percentage of vehicles” that are swapped between dealers and has been expanding its delivery services in direct response to cater for this market demand.
Autocare Services has been engaging with dealers to explain how its extensive transport footprint across Australia can be used, not just by the OEMs to deliver cars to dealers, but how its truck fleet can perform dealer swaps in a timely and cost-effective manner.
When deliveries of new cars are completed, the business has capacity across metro, provincial and rural areas across Australia to pick up dealers’ swapped cars and deliver them to where they are needed.
Mr Brownlie said: “The perception with dealers has been that we only concentrate on new vehicle deliveries from the OEMs.
“The feedback we are receiving is that a lot of dealers don’t realise that Autocare Services already performs these other vehicle movements between dealerships.”
The message for dealers is emphasising that even if Autocare Services trucks are not calling at their dealerships, the trucks are most likely calling at a dealership down the road, ready to pick up any cars that dealers want swapped into the hands of another trader in a timely manner.
As featured in GoAutoNews Premium.