Delays In The System
April 25, 2025
We apologise for the delay
Delays between a vehicle coming into dealer group stock and its appearance on physical and virtual forecourts are costly and avoidable.
With the accepted industry average cost of £70 a day per used vehicle in stock, profit margins begin to erode the moment a vehicle is purchased. However, the journey to the forecourt often breaks down due to lack of communication between departments and the inability to have complete and easily accessible oversight of vehicles in group stock.
Issues range from not knowing a vehicle’s status or even whereabouts to lack of images or video content. Rectifying these often requires an employee emailing a colleague or picking up the phone and when the response isn’t immediate, further delays are incurred.
So, what are the barriers preventing used vehicles from taking their place on the forecourt? We’ve compiled a few of our ‘favourites’, otherwise known as those issues which come up time and again.
Hide & seek
Not knowing the whereabouts of a vehicle is not uncommon. Is it on the transporter after it was purchased at an auction? Has a customer collected their new vehicle yet thereby leaving the part-exchange at a dealership? Is it at the prep-centre? Or perhaps the digital marketing team is currently undertaking a photoshoot? For most dealers, such live information is not easily accessible without navigating from one application to another to physically ‘find’ the car.
ViHUB collates information on the vehicle from several systems to provide live details on one dashboard which means its location can be identified immediately.
Waiting patiently
When used vehicles require a part as part of the prep process, there’s usually a wait of at least a few days which creates a bottleneck at the prep centre. These difficulties are increased as dealers, faced with supply issues, opt to retail older vehicles which are more likely to require additional and more complex repairs to bring them up to forecourt standard.
ViPREP keeps track of a vehicle’s status the moment it comes into group stock identifying any issues in the prep process, flagging problems to staff who can implement a quick resolution. ViPREP automates, measures and improves the vehicle preparation process with its single view by collating different data sources in one online portal for a seamless transition from one stage to the next.
Say cheese
Vehicles without the requisite images, video and 360-degree walk-arounds can be readily identified by overlaying tailormade ‘rules’ flagging them for urgent attention. Once the digital content has been collated, the vehicle is automatically uploaded to all online marketing channels.
A way with words
Likewise, acronym-heavy industry speak is automatically replaced with appealing consumer-friendly descriptions of vehicles when ViHUB is utilised. Rich narratives are created by automatically sifting through the vast detail contained in hitherto unconnected systems. Again, dealers can insert their own ‘rules’ or guidelines to highlight vehicles which require attention before they are marketed online. Accuracy is maintained as ViHUB feeds all marketplaces thereby price and description discrepancies are no longer a problem.
One dashboard, complete oversight
Complete oversight of vehicle inventory including courtesy, staff, pipeline and new vehicles at dealership and group level at the fingertips of employees is a reality.
ViHUB’s dashboard is also integrated with Auto Trader Connect’s vehicle pricing rating and desirability scale which can be viewed without the need to navigate between different sites.
Granular detail contained in one dashboard where amends can be made and automatically uploaded to all channels is a gamechanger which overcomes the delays as a vehicle progresses from acquisition to retail ready.
Our CEO Andy Whitehair: “ViHUB enables dealers to overcome delays by consolidating vehicle inventory, dealership operations and marketing in one system whilst automation takes away duplication and heavy lifting. Previously deemed unobtainable due to the sheer volume of systems needed for the day to day running of a dealership and the fact that vehicle data is collected in silos, ViHUB delivers the oversight to overcome delays.”
Get in touch if you want to:-
Identify and automate gaps in system coverage
Provide better visibility of delays
Promote ‘days in stock’ as a key live and easily measurable metric
