For a lot of people when you discuss the benefits of an inventory tracking solution their mind immediately goes to dealership sales — but there’s more than sales in the dealer world. Inventory solutions can be used to improve everything from audits with banks to rental car facilities to auction houses.
Using inventory tracking tools, an audit that might take an entire day can be done in an hour. When you have a car audit and your car is floored with a banking company, it takes up your accounting time. People have to go out and try to find vehicles that the auditor might have missed, walked by or can’t find. In most cases, the auditor will make the dealership pay off the vehicle if they can’t find the vehicle in a certain amount of time. Inventory tracking allows the auditor to go right to the vehicle. The accounting team doesn’t have to spend time looking through files, because it is either on the lot or not, and if it is, the system will tell staff exactly where to find it.
Dealerships can also use it to find missing vehicles. Exception reports help dealer managers keep their flooring checks in good shape. They can determine if inventory was loaned out, sold and not paid off or home with a staff member. Ultimately, it saves dealerships and auditors a bunch of time and a whole bunch of money.
When evaluating products make sure to purchase a system that actually reads the VIN number. By reading the individual VINs, the system can’t be spoofed and may actually reduce audits once the auditor realizes the dealership’s tracking is iron clad and can’t be manipulated. With VIN-specific tracking, dealers can reuse and move it from one vehicle to another. This makes it very simple during an audit to know if something has been missed and, if so, where to find it.
Rent-a-car facilities can also use this technology and are currently looking at it as a way to help track their inventory. And perhaps one of the strongest uses for tracking is at auction houses. Imagine being able to track each vehicle and where it is on the auction lot. The solution could save auction houses hours upon hours each day of chasing vehicles.
We’ve just scratching the surface of how inventory tracking solutions can help not only dealers, but other vehicle inventory channels, such as auditors and auction houses. It’s an exciting time for the technology.
