FLEETDRIVE
Brendon Green | General Manager Motor
Vehicles | Pickles Auctions
We have had a shift as we are now running purely
online auctions. There are no physical inspections
of auction vehicles and we are selling assets by
appointment only because of social distancing
rules. We have already had a lot of online interest
but now we are relying upon it 100 percent as
a means of interacting with both our trade and
private buyers.
In terms of our staff there have been a few parts
of the business where we’ve encouraged people
to take annual leave, but we’re still receiving large
volumes of cars every day and we need resources
to manage that. We don’t have capacity issues with
the vehicles as such, however, the volumes sold
have slowed given our trade and private buyers
aren’t aggressively buying given the current climate.
What we do see down the line is that there will
be corporates who will face pressure with their
customers and cashflow. There will probably be
larger repossessions and litigation matters down
the track, which will increase volumes inwards. We
are not seeing that just yet however, but I suspect
its inevitable. Some vendors are reluctant to sell
assets in the current market, given the reduction
in used car prices. However, we might find that
some vendors are forced to meet the market the
longer that COVID-19 goes on. The used car
market will bounce back but it will most like take
longer than it did say coming out of the GFC.
In terms of working from home, we’re having
quarterly reviews with finance companies and
select companies over Zoom, which traditionally
would have normally been physical meetings. I
think that’s been a positive rather than always
jumping on a plane and having to physically visit
them. In the future I think it will lead to a blended
approach where we say let’s do some in-person
and let’s do some more digitally. What really
strikes me is how quickly you can react to things
and that’s what every industry is doing now.
Chris Beattie | National Fleet Manager |
Bob Jane Corporation
At store levels there is probably a little bit
less traffic out on the road, so it's a bit more
challenging in the retail environment. In saying
that one of our major competitors has closed
many of their stores around the country, which
means there's less competition and our retail
and fleet business have still been quite strong.
All the blue-collar work is still happening with
all your infrastructure and utilities workers,
along with plumbers and electricians. It's really
the white-collar type workers such as your
account representative or account manager,
somebody like myself who are now working
from home and don’t have a need to travel as
much as normal where we’ve seen that shift.
Generally, though sales are still strong in our
fleet division. There is a little bit of a downward
trend, but nothing dramatic. Bob Jane as a
business has adopted pretty much the “last
man standing” approach, which means we'll
always be there to provide service to both the
retail and fleet market and in particularly our
emergency service vehicles. If the government
advises us that we can remain open, we will.
Working from home doesn't really inhibit
any day to day operations or any sort of
functionality as much as I would have original
thought which I have found interesting. I think
this pandemic might even provide a base for
staff to work from home more in the future.
It might get businesses thinking more about
allowing that flexibility once a week, once a
fortnight or once a month or whatever it might
be. Rather than renting all these big massive
office spaces maybe people can do the same
job from home and be just as effective.
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