ATLANTA -

Recovery agents are not the only ones suffering from high fuel prices. Auctions, transportation providers and their clients are focused on ways to reduce transportation time and cost.

Determining the exact location of a repossessed vehicle and when it will be ready for pick-up is a major opportunity for efficiency gains, and all parties will have to work together to ensure transporters find vehicles ready and waiting on the first pick-up attempt, every time.

We track (and enable) a very common process where a lender assigns a vehicle to auction, indicating that it is ready for pick-up at a repossession agency, including a pick-up address and date. Auctions then arrange pick-up transportation that frequently either:

—End up at the wrong lot — many agencies have multiple lots.

—Arrive before the vehicle is ready to be released.

—Some combination of both.

A recent analysis of pick-up assignments through AutoIMS revealed an average number of five days elapsed between the date a vehicle was available and the date it was actually picked up. And yet 27 percent of the assignments were picked up in two days or less. Fewer days means lower storage costs and faster returns on assets.

As fuel prices surge and competition grows, all involved are motivated to avoid dry runs and lower the days to pick-up. Auctions, transportation companies, agents, and their mutual clients have all deployed processes to avoid these misfires. Yet they are often just trading one inefficient process for another. One transport provider we interviewed employs a 30-person call center who personally verifies every single pick-up location and time by phone, prior to dispatching transport.

Is There a Better Way?

Unfortunately, there’s no simple solution yet. Many remarketing processes are automated and standardized, but the complexity and nuance of transportation logistics from repo agent to auction are greater than ever.

Agents are still pressured to use multiple systems — two or three different systems on average, some as many as seven or eight — to accept and manage repossession assignments. Data standardization and system-to-system connections will help limit the transportation guesswork eventually, but there are several things companies are already doing to help.

What Can Repossession Agencies Do?

Agencies know that once a vehicle is picked up, only part of their job is done. Filing paperwork with local authorities, emptying vehicle contents, inspecting the vehicle and providing secure storage are just a few of the responsibilities agencies must handle, communicating all necessary details to their client as they go.

To help with transportation, agencies should go over and above to make the pick-up process easy and mistake-free:

—Ensuring clients, auctions and transport providers have updated addresses and contact information for all storage locations.

—Giving clear, intuitive names to each storage location.

—Updating repo management systems with all relevant storage location information.

—Providing a main point of contact who knows exactly where vehicles are located and when they will be ready for pick-up.

What Can Lenders Do?

For clients that maintain their own repo agent contact database, like those in AutoIMS, it’s important to work together with agents to create an efficient system for updating location information, allowing for automation that all parties can depend on. Regardless of repo system(s) used, make an effort to:

—Agree on naming conventions with agencies that have multiple locations, and stick to them.

—Check with agencies frequently to ensure their contact and location information is up to date.

—Work with auctions and transport providers to identify and remedy the most frequent sources of transportation hiccups.

What Can Auctions and Transportation Providers Do?

Depending on volume, a 30-person call center might be overkill to ensure that every vehicle pick-up occurs without a hitch —no pun apologies here.

But until technology and necessity pair up to offer a better solution, making a phone call to verify pick-up location and time should help providers combat rising fuel prices and frustration.

Encouraging repo agencies and your mutual clients to follow the points outlined above will only help as well.

If cooperation fails, perhaps new transportation or repossession partners are needed? Check out www.autoims.com/partnership where remarketing industry partners can find each other in a simple, unbiased directory.

Joe Miller is the director of customer service for AutoIMS and can be reached at jmiller@autoims.com.