Off Lease Inspections

With the growth of leasing over the last decade, a need has arisen for an independent inspection of these vehicles at lease termination to protect the value of the car by determining the mileage and general condition of the vehicle. As a result of this evolution, a specific range of services have been developed by SGS.

When a lease contract expires and the lessee returns the car to the leasing company, that car still retains a certain value on the used car market. That value depends on, amongst other things, the make and the model, the fuel, the available accessories and the conjuncture on the used car market. However, the condition of the car also has a great effect on the residual value. A  badly damaged car will of course have a negative influence on the re-sales (or remarketing) price. As the used car market is currently facing a prices drop, it is very important for leasing companies to recover that damage (and the difference in the remarketing value) from the lessee. That is what off lease inspections determine.

In over 18 European countries, SGS inspectors are checking around 500 cars every day; registering missing documents or keys and any damage to the car, following the procedures and business rules drawn up and agreed with our customers.

What do we offer our clients?

• Third party independent inspection performed by  professionals without dilemma
• Standardized inspection criteria and procedures across all countries
• Standardized electronic reporting in both local language and the common language of our client’s choice
• A tailor-made and flexible report to serve collection of claims as well as the purpose of prompt remarketing
• Standardized and undisputable cost calculation and determination of excess wear and tear across geographies
• Reduced non-core and administrative expenses with better recovery
• An open, transparent platform accessible by the leasing company and its customers, providing the management online statistics
• Electronic data exchange and optimum integration into their workflow and processes.

How do we do this?

Step 1: the inspection

Every day, regardless of the climatologic circumstances, our staff are inspecting car after car and registering the details on a PDA (a ruggedised portal data terminal). The details include:

• all technical data of the vehicle such as make, model, series, fuel type, etc.
• the presence of all documents and keys
• the condition of the tyres
• the damage on the inside as well as on the outside of the car. Part of the inspector’s job is to indicate how the damage should be repaired and to estimate how much time certain repair jobs would take.

The inspector also takes pictures of the car overall as well as the damages in particular. The type of damage to register and what pictures to take will have been discussed previously with the customer and is clearly defined in our Wear & Tear manual.

Step 2: the calculation

Once the inspection is finished, all data are sent to the VINci platform, an SGS in-house-developed IT application. VINci has integrated the EurotaxGlass’ data (ETG). ETG is an important supplier of all imaginable Automotive data and is being used in off lease inspections to feed VINci with all technical vehicle data, parts, prices and time allowances.

Once all the data is available, VINci makes a calculation of the damages and provides the detailed cost of each and every fault as registered by the inspector.

Step 3: the reports

Once the calculation is complete, we can generate various reports:

• The Vehicle Condition Report is the most extended and complete ad hoc report containing all data and damages (or exceptions) as registered during the inspection. The CRl informs the customer about the real condition of the vehicle. It gives an overview of all damages (exceptions) allowing the customer to recover the cost from the lessee. The Condition reports also contain the complete photo album.
• The Appraisal Report is a condensed vehicle condition report, usually used in the Remarketing process. It means that it does not contain all damages (or exceptions) as registered by our inspector during the inspection. The AR is used to inform dealers / buyers about the exceptions / damages on the vehicle, providing them with a general “estimated repair cost”.
• The Recovery Report is generated on a customer-specific basis, and enables the customer to recover eventually from any party other than the lessee. E.g. from the transport company.

An automatic e-mail with the direct links (url’s) to the reports are sent to the leasing company. Most of their remarketing staff also have access to our online VINci platform, enabling them to search for reports following different parameters such as licence plate or VIN number.

What are the key benefits for the customer?

• standardised, uniform, independent and objective damage registration
• state-of-the-art technology allowing fast data exchange
• alliance with EurotaxGlass for data delivery
• cost optimisation
• global coverage
• tailor-made add-ons
• expertise / competences
• 6-years experience in off-Lease & remarketing services

Our Customers

We are currently performing off lease inspections for LeasePlan (European wide) for whom we will inspect around 130.000 cars by end of 2006. We also provide off-lease services for Arval (Germany and we will soon begin inspecting for GE (General Electric) in Portugal and United Kingdom.

Auto Remarket

Vehicles are transported to auction or to final destination with an on-time title, plus value appraisal, based on inspection data obtained by SGS. Efficient operation ensures vehicles are moved to the best markets quickly and inspection services are used to establish their precise value. Lesser defects that could decrease the vehicles' worth are assessed via SGS, acting as an impartial third-party. This ensures that all of our clients' procedures are applied.

We carefully monitor the following:

• Inspections
• Inventory Control
• Logistics Coordination

Title Administration

Our centralized title centres focus solely on processing vehicle related titles with state-of-the-art technology, enabling us to process thousands of titles every day. Our exclusive methods help clients discover and resolve title errors as early as possible.

Our services include:

• Centralized and dedicated title processing
• Centralized title reporting
• Centralized title tracking

Our efficient and accurate title-processing reduces title-related auction sale delays by ensuring that paper and metal always arrive at the same auction -- guaranteed.