The growing emergence of mobility services over the coming years will create demand for a whole new range of mobility services, says the Vehicle Remarketing Association.
The industry body, which represents businesses that handle, sell, inspect, transport or manage more than 1.5 million used cars and vans every year, has been discussing the issue at recent meetings.
VRA chair Sam Watkins said, “This is something that has been on our radar for a while but was really brought to the fore by a presentation from Nick Reisinger at DEKRA at our most recent meeting.
“What we’re really looking at are the kind of new services that will be demanded from our sector by car subscription models, car clubs, and car and ride sharing.
“Really, the crux of these hinge on the need for inspections in a multi-user situation where the vehicle may never or rarely return to a base location. Condition and damage needs to be assessed on the fly, often at the roadside.
“Doing this means traditional vehicle inspection tools are not going to be appropriate but we need to create tools and processes that are accurate and auditable.”
Some remarketing companies that were part of the VRA were already trialling app-based approaches as well as new types of handheld and drive-through scanner technology.”