The site, www.fleetautiongroup.com, provides registered buyers with the facility to sign up to access a new buying route, operated for Motability Finance Ltd. Vickrey allows automated proxy-bidding in online auctions of defleeted Motability vehicles.

The weekly auction runs for a set period of time – 05.00 to 15.00 – and is for stock that has not been previously presented to buyers.

'These vehicles will not need inspection visits,' said FLAG’s key account manager and auctioneer, Steve Clarke, 'as buyers will have the confidence that they have been prepared to an industry-recognised standard, and come from the respected and verified Motability stable.'

Bidders have the option to place a single bid each time, or enter a proxy bid. This means that if they are out-bid, have the system automatically keep bidding up to a certain amount without other bidders knowing what that figure is. The system has an "Auction Over Run" capability, which stops buyers from "bid sniping" in the last few seconds of the auction. If a bid is received in the final seconds the system automatically resets with an extra 60 seconds, thereby fairly allowing all interested parties extra bidding time and continues until all bids are exhausted.

The facility will have a fixed buyers' fee of £150 which will include delivery.

Mr Clarke says that each sale will present approximately 50 vehicles a week and will run on Fridays.

The site also enables the company’s fleet vendors to view online, up-to-date stock reports, sold and net settlement reports, inspection reports for their vehicles where that service has been provided, and to showcase vehicles of special interest in a virtual showroom.

Registered buyers have access to detailed catalogue information and images on every vehicle, and can create their own wish-list for vehicles they would like to buy. They can create personal catalogues, filtering by makes and models, sort by age and mileage and view stock before it is allocated to sale.

There are easily navigable stock areas for large commercial vehicles, vans, cars, wheelchair access vehicles and plant, plus a "Virtual Showroom" for special stock that a vendor wishes to highlight.