Growth in mobility solutions will create demand for a whole new range of remarketing services, including catering for off-site inspections.

Remarketing firms will see growing demand for solutions that will enable inspections of vehicles that rarely or never return to a base location, according to the VRA

The issue came to the fore at a recent Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) meeting where VRA chair Sam Watkins said the sector would see growing demands for such solutions from the likes of 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,” she explained

“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.”

VRA remarketing members have already been trialling app-based approaches as well as new types of handheld and drive-through scanner technology.

“There’s an appreciation that the problem needs to be tackled and some considerable investment is taking place to arrive at new solutions. It’s a very interesting area and one that we are sure will become even more of discussion point in the future,” Watkins continued.