Fleets are “firming up” their disposal strategies in anticipation of a fall in values later this year, reports Epyx.

The company says that while current used car values are running high, increasing numbers of vehicles will reach the market towards the end of 2015, providing strong downward pressure.

David Goodyear, head of business development, said: “The feedback we are seeing from fleets is that they don’t expect anything like a slump in values but that values will certainly fall.

“The current buoyancy in used car values is very much driven by a shortage in stock and, as supply improves, there will undoubtedly be a measured but irresistible slowdown.”

Goodyear said that fleets were already preparing for this scenario by looking at their overall disposal strategies.

He explained: “We are seeing this from conversations with our users about the way in which they are planning to use our 1link Disposal Network e-commerce platform in more sophisticated ways.

“They are not planning complete revisions of strategies but more of a firming up process design to offset the reductions in values that are widely expected.

“This is very much about using the data that the platform produces – for example, in terms of identifying best routes for different kinds of vehicles - to maximise the chances of producing the best disposal result in terms of values and speed of turnaround.”

He added that epyx expected this kind of activity to continue into 2016.

“Supply is likely to continue to increase as more lease cars return to the market. One of the good things about e-commerce is that users learn more about how to get results over the platform over time, and we expect to see more of those lessons put into practice.”

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