Auto Trader and Ebbon-Dacs announce new strategic partnership

Auto Trader and Ebbon-Dacs have announced a new strategic partnership that will see all vehicle collections and deliveries on the Auto Trader Vehicle Moves platform handled through Ebbon-Dacs’ electronic vehicle delivery and collection solution, moDel.

Under its terms, around 300 logistics companies that currently access vehicle movements through the Auto Trader Vehicle Moves platform will automatically use moDel to record all vehicle deliveries and collections.

Auto Trader typically handles around 10,000 vehicle movements per month on behalf of retail dealer groups wanting to move vehicles within different locations, as well as direct to end user customers. Some 20% of the current volume is fleet, primarily with major leasing companies.

Ed Hummel (pictured), business development director at Auto Trader, said: "We identified moDel as the market-leading vehicle delivery and collection solution and the one we wanted all our logistics suppliers to utilise.

“It provides the most accurate picture of the vehicle collection and delivery process, removing ambiguity over vehicle condition and providing customers and suppliers alike with a clear electronic record of the vehicle movement.

“We are looking forward to further extending the reach of our vehicle movement platform into the fleet market from its current level of penetration. We see Ebbon-Dacs as the perfect partner to facilitate that, especially through their market-leading Leaselink e-procurement platform which connects leasing companies with dealers and manufacturers.”

Last year, Ebbon-Dacs recorded 343,711 vehicle movements with moDel, a 21% increase on the previous year.

Under the new strategic partnership, logistics companies will primarily be using moDel-VM, the standalone version of moDel, which was originally designed to allow companies which were not users of Ebbon-Dacs’ Leaselink e-procurement platform to benefit from its use.

However, Ebbon-Dacs says this has now gone on to become the most popular version amongst logisitics companies, accounting for more than 225,000 vehicle movements in 2019, an increase of 26% on the previous year.

Michael Terry, head of commercial at Ebbon-Dacs, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Auto Trader, the country’s leading new and used car digital marketplace, to bring standardisation and conformity of its delivery processes through the use of moDel for all vehicle movements through the Auto Trader Vehicle Moves platform.

“We see this partnership as an opportunity to increase our presence in the retail space and to facilitate increasing numbers of deliveries for automotive retailers.

“With moDel, we continue to invest heavily in the ongoing development of the solution with exciting new functionality and features, and users will see an acceleration in new releases in the coming 12 months, with virtually one new release per month to remain at the cutting edge of technological development."

Earlier this month (June), Ebbon-Dacs revealed its new Ebbon Group concept as it looks to expand the business within the global fleet community. 

The Auto Trader Vehicle Moves platform has been developed to create an online marketplace for retail dealers to place their logistics requirements, including both B2B and B2C customers. Based on a reverse auction model, jobs are bid on by a network of over 300 trusted suppliers, with around 600 vehicle transporters and some 1,600 drivers.

Auto Trader says it has been able to bring about savings for dealers of around £31 per vehicle movement. In 2019, dealers using the platform saved around £4 million in total.