BVRLA Data Survey
British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association Data Survey
Background
Profitability within the vehicle lease business is achieved by balancing the original cost of the vehicle against the revenue gained from the monthly rental of the vehicle, over the period of the rental with the addition of the final sale price realized at the end of the rental period (the residual value).
Profit = (residual sale price of the vehicle + monthly rental income) – (original purchase price of vehicle)
However the residual value can only be a ‘best guess’ as this is a future value, a minimum of 3 years ahead. If a vehicle keeps its value well and is expected to have a high residual value then the monthly rentals charged can be lower than expected.
Therefore lease companies are very keen use a system to anonymously share information so that they can assess their monthly rental prices and predicted residual values for vehicles against each other and the industry benchmarks.
The Build
The Data Survey is an on-line tool which allows the Subscribers to upload their values each month and then view the complete market made up from other Subscribers for that month and carry out trend analysis over the months through a web interface. The aim of the system was to provide the BVRLA with the market leading predictor tool for the benefit of their members.
The system was built by e-mango Ltd for the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association who own and operate the system on behalf of its members. It is accessed by the major UK vehicle leasing companies (LloydsTSB, Autolease, Lex Vehicle Leasing, HSBC, Leaseplan, Lombard etc - the Subscribers) and the vehicle manufacturers ( BMW, Ford, Mercedes,VAG, Nissan,Peugeout,Chrysler etc), with supporting industry benchmark data being supplied by CAP (CAP Black Book part of Emap), International Decision Systems and Motorconsult.
The Data Survey went live in November 2007 and quickly became a market leader in its field.
The Product
The Data Survey is an on-line application with the subscribers, manufacturers and administrators accessing the data and functionality of the survey through a standard web browser.
The system accepts data every month from the industry bench markers and the Subscribers, who automatically self-load their data (1,700,076 pieces of data each month) directly into the system through the web interface from a spreadsheet. The data is validated and verified through the upload process to filter out rogue values and to highlight data issues and abnormalities for the subscribers and administrators.
The system automatically performs a number of calculations on the data to produce Industry Mean Values for a range of Key Performance Indicators, which are displayed alongside the Subscribers’ data for individual models, model ranges, similar models, or other manufacturers either as league tables, Company summary or trend analysis over a series of months.
All the data is viewed through the web interface or alternatively the data may be viewed or exported as graphs or spreadsheets.
Target Market
Vehicle lease companies in the UK market and vehicle manufacturers. The Data Survey is a market leader with over 30 leasing companies operating in the car and light commercial vehicle market, 15 manufacturers and 4 industry guides.
Site traffic
The application has a full logging and reporting tool of system activity so that the BVRLA can report on how many times Subscribers have been logging in, the number and type of searches they have been making. On average each subscriber carries out 72 searches a month, the total growing from 296 at launch to 2910 in April 2008, a ten fold increase in 6 months.