GovPlanet hosted its second cross-sector forum at the National Motor Museum on 12 September 2019.

The company brought professionals with a responsibility for fleet together to discuss the challenges and possible solutions for the profitable resale of end of life vehicles and plant.

GovPlanet's MD David Shouesmith posed several questions to the room:

• Do you know how your surplus vehicles and equipment are disposed of?

• Do you know what your vehicles and equipment are really worth?

• Are you getting the best possible returns for the taxpayer?

• When did you last test the market?

With representatives from the fire and rescue services, local authorities and the commercial fleet sectors present, the morning presentation and roundtable discussion was lively and well contributed to by all delegates.

It was established very soon, that none of the attendees had a budget increase for the coming year. While most knew how their vehicles would be disposed of at their end of life, people were unsure what the worth of equipment is at the end of its cycle. The majority had also no idea if they were receiving the best possible returns for the taxpayer on the fleet. Overall, the consensus was that there was very little focus or room for innovation within their respective organisations when it comes to dealing with end-of-life fleet.

‘This is unsurprising,' commented Simon Morley, Territory Manager for GovPlanet. ‘In general, most organisations only worry about the disposal of existing fleet shortly after the procurement of new vehicles and equipment. The new kit takes the focus. Sadly, what tends to happen is that there a rush to dispose of and more often than not that means selling at another poor performing local auction.'

‘However,' continued Simon. ‘There are solutions, but it requires out of the box thinking from an organisational perspective.'

There are principal differences between auction and disposal services commonly used by many fleet operators to date and a resales service, which is the principal offering from GovPlanet.

Many within the room conceded that when it came to specialist plant and vehicles, typically found in public sector fleets, the returns from standard vehicle auctions were poor because they generally only get a return back for the value of the cab and chassis, rather than the body. It does not matter if it is a fire engine, gully sucker or refuse collection vehicle.

GovPlanet believes that with a little innovation you can boost your budget.

Simon commented: ‘We have identified an average increase in returns of 15-20% above the seller's expectation (based upon their previous experience) when items are sold through a brokered resales service, such as the one GovPlanet offers.

‘To date, not a single local authority has reverted to selling its specialist vehicles and plant through a traditional auction, after the completion of a pilot with GovPlanet.

‘We had a great day discussing how we can improve under-served public sector organisations, and I hope that our attendees left with the knowledge on how to gain the optimal value out of their redundant fleet. My sincere thanks goes out to all the delegates who attended and many thanks to our OEM partners Brigade Electronics and KGI, who exhibited alongside us at the forum,' said Simon.

Territory Manager

Simon has also introduced a new employee for GovPlanet. Lynn Dumpleton joined the GP team as the new Territory Manager.

GovPlanet MD David Shouesmith said: ‘We are delighted to have Lynn joining the team to support us in our rapid growth across the UK, where she will strengthen an already dynamic and energetic business development team. She will help us to achieve our principal aim, which is to provide a truly profitable resales channel for local authority fleet managers, disposing of their end of life plant and vehicles.'

Lynn, who is based in the North West and comes from a private sector background, where she has spent the last five years in operational logistics planning roles, most recently in the airline industry. Lynn commented: ‘I am very excited about the challenge ahead. What really appealed to me was the enormous potential for growth in this sector and the opportunity to support the public sector fleet teams, who are clearly under-served when it comes to getting value for money from the reselling of their assets.'