Copart to launch tool that tells insurers the value of damaged vehicles at notification

Salvage and remarketing organisation Copart plans to launch a new tool for insurers that can predict the auction value of vehicles as soon as customers notify their insurer of a claim.

According to Copart’s UK managing director Jane Pocock, the upcoming tool will “seriously disrupt the claims journey”.

She explained: “We’re hoping to seriously disrupt the claims journey by allowing at the point of notification of the claim or loss, so the point the accident is reported, to allow the insurer to have a more informed view of what the salvage will return so that [insurers] can decide there and then [whether to] repair or salvage in a more accurate way then they’ve ever been able to do before.”

Pocock is heading to Copart’s headquarters in Dallas to preview the tool in February; she hopes the tool will then be available for insurers to use by the end of the year.

The tool will use data collected from Copart’s patented global online auction, which sells total loss or recovered stolen vehicles for insurers. The gamified digital auction has, on average, 6,000 bidders based in 113 countries who participate in 16 to 17 online auctions a week.

Technological advancements

The new tool is just one new tech development that Copart plans to launch this year.

David House, UK head of marketing at Copart, added: “We’ve done three different enhancements to [Copart’s] live auction platform in the last four years and we’ve got another two rolling out in 2020 based on user experience and testing.

“There’s constant development but the bigger ones for us will be how we display lot details pages, what we do with the auction and information displays [are] all going to change in the next six months.”

Contributing to Copart’s technological journey is Stephen Fisher, previously chief technology officer at eBay. He joined Copart’s board in July last year. “We’re hoping that [this appointment] will seriously accelerate some of the technological advances we’ll make,” Pocock said.

The organisation has additionally hired a UK-based strategy and insight director, to champion Copart’s US technology focus here in the UK.

Copart launches new products every year, to support both external customers and internal operations. This includes, for example, an app for customers that arranges vehicle collection as well as a separate app to book in for a vehicle pick-up – this uses geotargeting to inform Copart’s yard staff when a customer has arrived on-site for their vehicle, aligning with employees’ loader app. Staff are then able to move the correct vehicles to where they are needed on time.

Digitalisation

For Pocock, Copart’s investment in technology is very much aligned to the digitalisation journey that many insurers are on.

She said: “Most insurers are going through a digital transformation of their own, so we’re aligned to that. We are generally the preferred partner for the insurance world for that very reason, because we are growing with them, providing them with the integration that they need and working with them to improve the claims journey, the customer experience and reduce the number of days it takes to resolve a claim.”

Pocock further plans to extend Copart into Europe. “We are on a mission to have a global presence with Copart, so there’s no stopping us any time soon,” she added.