Taking a leaf out of models walking down the ramp to display fashion designers’ latest creations, a subsidiary of Shriram Transport Finance Company is doing the same with second-hand commercial vehicles (CVs).
Shriram Automall India Ltd is leveraging its automall infrastructure to bring buyers and sellers of second-hand CVs under one roof.
“Vehicles are parked at the mall two days in advance by the sellers so that prospective buyers can inspect the vehicle before the bidding. “However, once the bidding process starts and the vehicle comes on the ramp, the buyer gets only one minute to put in his bid,” says Umesh Revankar, Managing Director, Shriram Transport Finance Company. For each vehicle there are four to five interested parties. So, on the day of the bidding 400-500 people converge at the automall. For most of the vehicles there will more than one bidder and this helps in discovering the best price for the vehicle.
Revankar points out that when a middleman gets in between, he influences the decision either for the buyer or the seller.
Banks and financial institutions have also started using the automall to sell re-possessed vehicles.
“We also extend finance to the buyer. So, the automall platform helps us achieve the objective of financing the second-hand vehicle. In a month, Shriram Automall logs about 12,000 to 15,000 transactions,” according to Revankar.
At the mall, CV owners can also put up a photograph of their vehicle in the kiosk. So, a buyer can browse, inspect the vehicle, talk to the owner and buy the vehicle.
“In such (bilateral) deals, the buyer may not necessarily take finance from us. However, we get two to three per cent fees from the buyer and the seller,” says Revankar.