While multiple industries have been hit harshly by the pandemic, some have gained momentum and been flourishing ever since. The auto lending market is among them. To help you and your clients reach out to the booming auto lending industry, Gurtam is releasing LeaseControl. It’s a GPS tracking solution built specifically for auto financing businesses.
LeaseControl contains all the tools needed for financed vehicle location tracking and recovery. The solution keeps an asset under control 24/7 on the lot and after the sale. Moreover, it helps detect a force-majeure like a vehicle theft or device tampering and allows dealers to take measures in the case by blocking the engine and simplifying collateral repossession.
Here is what you need to know before trying out LeaseControl.
Vehicle location tracking is essential in securing high-risk financed vehicles. Here’s why
“One and done” gross profit deals are no longer popular in automotive retail. As more buyers are facing economic problems due to rising costs of living, gas, heating and electricity prices, they are turning to car financing at a bank or dealership. The latter include diverse long-term auto loans into their offerings and want to win from quickly growing interest rates. Do you know any in your region?
The benefits are high in auto lending, and so are the risks, especially in the segment of subprime and used cars. Customers are attracted by low-cost vehicles and agree to available financing plans, despite high interest rates. In North America, there's a term for the burgeoning niche – Buy Here Pay Here, or BHPH.
When we mention low-cost vehicles, usually we talk about financing buyers with a specific credit or financial situation. There’s no problem in selling a car to someone with poor credit – the problem is to get payments from them and prevent auto theft. However, a dealership can never be sure that customers will pay for financed cars. Unfortunately, missed payments and unrecovered vehicle thefts are a typical risk in the segment.
LeaseControl: vehicle leasing management solution to mitigate the main industry risks
Car financing is a very capital intensive business where cash flow is critical. Systematic payment delays and an avalanche of debtors can ruin a whole business.
In car auto lending – and in BHPH in particular – a dealer uses different financing programs and asset handling solutions. Here’re the main features they need from their telematics service provider:
- Real-time tracking is a must. GPS is critical for car dealerships to locate a vehicle or detect a possible vehicle abandonment and send a notification that the vehicle needs to be recovered.
- Timely payments keep a business running. Dealerships that offer car loans depend heavily on constant cash flow. Hence, they need stronger guarantees that payments will be rolling in or otherwise assets would be quickly and easily recovered.
- Car collection should be stress-free. Expensive repo procedures undermine the very idea of low-cost cars. Hence, their collection should be a sanction for a debtor, not a dealer.
In order to ensure fast no-hassle auto lending, Gurtam has designed a niche-specific lease gps tracking solution. LeaseControl features only a set of tools necessary to tackle the most pressing challenges that dealerships are facing. Let’s check out how it works.
LeaseControl is tailored for vehicle lease GPS tracking. Here’re its main tools
LeaseControl has in-built features for real-time vehicle tracking and turning off the engine remotely. Let’s check which tools are used for that and how they function. And of course, we advise you to visit our help center for more information.
Continuous control: GPS vehicle location data
LeaseControl is a car loan GPS tracking product built by Gurtam – a company with 20 years of experience in telematics and IoT and developer of Wialon, one of the biggest GPS tracking platforms in the world in terms of the number of connected cars. The solution retains the most valuable features from Wialon – GPS tracking functionality and high-quality 24/7 technical support. At the same time, LeaseControl is tailored to a particular niche and its typical challenges. The user pays for the functionality they need without extra expenditure on unnecessary add-ons that don’t apply in their vehicle leasing management solution.
Detecting force majeure events: geofences and notifications
Let’s imagine a situation when a financed car leaves an area allowed for its usage by the lease agreement (for example, a country or a state territory). Such a departure may cause suspicion that they are abandoning the allowed zone in order to avoid payments. Or worse, steal the car.
To mitigate such risks, LeaseControl allows the user to create a geofenced area and set up notifications when a vehicle enters or exits it.
The user goes to the Notifications tab to configure necessary alerts. Currently, there are two main trigger types related to:
- geofences;
- connection loss.
For example, your client may want to set up a connection loss alert. When the user doesn’t receive data from a lent car for a while (the time interval is set up by the user) and/or if a connection is restored, an alert is triggered off. When necessary, the control alert may contain the address of a selected vehicle or other data.
Notifications also apply when a customer exits a geofenced area described above. Imagine a situation when a financed vehicle leaves the country (i.e. a geofenced area) despite a clause in the car finance agreement prohibiting it. Now the dealer can use LeaseControl to block its engine and avoid a highly probable vehicle theft.
The user chooses the most preferable form of getting messages from LeaseControl: SMS, desktop notifications in a pop-up window, and emails.
Quick reaction: remote engine shut-off
Probably the main BHPH-style power of LeaseControl is enabling an auto dealer to turn off the car engine remotely. It may be necessary when a borrower delays/forgoes loan payments or exits a geofenced area, and the dealer wants to avoid incurring financial losses. Also, LeaseControl allows your client to deactivate a kill switch as well.
LeaseControl has three ways to disable a vehicle remotely.
- By sending a manual command. Whenever a dispatcher notices something suspicious, they can send a command to block the engine right away.
- Automatically. A common use case is blocking the engines of debtors at the end of the month.
- Upon a certain event. When an undesired event happens, for example, the car leaves the state and a notification is sent to the owner, LeaseControl automatically blocks the engine right away.
Please check out our help center to learn more about setting up notifications in LeaseControl.
Access to vehicle activity data: reports and tracks
Unfortunately, financed cars get stolen, and it’s extremely hard to recover them. To simplify the process, lease gps tracking solution features reports on vehicle activity and tracks.
Reports provide full information about the asset: its location detected at the moment when it disappeared and its usual parkings and stops. The feature helps shed light on the stolen asset.
The same as in the case of notifications, the user can set up:
- a report on a certain event or time period;
- regularly generated reports.
The user also sets up, among other parameters, the most suitable file format, an interval for which a report is generated, and what content will be included. Consequently, every specialist from the user’s company receives reports only on those vehicles they are working with.
The Tracks tab is another tool that provides access to the vehicle driving history. For example, your client can check out the asset performance all the way up until its signal was disabled. This can help find the car and recover the collateral.
Starting using LeaseControl to track and control financed vehicle location
LeaseControl is here to help you get a leg up on your telematics competition in the auto lending market. The solution is purpose-built for car auto dealers and financing institutions that need to secure their financed assets. By the way, check out our LeaseControl leaflet for end users listing facts and advantages of the solution for their business. LeaseControl features nothing but the functionality needed for that aim. Also, more information can be found in our help center.
LeaseControl is a stand-alone product by Gurtam based on the technology behind Wialon, a trusted platform for IoT projects. Integrators of other GPS monitoring systems can start working with the solution even they don't partner with Wialon.
LeaseControl FAQ
We collected and answered your latest questions about the product so that you can better understand how to offer the solution to your customers in a more efficient way.
Is LeaseControl a module included in Wialon, or is it a different platform?
LeaseControl is a standalone solution, has its own commercial terms of usage and is not included in Wialon. The connection here is that we used our expertise, as well as the general telematics and IoT technology behind Wialon to build the product.
What’s the difference between LeaseControl and Wialon?
LeaseControl includes only the features necessary for the high-risk vehicle leasing market, while Wialon is a platform which can be used for virtually any sphere or domain.
Hence, the commercial terms of LeaseControl, as well as the experience of the end-user, differ from Wialon.
Is there some specific equipment for LeaseControl available?
No, you can use any equipment you and your client chose to employ.
However, one of the main features of LeaseControl is the ability to turn off the engine remotely. Thus, to utilize the feature, the chosen devices should support the corresponding commands.
Can I have LeaseControl if I'm not a Wialon partner?
Yes. If you’re a telematics service provider and haven’t partnered with us yet, you can start providing LeaseControl to your clients, at the same time starting the journey with us as a partner.
Can end-users (businesses) directly buy LeaseControl for their needs?
No, they can’t. With LeaseControl, we stick to the same policy the company has been using ever since: we provide the product only via a network of partners.
Is there a trial version available?
Yes. To request the trial version of the product, please contact us at sales@wialon.com.
Can LeaseContol be white-labeled?
Currently, only placing LeaseControl on your custom DNS is available.
For how long is the history data stored in LeaseControl?
The data on vehicle location, movements and everything the platform receives from the GPS equipment is stored for 30 days.
Can I use Google maps or other map services in LeaseControl?
Yes, you can. Please refer to the documentation to learn more about map settings.
Does LeaseControl have a mobile application?
Currently, LeaseControl does not have its own mobile application. If you have requests for certain features, including this one, please contact us at support@wialon.com. All feature requests are collected, researched and considered while deciding on the roadmap of our products.
Can I use Wialon Hosting and Wialon Local mobile apps for LeaseControl?
No. LeaseControl is a standalone product and doesn’t work with applications designed for other platforms.
To learn more about LeaseControl and start using it, get in touch with us at sales@wialon.com.
