LAST week’s Leasing Broker Federation Awards and AGM in London highlighted a torrid past 18 months for members affected first by the Covid pandemic and then the fall out from it in terms of supply and logistics issues.
Broker members have had to re-think how they work and do business as well as deal with production delays and supply shortages which have also led to the ‘de-contenting’ of electronic equipment, all of which are leaving brokers short of cars and with unhappy customers.
However, what the awards also highlighted was how Federation members have adapted and are moving forward in ever more innovative ways.
Many members responded to the Leasing Broker Federation survey sent out ahead of the AGM and the highlights show that everyone is predicting an increase or no change in their fleet size, with 78% predicting an increase. This portrays a very positive outlook.
Despite Covid, almost 90% of members said they had been able to maintain regular contact with their customers throughout the contract term which shows that Leasing Brokers are leading the way in terms of customer ownership
A ‘new normal’ has seen a return to a busy market with an 89% increase in enquiries but a 56% increase in order cancellations. Just under a quarter (22%) of brokers have seen an increase in funders offering used vehicle finance, which is no surprise based on the shortage of new vehicles.
The continued up-take of PCH and BCH is still very clear, with 80% seeing an increase in demand for PCH and 100% seeing an increase in BCH demand. There is also a marked increase in non-traditional contract lengths, with a 78% increase in daily rental, a 44% increase in car club requests, a 66% increase in vehicle changes during the contract term and 66% increase in shorter 6 – 12 month contracts.
As we have seen with previous surveys, the relationship between Brokers and Dealers appears to be the stronger one, with 78% being in frequent contact opposed to only 33% having frequent contact with manufacturers. Despite the lower interaction with manufacturers, 89% of Federation members believe manufacturers will be offering their own finance through their dealerships in the future.
We asked members to rate the top manufacturers based on their focus and support for the broker market with BMW and Volkswagen coming out on top while BMW and Ford are the most flexible in offering bespoke deals. As for direct interaction, Mercedes is number one.
In terms of cars the last quarter has seen the strongest demand for pure EV, Hybrid and PHEVs while diesel is still king when it comes to vans.
When it comes to funders, Lex and Hitachi come out on top in terms of fast decisions, Leaseplan has a good acceptance rate while Hitachi is rated highly as easy to do business with. In terms of consistent processes, again Lex and Hitachi are highly rated.
