OPENLANE Inc., a leading online auction company in North America for automotive dealers to buy and sell wholesale vehicles, announced the launch of its nationwide Third Party Inspection (TPI) service for all sellers on OPENLANE`s auction site, www.OPENLANE.com. By offering sellers the option to order an inspection during the listing process, OPENLANE is providing its seller base with a value-added service that increases efficiency throughout the process, ultimately resulting in a more trusted and simpler way to sell—and buy—vehicles online.

A quality vehicle inspection is an essential part of the vehicle wholesaling process. Inspections help ensure buyers are aware of the vehicle condition when bidding online, thereby lowering the need for costly arbitration procedures that result from surprises on delivery. In a partnership with a premier nationwide vehicle inspection company, Alliance Inspection Management (AiM), OPENLANE recently completed a successful pilot of more than 1,000 inspections, primarily performed at selling dealer locations, and will now make the offering available to its national base of sellers. Inspections will be performed by trained and trusted inspectors at the vehicle location providing a consistent and accurate vehicle inspection report.

With an industry-wide need for increased efficiency and dependable reports, OPENLANE’s TPI service provides a convenient, easy-to-use solution that includes:

• A simple listing process for dealers

• Quick turnaround on inspection performance, with an inspector typically on site within two business days

• Assurance against unethical arbitrations

• Higher retention of vehicle value post-sale

"We are pleased to offer a service that provides an added layer of trust between buyers and sellers, and one that ultimately protects our customers by lowering the incidence of arbitrations and voids," said Andrew Iorgulescu, vice president of business development at OPENLANE. "A dealer’s bottom line is selling cars. With the introduction of third-party inspections into our online selling process, we are demonstrating our commitment to our dealers by providing them with greater visibility, further enabling more efficient sales and increasing customer satisfaction."

In addition to expediting the inspection process, OPENLANE’s new inspection service will create higher values for listings and improved sales rates. Recent data gathered by OPENLANE during a three-month pilot of 50 dealers who ordered TPIs demonstrated that sales rates were double that of cars without inspections. The pilot also revealed an arbitration rate of less than 3 percent and a 33 percent increase in dealer vehicle interest as measured by viewings per vehicle.

"We’re very excited to have partnered with OPENLANE in this ground-breaking program" said Tom Gardner, vice president of Sales and Operations for AiM. "Through our tight integration with OPENLANE`s system, our proprietary scheduling system and highly trained inspectors, we`re able to deliver a quick turn-around on the inspection process, helping the seller to move more cars online, with fewer hassles post-sale."