Jan 14 2025
Whether you’re a large salvage yard that builds out its proprietary tools for yard management, or a solution/software provider to small to mid-sized salvage yards, it’s essential that the vehicle data you leverage is accurate and complete enough to meet requirements for critical use cases, including some of the most common instances outlined below.
VIN decoding and identification are terms that have a different meaning and context depending on the solution type and the use case. This could mean simply determining the year, make, model, and engine. Others could include much deeper level attributes including equipment, as well as the return of specific ACES VCdb fields for vehicle-to-part matching and compatibility.
In this article, we’ve described a few primary cases where vehicle data can be pivotal for efficient yard management processes.
Determining the exact year, make, model, and trim (YMMT), as well as additional vehicle characteristics, is an essential function for proper part matching and pricing. This process usually starts with incorporating better data into the vehicle/parts inventory management process. Once that step is complete, utilizing VIN to ACES VCdb, and part fitment data will ensure that yards can not only accurately represent vehicle and part inventory but can make it easy for their b2b and b2c customers to search and find compatible parts within the e-commerce platform or physical location inventory displays representing that yard.
Determining the right vehicle years, models, trims, and engines, as well as potentially certain equipment features to acquire is a challenge in itself. Proper identification will ensure auto salvage yards are not overpaying for vehicles absent of certain desirable vehicle features or equipment. As an example, the cost of a new Ford F-150 can range from nearly $40k to more than $100k depending on its trim, and equipment configuration, so it’s important to identify the correct Ford F-150 with the equipment or features that you know are in high demand. DataOne can help with the identification of vehicles that you are targeting for acquisition, as well as making it easier to track and report on vehicles/parts that are selling well to guide acquisition.
As a result of The NMVTIS Anti-Car Theft Act, auto recyclers, junk yards, and salvage yards must submit the VINs, among other details, of all newly acquired vehicles each month to an approved 3rd party data consolidator, even total loss vehicles acquired directly from insurance companies. This helps prevent VIN/title fraud, as well as assures that each vehicle is properly branded/designated based on its level of damage (discussed in the next point). These VINs can all be decoded and verified beforehand, with help from a VIN decoding solution, via the salvage yard’s internal tools to prevent any inaccuracies from being passed along to the third party.
The AAMVA has defined salvage (repairable) and junk (non-repairable) branded vehicles clearly in their Salvage and Junk Vehicle Best Practice document. As a salvage business dealing with both salvage and junk vehicles for part sourcing, you’ll need to be able to distinguish which brands/designations you’re encountering. While junk-branded vehicles might have perfectly good parts for resale, aside from the body and frame containing the VIN of a junk-branded vehicle, this is not necessarily true with flood-damaged vehicles. To add another layer of complexity, not all jurisdictions are required by law to brand vehicles as junk. As such, unsafe vehicles that should be designated as junk and exclusively stripped for parts or recycled may be repaired and resold with salvage titles.
As mentioned in the previous point, the NMVTIS requires each total loss vehicle to be reported with all of the applicable details not only to avoid theft/fraud but also to help avoid the rebuilding and resale of unfit junk vehicles. While this information is not encoded in the VIN itself, the VIN is used as an identifier of salvage and junk vehicles, requiring a VIN decoding solution to obtain this information
Whether your business has built out its own proprietary auto salvage platform or is leveraging an internal solution, it’s essential that you have access to vehicle data that can meet the depth of your requirements for various use cases, including the cases mentioned above. Inaccurate data or vehicle data that simply does not provide enough detail can be costly to your auto salvage business, significantly impacting potential revenue opportunities by overpaying for inventory (absent of equipment or damaged parts), not seeing the full value of each vehicle, or losing money on part returns due to incompatibility. DataOne would be happy to discuss how our comprehensive vehicle data solutions, containing option-level identification, detailed specifications, and ACES part fitment VIN matching can be of benefit within your current or upcoming business requirements. Learn more by clicking the button below.
