Tag: Registration & Title

Four Ways Electronic Reg & Title Processing Can Save Your Dealership Money

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As more and more state motor vehicle divisions adopt electronic registration and titling, dealerships find themselves overhauling their back-office processes to keep up. It can seem daunting, but digitizing reg and title can lead to cost savings in several key areas – some of which might surprise you!

Right there in black and white

This is one of the more obvious expenses related to manual registration and title, but the switch to online submission eliminates a lot of paper forms and copies from your office supply budget. When you consider the ink and toner savings as well, the economies increase.

With electronic reg and title, the “documents” to be sent to the DMV are completed online. In some states like California, customers can even digitally sign. All of that equals less paper, less fumbling for pens, and a more streamlined process for the dealership and the car buyer.

Rage against the machines

With paper receding into the background, you can also save on the costs of purchasing and maintaining many of your dealership’s printers, copiers and even fax machines. Imagine a world without paper jams, connection errors, and toner spills!

Electronic reg and title enables you to submit transactions online directly to the DMV with much of the customer and vehicle information coming directly from earlier stages of the deal process via integration with the DMS.

From Point A to Point B

That direct online submission means that the DMV gets what they need immediately, without the need for mailing, shipping, or sending a runner to get the paperwork where it’s headed. No need to worry about things like making an appointment at the DMV or having someone stand in line to drop off paperwork. No more postage or shipping costs. Think of how those savings add up!

More than just a parking spot

According to an NCM Associates Group Study in 2019, it costs your dealership an average of $37 in holding costs per day, per vehicle on your lot. Now multiply that by the average number of cars you sell each year. That’s what it costs you in overhead, floorplan and interest just to have a vehicle sitting idle – and those costs erode your profit margin and affect your bottom line.

Anything you can do to get a vehicle off the lot faster helps save on holding costs. For newly purchased vehicles, a fast and simple registration and titling solution can help get each customer out the door as quickly as possible.

Using a trade-in titling solution is another way to reduce holding costs. The sooner the dealership can get a clear title in hand, the sooner they can re-sell off the lot or at auction.

Choosing your electronic reg & title solution

Your registration and titling solution should give your back-office staff the tools they need to create and submit transactions quickly and easily. Look for a solution that integrates with your DMS for less data re-entry and improved accuracy. And consider using a trade-in titling solution to maximize your cost savings from trade-in to vehicle sold.

Want to learn more about how you can save on reg and title costs with Dealertrack? Request a live demo!

So, You Want to Learn Reg & Title for Every State…

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Let’s say you’ve decided to become your dealership’s expert on every possible registration and titling scenario for all 50 states (and don’t forget the District of Columbia). You were a quick study in school, so it’s possible, right?

You’re probably thinking that memorizing 51 sets of calculations isn’t so bad. We agree – you could probably do it if it stopped there.

But don’t forget there are 3,141 counties in the U.S. (we’re including county equivalents like boroughs, census areas, and parishes in that number). Some of them also charge registration fees, but not all of them do, so that’s more to remember.

Then there are the individual municipalities. Of the 19,495 incorporated cities, towns and villages in the U.S., there are some that add fees or taxes to a vehicle purchase and others that do not. You’re going to need to know which are which.

And as they say in TV ads: But wait, there’s more!

A quick scroll through the National Council of State Legislatures list of Registration and Title Fees By State reveals many more variables that different states use to calculate their fees.

Some states start with a flat base registration fee, but they’re the exception rather than the rule. Here’s a selection of additional factors used to determine vehicle taxes and registration fees:

  • Vehicle weight (weight classes/ranges vary widely from state to state)
  • Vehicle body type
  • Vehicle class/type
  • Vehicle age
  • Electric and/or hybrid vehicle fees
  • Electric and/or hybrid vehicle discounts
  • Fee discounts or exemptions for seniors
  • Air quality research fee
  • Transportation or infrastructure improvement fee
  • Decal fee
  • Horsepower
  • Multi-year registration discounts
  • MPG rating
  • Registering a vehicle from another state
  • Special plate
  • Fuel other than gas or diesel (but not electric)

No two states use the same criteria for determining registration fees and taxes. How are you feeling about that plan to memorize every deal scenario now?

The reality is that it takes technology and close coordination with the motor vehicle bureaus from each state to ensure that a dealership has access to reliable cross-border tax and fee calculations to quickly drive the best deal forward. So instead of trying to commit every state’s tax and fee structure to memory, use that research skill to choose the best solution to get your back office ready for more out-of-state customers.

Click to find out how RegUSA® helps make cross-border deals simple.

How A Better Reg & Title Workflow Helps Your Dealership’s Bottom Line

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For every vehicle your dealership sells or leases and each one you take in on trade, there’s registration and title work to be done. These essential back-office tasks are sometimes underappreciated as an opportunity for improving the dealership’s daily workflow efficiency and providing faster, more satisfactory service to customers.

Manual reg and title processes are very time-consuming, involving numerous phone calls, faxes and runners going in person to motor vehicle offices. It all takes time – much of it spent waiting.

Registration and title technology solutions have helped reduce costs, increase speed and efficiency, improve compliance – and cut down on that waiting time. Better yet, 3 out of 4 dealers report that technology innovation improvements have been followed by increased profitability.

We know that GMs are always looking to increase margin, which means they are looking to their controllers to reduce costs to help achieve that goal. That’s where it helps to provide the dealership’s title clerks and back office operations with more intuitive solutions to make the reg and title process faster, while still ensuring compliance.

Here’s the range of total titling processes your dealership needs for optimum efficiency:

  • Trade-In Titling – Technology solutions help streamline and shorten the time for vehicle payoff and title or lien release, which in turn helps your dealership avoid payoff surprises, save on holding costs, and turn inventory more quickly.
  • In-State Registration and Title – In states with electronic registration and title, you can now process motor vehicle transactions online from your office, in real time. Faster transactions and same-day registration and titling help increase your back-office productivity.
  • Out-of-State Registration and Title – With more and more customers finding your dealership online and purchasing cross-border, technology support is invaluable for smooth registration and titling for customers from across the country.

Technology providers continue to innovate and improve registration and title workflows with input from dealerships. Make sure to review your solutions from time to time to make sure they cover your registration and titling needs and provide the speed, efficiency, transparency and compliance you require.

Explore the range of registration and titling solutions that Dealertrack provides.

Car Buying Hits the Road

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Even before the current inventory crunch, dealerships have been promoting their listings beyond their immediate market area to reach as many consumers as possible. Thanks to online shopping, car buyers can locate the exact vehicle they want, and they are increasingly willing to complete those purchases regardless of where the vehicle is located.

2020 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey research found that car buyers have been steadily increasing their buying radius over the past three years, nearly doubling it from an average of 45.9 miles in 2018 to 89.3 miles in 2020. So, it’s no surprise that Dealertrack shows an approximately 80 percent increase in out-of-state registration and title transactions over the past five years.

With that in mind, it’s more important than ever for dealerships to be prepared for purchases – and even trade-ins – from customers who live in other states. There’s technology available to help at each step of those processes. Let’s explore how these tools work through a hypothetical out-of-state sales scenario.

Say a dealership in Georgia has a vehicle listed online and a buyer in North Carolina decides he’s willing to drive two states over to get it. This buyer is also planning to trade in his existing vehicle as part of the deal. Here’s how technology can streamline the process:

Trade Insights

First, there’s the trade-in. North Carolina isn’t a consumer title holding state and the loan isn’t completely paid off, so the lienholder still has the title. But there’s a potential complication: the customer happened to mention that he doesn’t remember if his estranged ex-spouse is on the title or not. If she isn’t, the trade-in can proceed without incident. If she is, the customer will have to try to get her current contact information — and obtain her permission for the trade.

It’s a desirable trade-in vehicle, which could make many dealerships inclined to just take the gamble and accept the trade without knowing the title status. But if the ex is on the title and refuses to allow the trade, unraveling the trade and possibly the new purchase deal could be costly for both the dealership and the customer.

But this dealership uses a software solution for trade-in titling that eliminates that uncertainty. With the click of a button, they can pull up an image of the title and find out whether or not there’s a co-owner listed. In this case, the car buyer’s worry was unfounded: he’s the only person listed on the title.

Reliable Payoffs

The trade-in titling solution also helps the dealership calculate a date-specific, reliable payoff amount from the lender for the customer’s remaining loan balance, all without picking up the phone. And when it comes to completing the payoff with the lender, this solution allows the dealership to submit payment via ACH, streamlining their process and eliminating the need to cut and mail checks and wait for them to arrive.

Payment Accuracy

Now that the dealership can confidently make an offer for the trade, next on the agenda is figuring a reliable payment that includes the specific taxes and fees for North Carolina residents. To quote the right payment amount to the customer, it’s vital to know that North Carolina charges a highway use tax rather than sales tax and that there’s a flat fee for vehicles purchased outside the state.

Rather than relying on Google to help them piece together the tax and fee situation at the North Carolina DMV, this dealership uses an electronic 50-state registration and title solution. The solution can help the dealership as early as the desking stage by providing up-to-date taxes and fees for the state, county and municipality where the car buyer lives to help make sure the payment doesn’t change.

Reg & Title Without Borders

With all that taken care of, we’re almost at the finish line. Or are we? There are still North Carolina title and registration considerations for the new vehicle. Fortunately, the same out-of-state registration and title solution that helped with the payment calculation also provides step-by-step guidance and forms to submit titling and registration transactions for any state. That means the dealership can send the customer on his way without giving him an unwelcome errand to run when he gets back home in his new vehicle.

Realizing Full Profitability on the Trade

Finally, there’s that trade-in vehicle the dealership acquired, which they know is in demand. To ensure that they realize as much of that profit potential as possible, it’s important make sure that the clear title is on its way so it’s ready to go out onto the lot as soon as it’s reconditioned.

The problem is that manual payoff and title release can lead to the vehicle sitting on the lot waiting for a clear title. Dealertrack data shows that the average industry timeframe for the vehicle title release and payoff process is 18 or more days. In the meantime, holding costs accumulate each day, chipping away at the profit potential.

But remember when we mentioned that this dealership used their trade-in titling solution to initiate the payoff via ACH? That same solution speeds title release, so they can expect to have the title in hand within four to six days. Faster title release helps ensure faster inventory turn and improved cash flow.

Completing Your Digital Reg & Title Toolkit

Want to see how Dealertrack’s out-of-state registration and title solution RegUSA® can work with our trade-in titling solution Accelerated Title to bring the convenience of this scenario to life at your dealership? Schedule a brief, live demo with one of our specialists today.

Complete Your Toolkit with End-to-End Titling Solutions

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Does your dealership have all the technology solutions necessary to handle your most pressing registration and titling needs? Are you still using manual methods to handle part of your registration and titling workflow for vehicles taken in on trade, those delivered to in-state customers, and/or your cross-border deals?

The industry runs on speed and efficiency. Using a comprehensive suite of registration and titling solutions can help you streamline your workflow, improve customer service, and maximize profitability.

Here’s what you gain from adding end-to-end registration and title technology solutions to your toolkit:

Faster Trade-In Title Processing
The sooner you accomplish payoff and title release for a vehicle taken in on trade, the sooner you can re-sell or auction it. With Dealertrack Accelerated Title®, you can speed title release on trade-ins from the industry average time of 12-18+ days down to as little as 4-6 days. That helps speed inventory turn and reduce the holding costs that come from having the vehicle sit on the lot. With title in hand, it’s nearly twice as likely that the vehicle will sell on first pass at auction.

Cross-Border Confidence
There’s no need for uncertainty when it comes to handling reg and title for out-of-state customers who find your dealership online. RegUSA® helps simplify your out-of-state workflow and provides certified, compliant registration and titling processing for any state. Its enhanced functionality guides you smoothly through each out-of-state deal with checklists, deal comparisons tools, customized forms and real-time fee calculations to help you provide a convenient, full-service experience for every customer.

Back-Office Workflow Efficiency
For in-state title processing, you’ll gain powerful, user-inspired transaction and workflow management tools for a faster, more accurate process that helps to maximize profit opportunity. We back you up with industry-leading support so you don’t have to navigate challenging transactions alone.

Learn more about how Dealertrack Total Titling Solutions can give your dealership all the tools it needs for registration and title scenarios. Register for a demo today.

Improving Your Reg & Title Workflow to Help the Bottom Line

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As dealerships look for ways to adapt their processes to keep auto sales moving in new ways, registration and titling may get overlooked. But because every sale, lease and trade-in vehicle you handle includes reg and title work, it’s an area where there’s opportunity to make process improvements. Better speed, efficiency and customer service can help preserve the bottom line.

To reduce costs and increase margin, look at the technology solutions that can make registration and title work faster and easier – all while keeping up with compliance. Let’s examine the three types of registration and titling processes that dealerships can address today:

1. Trade-In Titling
With inventory low and cash flow tight, trade-ins are an important lifeline for dealerships – assuming there are no payoff surprises and they can be auctioned or re-sold quickly. Using a technology solution to view title details in advance and speed up payoff and title or lien release can help dealerships turn inventory more quickly, save on holding costs and keep cash flow moving.

2. In-State Registration & Title
When many DMVs were closed or restricted last year, manual registration and title processing practices that involved phone calls, faxing and in-person runners to the motor vehicle office mostly came to a halt. States with electronic registration and title had the opportunity to show just how valuable that service really is. Today, more than 30 states are electronic registration and title (ERT) enabled – and most of the remainder have plans in the works to catch up. Using a technology solution for reg and title to process motor vehicle transactions from the dealership’s office is a boon for productivity.

3. Cross-Border Registration & Title
Digital retailing has helped dealerships keep sales going by showcasing inventory online and using technology to facilitate the deal process. The wide net cast by dealers’ digital retailing efforts means that out-of-state customers have been increasing each year. Having technology available to guide the dealership’s back office staff through the myriad taxes and fees that vary by the customer’s state, county and municipality helps improve deal accuracy and make deal completion faster, easier and more customer friendly.

When choosing technology providers to help keep your business on track, don’t forget to optimize your registration and titling processes as well.

Find out how registration and title solutions help get the deal out the door while protecting your bottom line.

Avoiding Title and Payoff Surprises With Trade-Ins

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Under the current market conditions, with new car inventory at historic lows, dealerships’ used car programs are more important than ever as a revenue and cash flow source. That puts increased focus on your dealership’s trade-in process, both for replenishing used car inventory and enticing car buyers to upgrade.

Now the challenge is to ensure that you have all the information you need to keep the deal moving smoothly.

The more you know…

Let’s say someone brings in a trade-in vehicle with great resale potential and they’re eager to purchase another vehicle from you. The customer tells you that nothing has changed with their name or address since they bought the car and they’re the only person listed on the title.

What you don’t know is that the title actually lists an old address – and the customer’s former spouse as the co-lienholder.

With manual processes and paperwork, that kind of revelation could take a while to surface and when it does, there’s a chance that your dealership could be stuck with a vehicle it can’t legally sell. At the very least, it will create extra work and hassle for you and your customer. At worst, it can cause the deal to unravel and leave you with the fallout if you’ve sold the trade to someone else or sold a new car to the customer who brought in the trade, valued with the vehicle they brought in.

When your dealership has access to a digital trade-in title solution, you can view all the title details immediately. That way, if there’s a potential problem you can begin to work it out with the customer then and there, before you even accept the trade. Having the information you need up front helps ensure smoother transactions and preserve your CSI scores.

Payoff perspective

Another manual trade-in process that can bring its own surprises is loan payoff. Having complete and reliable payoff information is important for desking clean deals. It also cuts down on time-consuming back-and-forth with the lender if you need to make adjustments.

A digital trade-in titling solution provides direct lender connections for real-time payoff quotes based on the payoff date and allows for immediate title release as soon as the lender receives payment.

Keeping cash flow moving

Why is all this important? Because delays in payoff and title release equal delays in cash flow. While the dealership waits for the title on a trade-in, holding costs accumulate and the potential for retailing or auctioning the vehicle is held back. The sooner you can have the title in hand, the quicker that cash flows into your bank account.

Find out how Dealertrack Accelerated Title helps keeps your trade-in process moving without any surprises.

The Good News & Bad News About Out-of-State Deals

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Let’s start with the good news! Out-of-state deals are increasing as dealers promote their inventory online and cast a wider net for potential customers. Out-of-state sales grew by 16% over the past year, according to Cox Automotive analysis of IHS Market new and used vehicle registration data*. Even with the current economic situation, cross-border sales are a natural consequence of online car shopping.

As great as it is for dealerships to leverage their online presence to bring in more cross-border customers, dealers and retailers need to be prepared to avoid potential complications that come from out-of-state business.

Here are some of those potential challenges:

Good: There’s a buyer coming in this weekend for a top deal with all the bells and whistles!
Bad: The buyer is from two states away and no one in the back office is familiar with the reg and title processes from the customer’s home state.

In the past, a dealership in Nebraska probably wouldn’t register a vehicle in North Dakota very often. Thanks to digital retailing, an increasing number of customers are willing to visit another state to purchase the vehicle they want, which means out-of-state registration and title processes are becoming a common challenge for dealerships across the country. Because no title clerk has every state’s reg and title processes memorized, this leads to more time spent on phones figuring out the details, more DMV rules and regulations to know and understand, and more paperwork to process.

Good: An enthusiastic and motivated online car shopper “went the extra mile” to come to your dealership because a few local customers of your dealership area raved about the service they received.
Bad: The deal process could be slowed down or held up by time-consuming manual tax and fee calculations to make the deal accurate.

Even if your dealership’s home state has technology solutions for in-state reg and title calculations, those don’t apply to cross-border deals. If your staff needs to build a deal for an out-of-state customer, they need to know that state’s taxes and fees to get to the best deal for the customer. Being forced to compare deal options using unfamiliar tax rates and fees could make it take longer than usual to complete the deal, which could dampen your customer’s enthusiasm. If calculation errors lead to deal inaccuracies, your customer satisfaction scores could take a hit.

Good: Your registration and title submission for in-state customers is handled electronically, straight to the state DMV.
Bad: It’s much more difficult to finalize out-of-state registration and title transactions because the in-state checklist isn’t the same for customers in different states.

Most dealerships end up providing their cross-border customers with a very general idea of what they might need for registration. That lack of specificity has drawbacks for customers that could cause them to overlook something important, make them have to chase down paperwork and documents during the signing process, or worse, leave them with an unwelcome to-do list that could sour their experience and drive down your CSI score. Your dealership could help create a much more positive experience by giving every customer a simple and defined list for what paperwork they need and what steps they need to take for their specific situation.

Good, Better, Best! The right out-of-state registration and titling technology solution can help ensure that all your cross-border customers get the same level of customer service that in-state customers receive. That technology support can help smooth the process for your back-office staff to help save them time and drive up deal productivity.

Learn how the new Dealertrack RegUSA® can provide the simple solutions your dealership needs for all these scenarios.

*Based on Cox Automotive derived analysis of IHS Markit new and used vehicle registration data as of Q3 2019 where a selling dealer was identified. Used registrations includes selling dealer for 31 states.

 

3 Keys to Reimagining Your Dealership’s Back Office

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Now is a great time to seek out time- and money-saving opportunities in every facet of your operation, including registration and title processing. Why? Because making your back-office processes more efficient can help address three key challenges that dealerships are facing today: slow cash flow, staffing shortages, and untapped opportunities produced by the expanded customer base that digital retailing enables.

Let’s look at how registration and titling technology solutions can address each of those challenges.

  1. Leverage used car inventory to get cash flow moving for your dealership

Incoming vehicles taken as trades need clean titles to remarket at retail or auction at wholesale. It usually takes 18 or more days* to get the payoff and title release completed, and that’s if there are no payoff surprises along the way. In the meantime, cash flow is stunted and holding costs mount on these vehicles as they sit idle on your lot or fail to sell at auction.

A digital titling solution can help streamline and significantly shorten the time for vehicle payoff and title or lien release, which in turn helps your dealership avoid payoff surprises, inventory more quickly and keep cash flowing.

  1. Keep your back-office staff caught up 

As dealerships and DMVs both face continuing staffing shortages, your back office may be faced with registration and titling work that tends to pile up. Add current sales to the workload and the stress intensifies.

In states with electronic registration and title, you can now process motor vehicle transactions online from your office, in real-time. But some electronic solutions are intuitive enough for staffing flexibility and efficient enough to tackle batch import processing and GL writebacks to your DMS while finalizing deals.

  1. Extend your front office technology improvements through to the back office

We’ve seen year over year increases in cross-border deals across the country as online shopping has taken hold, but this trend has intensified as dealerships implement more digital retailing tools to help them facilitate virtual sales.

Dealerships wishing to take advantage of the opportunities that digital retailing tools send their way can be stymied by the 51 unique state motor vehicle jurisdictions, ~100 distinct sets of taxes and fees, ~250 unique forms, and approximately 300 possible registration and title transactions for any given deal. Whether you are a GM or controller, it’s easy to see how time-consuming these deals can be for your back-office operations. Any shortcuts and band-aids used to make up for the issue only raise compliance concerns.

Electronic solutions can help take the guesswork out of processing these state- and county-specific deals with a guided interface that customizes each unique transaction. An electronic checklist of requirements and instructions tailored to each deal helps ensure that every customer is handled more efficiently, regardless of their state or county.

Start reimagining your back office today

Technology providers continue to innovate and improve registration and title workflows with input from dealerships. Get to know the innovative and powerful digital solutions that meet today’s titling challenges head-on, increasing efficiency and cash flow for your dealership’s back office to ultimately improve your bottom line.

To further explore solutions to finish each deal strong, see our latest resources.

Untapped Opportunities for More Efficient Deal Completion

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An increasing number of dealers are adopting digital retailing tools to power the car buyer journey. Sharing inventory and starting deals online allows dealerships to expand their reach and customer base, which translates into year-over-year growth of out-of-state sales.

As dealerships welcome these additional customers, they quickly discover that there’s an added level of complexity to these deals. The back-end office processes of finalizing an out-of-state deal can become a time-consuming and costly process for dealerships due to 51 unique DMV jurisdictions, 100 distinct sets of taxes and fees, 250 unique forms, and 300 possible registration and title transactions.*

There’s value in improving technology and processes between the front office and back office to better streamline deal finalization. Here are some key things to consider at your dealership:

Establish user-friendly processes that empower your staff

Start by examining your mix of in-state and out-of-state customers to determine where your cross-border customers are coming from. Once you know your mix, there is an opportunity for you to create step-by-step processes for out-of-state deals that will more quickly and efficiently address these customers’ registration and titling needs.

Setting up this process requires you to obtain the relevant state-specific taxes and fees. You also need knowledge of, access to, and instructions for the proper forms needed to process the cross-border deals. Think about whether technology solutions could take the place of setting this process up manually and save you the time it takes to source forms, make phone calls to get the information state by state, and keep it updated.

Ensure you’re set up for reliable deal comparisons

Before the dealership can finalize the deal, the back office needs to work closely with the front office to complete the customer’s registration and titling work so that pricing is included in the “all-in” deal price. This involves gathering the proper documentation, taxes and fees relative to where the buyer lives to help cut down on inaccuracies and offline emails and/or phone calls with the customers. A more efficient process can result in better CSI scores.

Have the proper documentation

Because each state has different registration and titling paperwork, it’s important to be able to create a checklist for your back-office staff – and for your customer – to ensure that you are filling out all the necessary documentation. As more and more states adopt electronic registration and title (and some even mandate it), an electronic checklist tailored to each customer can help you stay up to date as changes go into effect.

Provide the same level of service for every customer

Another consideration is that you want each customer to be able to walk out the door knowing that they have given you all the information you need and signed everything that needs to be signed. Some customers may not be able to go in person to their DMV because it’s closed to the public – or they may not feel comfortable going if it’s open. Handling their registration and title process for them is one way to deliver exceptional customer service.

Consider an electronic reg & title solution

A 50-state registration and titling solution can offer online processing to help dealers eliminate the uncertainty of unfamiliar state rules and requirements. In addition to providing the necessary documents and tax rates for each state, these solutions also support refund check writing and Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments to streamline the accounting process and reduce per-deal check writing.

Other advantages to a technology solution includes DMS integration to allow the back office to pre-process transactions online. Your back office can gain tools to help estimate accurate taxes and fees and checklists to guide them toward collecting the correct customer information.

Interested in learning more? Download our Titling for a New Today Guide that focuses on process optimization.

*Source: Cox Automotive Internal Data