A new move from Cox Automotive gives dealers more intel when shopping for wholesale inventory and calculating related shipping costs.
The details: Cox Automotive is adding Central Dispatch transportation pricing into the Manheim Marketplace, where ya buy, and vAuto's Stockwave, which helps ya hunt, the company announced on Oct. 20.
That means dealers who like to negotiate on Central Dispatch will have less legwork.
Typically, dealers have the guided and non-guided options:
The Ready Logistics way, Cox’s fully managed option handles it entirely, backed by more than 6,000 vetted carriers. Its estimates have shown up on Manheim and Stockwave since 2023.
Central Dispatch gives dealers a price estimate as a starting point, then lets them negotiate directly with a network of about 20,000 carriers.
Now, Central Dispatch pricing intel lets dealers see a price range estimate, alongside the Ready Logistics estimate, in case they want to go it alone on the negotiation front.
Why it matters: Flexibility and options are nice-to-haves, especially as dealers buy farther and farther from their home bases.
In fact, high-volume Manheim buyers source from an average of 17 Manheim locations, according to Cox.
Dealers also buy vehicles more than 400 miles away on average when buying online via manheim.com and ove.com, the company said.
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How it works: Each vehicle’s detail page now shows an estimated price range to ship to the dealer’s location on Manheim.com and OVE.com.
Dealers can also change the ZIP code.
For the 7,000-plus rooftops using Stockwave, the estimates appear in the “glance” feature, alongside guidebook values and vAuto market data.
What they’re saying: Joe Kichler, senior vice president of marketplace and services at Cox, said in a release that they’re “connecting the dots across our ecosystem…”
“…Dealers get a clearer view of total acquisition cost right alongside the inventory they’re considering — helping them make more informed purchasing decisions,” Kichler said.
Bottom line: Dealers can factor transportation into a wholesale buy before they commit, which makes the choice to hand off the move or work it themselves a little easier.
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