News Analysis
THE GRADE MAKE
The auction industry is planning to introduce a used van grading scheme to indicate a vehicle’s condition. Jack Carfrae reports.
Roundtable event held at the Cox Automotive Collaboration Centre where LCV buyers and sellers aired their views on LCV grading.
grading for used vans, similar to the existing car grading scheme that was launched in 2012 and widely used across the remarketing industry. Currently planned for early
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2024, LCV grading will use the same methodology as the car equivalent, adapted for second-hand vans. It will rank from one, as the best condition, to five, the worst – a lower grade ‘U’ also exists for heavily damaged vehicles. NAMA says vehicle grading is designed to “facilitate the buying and selling process… so that the condition of the vehicle is better understood by both parties. With a universal understanding of a vehicle’s condition, it is now possible for both parties to anticipate a more accurate market sale price.”
The LCV scheme has long been in the works and has been extensively
12 WhatVan? October 2023
he National Association of Motor Auctions (NAMA) is gearing up to introduce condition-based
discussed by the remarketing industry since before the advent of car grading. Paul Hill, NAMA advisor, tells What Van?: “When we initially launched [grading for] cars, we were talking to lots of customers… around the need for commercial vehicle grading. At the time, there was the feeling that, actually, you don’t need any sort of grading scheme for commercial vehicles. “We started the discussion again in probably 2018–19, and… it was starting to gain more in terms of a desire and momentum within the industry. But then, of course, lockdowns, Covid and everything else came.”
According to Hill, there has been “a change in the market”. Now, NAMA is pressing ahead with the scheme to address the increasing number of older used vans in poorer condition. It held a roadshow and roundtable event at the Cox Automotive Collaboration Centre at Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire,
on 17–18 July in which used LCV buyers and sellers aired their views on grading. They also examined five used vehicles that represented the scheme’s proposed condition categories. The organisation said it would use the feedback from buyers and vendors to further develop the scheme, which will then be trialled by several auction companies. It is planning another round table event in November to share its analysis and present what it says will be the final LCV grading scheme. “When you start to walk around five different vehicles in five different grade categories, you then start to open up the subjective debate that says, ‘well, I think that’s actually grade three, and somebody else thinks it should be a grade four,” says Hill.
“When you talk through the reasons why, what’s causing it to be that particular grade, then, all of a sudden, everybody understands, and they’re generally accepting of it.”
According to Hill, the LCV grading scheme is close to completion and will adopt the same general format as its car equivalent. However, further development is ongoing to account for aspects of condition that are unique to used LCVs, chief among them being load bays.
“The one big thing is the loading
area, what we often refer to as the yellow zone on a commercial vehicle,” says Hill. “That is being treated in a different way to cars… There is more of an acceptance of a degree of wear and tear, so if a vehicle were deemed to be within wear and tear standards, for instance, that would not necessarily have a detrimental effect on its grade.” Those standards are “not
crystallised,” according to Hill, and are among the areas NAMA is still working on.
One of the difficulties facing van grading is the variety of vehicle bodies and applications, which differs
www.whatvan.co.uk
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