A lesson learned from ARS

GUEST EDITORIAL

Last week I attended the Auto Finance Summit in Las Vegas. While there, I had the opportunity to learn what our industry can expect in the coming months from the lender’s perspective. It is my belief that the recovery industry should anticipate an increase in overall volume in the near future.

During my stay, I was able to speak with several clients and forwarders to share some of the woes facing the agency network. I had a wonderful impromptu conversation with Dave Baker of ARS. Within this conversation, I inquired as to why ARS was not paying the BOA fuel surcharge to the agent network.

Dave, who I found to be extremely reasonable, explained to me that ARS was in fact paying this surcharge. I informed him that they were not paying my office and I requested that we use my company – Automobile Recovery Bureau – as an example. I asked that he have his office send me a detailed report showing where they had paid our office the fuel surcharge.

The report I received was very informative. I learned that our office had sixteen opportunities to invoice for the fuel surcharge and only invoiced ARS three times and that those three were paid. I would also like to point out that of the three that were paid, my office collected the entire surcharge amount and not a partial payment.

I had to immediately apologize as I was one of the agents who provided a false narrative about ARS. I apologized to Dave Baker and the entire ARS community. To make this apology in private is simply not enough. As a true partner, I wanted the entire agency network to know that my previous statements weren’t accurate and at best were incomplete. It is apparent that our own internal processes missed out on invoicing opportunities.

This conversation allowed me to speak directly to what I see as the heart of the matter, which is that the forwarding community has an opportunity to assist the agent network by making the invoicing process seamless. The agents should not have to search for invoicing opportunities. Invoicing guidelines should be clear on what the agent is allowed to submit for payment.

I understand it isn’t the forwarding community’s responsibility to maintain the agent’s accounting practices; however, as a partner, the forwarders, should take the position of making the process effortless. They should continue by promoting best practices within their collective organizations to ensure their agents are in the best position to avoid missing invoicing opportunities.

I also took the time to thank ARS for the $100.00 increase to its agent network from Santander, many forwarders have passed some of the amount provided by Santander to the network, some have not given any increase.

Finally, It is my conclusion that additional communication and investment is needed to maximize available technologies that will enhance the invoicing process in the systems of record the agents utilize. This was just the beginning of a conversation to mend the relationship between the forwarding community and ours.

I will commit to future open dialogue with all partners in this sector prior to drawing a one-sided conclusion and I will commit to being open and transparent in the public space. However, every company in this area must commit to the same for us to move forward as true partners.

Vaughn Clemmons

President

Automobile Recovery Bureau, Inc.