MOTORS with PAUL JOLLY: How Covid changed British Car Auctions

Like so many other companies, British Car Auctions closed their doors to the public during lockdown and have kept them shut ever since. 
 
On line auctions became the manner in which they continued to trade from their 22 UK sales venues and which carries on now with no prospect of reversal in sight. Simply because, unwittingly, the lockdown rules presented BCA with unrivalled cost cutting measures and practices which suit them very nicely. 
 
No longer do they need to provide acres of managed car parking and catering staff at the cafeterias, nor indeed any customer services desks or even reception areas and toilet facilities for the Great British Public at large. Security can be cut back to one gate operations with no public access at all unless authorised. The savings are immense. 
 
Furthermore, the auctioneers now operate remotely so no more need for armies of drivers and onsite mechanics to get every car driven through the auction halls past the auctioneering staff and potential buyers. 
 
Multiple online daily auctions are now held with each auctioneer selling a car every 60 seconds using the comprehensive photography and listing details. Quite impossible with the old drive-through scenario. Sales no longer need to wait until the physical audience arrives by mid-morning as was the case. Auctions start at 9am and can continue through to evening. Why not? 
 
BCA managed over one million vehicle sales last year and are the largest auction group in Europe. We Buy Any Car is the official buying arm and without this, BCA would struggle for stock. Cinch is their online retail outlet, again with no high street presence and weekly sales of over 1,000 units. 
 
Not bad for a firm created after WW2 by recently de-mobbed David Wickens, who placed an advert for his car in the Farnham Newspaper. It read something like this:  
 
“First person to offer £XYZ please arrive at XYZ address at XYZ time.”  
 
Well, there were so many respondents on the doorstep claiming to have got there first that an impromptu auction was held for the car and the rest is history.