ERM Advanced Telematics helps automobile dealers retrieve vehicles

International automotive technology company ERM Advanced Telematics Ltd. is stepping up efforts to offer the Parking Habits service developed by the company to automobile dealerships working in the BHPH (Buy Here Pay Here) car financing method. The Parking Habits solution monitors drivers' parking habits by building a representative model that shows where a vehicle, which has the solution installed, is parked, when it was parked during the day, week, month, and year and the frequency it was parked in any spot. Parking Habits has already enabled American car financing companies, which installed the solution, to retrieve within a few weeks 400 cars of drivers who are in arrears, saving millions of dollars. To date, ERM has provided the service as a large-scale pilot in the United States and countries in South America.

Whenever the driver fails to meet the payments for the car, the company that sold the car can use the Parking Habit software to predict where the car will be parked at particular times and days and send a repossession crew to retrieve it. The Parking Habits solution can help predict problems with the payments for the car before they even occur. The car financing company is able to see if, when and how the drivers have changed their parking habits in a way that requires the company’s attention. For example, if the alerts highlight a driver that has stopped parking each morning near his or her workplace, it might suggest that the customer has lost his or her job and might have difficulties in paying for the car on time.

Parking Habits is implemented as ERM-developed technology that is embedded into the StarLink tracking units that the company supplies, and on the service provider's servers, allowing the software to operate even if the driver disconnects the StarLink from his or her vehicle. The software, which resides in both the car and at the fleet management server that is used by the company that sold the car, samples the driver's parking habits at different times of the day to create a daily update profile of the parking habits, and reports the location of the car to the server in synchronization with the monitoring of the vehicle's location.

"The Parking Habits service, which we developed, offers car sellers an innovative way to predict and prevent financial issues before they occur. With a small investment, ERM’s solutions can save our customers millions of dollars, as well as the hassle and the time invested in locating and retrieving vehicles that were not fully paid for," says Eitan Kirshenboim, CMO of ERM Advanced Telematics. "In the past two years, Parking Habits was successfully implemented by car financing companies, which are the customers of our partners in the United States and South America. As a preventative measure, these companies can identify situations that can signify a worsening in the customer's financial status. The companies can act accordingly before or after any delay in payments, or at least be aware of the growing risk in relation to the customer. Our Parking Habits service greatly reduces the risk companies take when offering car financing, and allows them to quickly, easily, and at minimal risk and cost retrieve vehicles for which they did not receive the required payments."