When it comes to handling electric vehicles, Copart is proud to continue leading the way in our industry, having established almost a decade of experience and expertise in this area.
As consumer appetite for electric and hybrid vehicles keeps gathering pace, we’ve continued to grow and evolve our capabilities and knowledge in line with the ever-changing needs of our insurance customers.
In addition to our ongoing growth strategy to acquire land and develop existing Operation Centres to handle future volumes, we’ve continued to invest in specialist training for our people.
Our Operation Centres have evolved to support electric and hybrid requirements, with hundreds of changes made to our operational processes and the expansion of dedicated storage and handling areas.
This gives our valued customers confidence in our ability to handle growing numbers of specialist and diverse vehicles as the trend for EVs accelerates, whilst achieving maximum value for these vehicles through our online auctions.
Copart has a huge and growing selection of both electric and hybrid vehicles, and we pride ourselves on having one of the most comprehensive ranges of accident damaged low-emissions vehicles in Europe.
As a company who cares about the environment, and a proven global market leader in online vehicle remarketing and recycling, we are continuously investing into growing our expertise in this exciting new technology.
Investment always starts with our people…
At Copart UK, we are a market leader in electric vehicle handling and remarketing, and we have made significant investment into training our engineering force to work safely with EVs and hybrids. This means we can thoroughly and expertly assess these vehicles for insurers to enable them to make confident and accurate cost decisions.
Handling electric and hybrid vehicles is not new to us. Our investment in EV training started back in 2013, and we’re proud to have invested around 3,000 hours into EV training and development for our teammates.
“As more electric and hybrid vehicles inevitably start to enter the total loss arena, it is vital that we continue to upskill our engineers and provide the right training and support for them to operate safely, compliantly, and with the very highest levels of accuracy for our insurance customers.”
Russ England – Engineering Services Manager
Over the years, we have worked closely with Thatcham Research and independent training company PAAS Ltd, to ensure that all our Operation Centres are equipped with the necessary skills and expertise to work safely and competently with these vehicle types. We also hold regular educational workshops with our insurance customers and their engineers.
We successfully delivered training courses for our drivers and sub-haul network partners on correctly handling electric and hybrid vehicles in 2018. At the time, over 200 of our drivers and 90% of our sub-haul and fleet partners completed HEV Awareness training, gaining the necessary skills to competently handle our customers EV’s.
This year, we have partnered with the IVR for a national roll out of the IVR VR27 Electric (EV) and Hybrid Vehicles training module to Copart UK drivers. The training will be delivered through a series of 1-day courses over the next 4 months.
“We’re pleased to continue our close relationship with the recovery industry by partnering with the IVR, who will deliver key elements of our training programme as we continue lead the way in the handling of electric and hybrid vehicles on behalf of our customers and partners.”
Duncan MacRae – Head of Performance, Quality & Risk
In addition to this, we are also investigating a bespoke driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) module specifically around EVs with an external training provider.
“All LGV drivers are required to take 35 hours of CPC training over a five-year period to retain their license. With electric vehicles on the rise, we have chosen to pursue options for an accredited and bespoke 7-hour module focused specifically around EVs.”
Shane Webb – Group Transport Manager
As well as driver training, we have focused on ensuring that all of our Copart Operation Centres are fully equipped to deal confidently and safely with these vehicle types. Since 2019, we have invested into training to accredit participating teammates with an IMI Level 2 qualification in Electric/Hybrid Vehicle Routine Maintenance.
Across our engineering force, 40 Vehicle Damage Evaluators and industry qualified engineers have been certified to date, enabling them to intervene, assess and make safe (if required) any electric or hybrid vehicles that come into any of our 15 UK Operation Centres. 10 further team members of the engineering force are due to start the training later this year.
Further to this, two teammates based at our sister company UPI in York have recently completed the IMI Level 3 Award in Electric/Hybrid Vehicle System Repair & Replacement, with 4 more teammates due to complete this training at UPI’s Inverkeithing site later in the year.
“Increasingly more complex technology, alongside rising numbers of electric and hybrid vehicles, means it is essential for any engineering teammates who are responsible for damage assessment to have highly detailed levels of knowledge and competency in their safe handling.”
Russ England – Engineering Services Manager
Coming soon – stay tuned to our Autoblog for more information about our operational investment into EVs.