Large fleets disposing of thousands of cars and vans every year are becoming more trusting of automated methods of disposal and cascades are becoming much more widely used, according to epyx.

A cascade is when a fleet uses a structured approach to disposing of a vehicle, cascading it from their most preferred channel through a number of other suitable options. 

It may start with a closed, fixed price online sale for franchise dealers, then switch to a general online sale open to more buyers if a vehicle fails to sell and then finally, try a physical auction

Vicky Gardner, head of remarketing at epyx, said: “The cascade model has been around for some time but we have seen it gain definite momentum in the last year.

“The chances of being able to identify the best channel through which to dispose of a specific car or van and then being able to design a cascade including other suitable channels is probably higher than it ever has been in the past.”

Epyx’s 1link Disposal Network platform can manage the process automatically.

“There are now many sources of good quality data available and, if anything, the issue is to identify the most useful for any given task at any given time. One of the things we try and do is help managers to make sense of this data and apply it to their disposal strategies,” Gardiner added.