Copart, Inc. operates as a global provider of online auctions and vehicle remarketing services with operations in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany, Brazil, Canada, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Spain, Finland, Oman, the Republic of Ireland, and Bahrain.
The company provides vehicle sellers with a full range of services to process and sells vehicles primarily over the internet through its Virtual Bidding Third Generation internet auction-style sales technology, w...
Copart, Inc. operates as a global provider of online auctions and vehicle remarketing services with operations in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany, Brazil, Canada, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Spain, Finland, Oman, the Republic of Ireland, and Bahrain.
The company provides vehicle sellers with a full range of services to process and sells vehicles primarily over the internet through its Virtual Bidding Third Generation internet auction-style sales technology, which it refers to as VB3. Vehicle sellers consist primarily of insurance companies, but also include dealers, individuals, charities, rental, banks, finance companies, and fleet operators.
The company obtained 81% of the total number of vehicles processed during fiscal 2024, from insurance company sellers. The company sells the vehicles principally to licensed vehicle dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used vehicle dealers, exporters, and to the general public. The company offers vehicle sellers a full range of services.
In the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the Republic of Ireland, Finland, the U.A.E., Oman, and Bahrain, the company sells vehicles primarily as an agent and derive revenue primarily from auction and auction-related sales transaction fees charged for vehicle remarketing services, as well as fees for services subsequent to the auction, such as delivery and storage. In the U.K., Germany, and Spain, the company operates both as an agent and on a principal basis, in some cases purchasing salvage vehicles outright and reselling the vehicles for its own account. In the U.K. the company recognizes revenue on a principal basis from selling dismantled parts through Green Parts Specialist (GPS). In Germany and Spain, the company also derives revenue from listing vehicles on behalf of insurance companies and insurance experts to determine the vehicle’s residual value and/or to facilitate a sale for the insured.
Through its VB3 auction platform, the company’s sales process is open to registered buyers (whom it refers to as members) anywhere in the world with access to the internet. The company’s service revenues consist of auction and auction-related sales transaction fees charged for vehicle remarketing services. The company has certain contracts with insurance companies, primarily in the U.K., in which it acts as a principal, purchasing vehicles and reselling them for its own account. The company also purchases vehicles in the open market, primarily from individuals, and resell them for its own account.
Growth Strategy
The company’s growth strategy includes acquiring and developing additional vehicle storage facilities in key markets, including foreign markets; pursuing global, national, and regional vehicle seller agreements; increasing its service offerings; and expanding the application of VB3 into new markets.
To implement its growth strategy, the company intends to continue to acquire and develop New vehicle storage facilities in key markets including foreign markets; pursue global, national, and regional vehicle supply agreements; and expand its service offerings to sellers and members.
Service Offerings
The company offers vehicle sellers a full range of vehicle services, which expedite each stage of the vehicle sales process, helping to maximize proceeds. The company’s service offerings include the following:
Online Seller Access
Through Copart Access, the company’s internet-based service for vehicle sellers, it enables sellers to assign vehicles for sale, check sales calendars, view vehicle images and history, view and reprint body shop invoices and towing receipts, and view the historical performance of the vehicles sold at its sales.
Salvage Estimation Services
The company offers Copart ProQuote, a proprietary service that assists sellers in the vehicle claims evaluation process by providing online salvage value estimates, which helps sellers determine whether to repair a vehicle or deem it a total loss.
IntelliSeller
The company offers IntelliSeller, an automated tool leveraging its vast and detailed vehicle and sales data to assist its sellers in making vital auction decisions. Using machine learning, IntelliSeller optimizes the utilization of its vehicle and sales data to determine when to establish minimum bid values and suggest when to re-auction a unit to ensure optimal returns while minimizing cycle time.
Estimating Services
The company offers vehicle sellers in the U.K. estimating services for vehicles taken to its facilities. Estimating services provide its insurance company sellers repair estimates, which allow the insurance company to determine if the vehicle is a total loss vehicle.
End-of-Life Vehicle Processing
In the U.K., the company is an authorized treatment facility for the disposal of end-of-life vehicles.
Transportation Services
In the U.S. segment, the company performs transportation services through a combination of third-party vehicle transport companies and its fleet. The company maintains contracts with third-party vehicle transport companies, which enable it to pick up most of its sellers’ vehicles within 24 hours. The company’s national network and transportation capabilities provide cost and time savings to its vehicle sellers and offer timely vehicle pick up and prompt response to catastrophes and natural disasters in the U.S. In the International segment, the company performs transportation services through a combination of its fleet and third-party vehicle transport companies. The company’s international network and transportation capabilities provide time savings to its vehicle sellers throughout the U.K. Europe, Canada, Brazil and Middle east market.
Vehicle Inspection Stations
The company offers some of its major insurance company sellers office and yard space to house vehicle inspection stations on-site at its facilities. The company has over 100 vehicle inspection stations at its facilities. An on-site vehicle inspection station provides its insurance company sellers with a central location to inspect potential total loss vehicles, which reduces storage charges that otherwise may be incurred at the initial storage or repair facility.
On-Demand Reporting
The company provides vehicle sellers with real time data for vehicles that it processes for the seller. This includes vehicle sellers’ gross and net returns on each vehicle, service charges, and other data that enable the company’s vehicle sellers to more easily administer and monitor the vehicle disposition process. In addition, the company has developed a database containing over 300 fields of real-time and historical information accessible by its sellers allowing for their generation of custom ad hoc reports and customer specific analysis.
Title Processing
The company has extensive expertise in DMV document and title processing. The company has developed a computer system which provides a direct link to the DMV computer systems of multiple states, allowing it to expedite the processing of vehicle title paperwork.
Title Express
The company also facilitates the title transfer from the original owner or financial institutions on behalf of some of its sellers to streamline the documentation and vehicle auction process.
Loan Payoff
The company can obtain up-to-date loan payoff information electronically from hundreds of automotive lenders, including the remaining balance due and per diem on a vehicle loan, to expedite the loan payoff and title transfer process.
Flexible Vehicle Processing Programs
At the election of the seller, the company sells vehicles pursuant to its Percentage Incentive Program (PIP), Consignment Program, or Purchase Program. Under each program the company may provide merchandising services, such as covering or taping openings to protect vehicle interiors from weather, washing vehicle exteriors, vacuuming vehicle interiors, cleaning and polishing dashboards and tires, making keys for drivable vehicles, and identifying drivable vehicles.
Percentage Incentive Program. Under PIP, the company agrees to sell all of the vehicles of a seller in a specified market, usually for a predetermined percentage of the vehicle sales price. Because its revenues under PIP are directly linked to the vehicle’s sale price, the company has an incentive to actively merchandise those vehicles to maximize the net return.
Consignment Program: Under its Consignment Program, the company sells vehicles for a fixed consignment fee.
Purchase Program: Under the Purchase Program, the company purchases vehicles from a vehicle seller at a formula price, based on a percentage of the vehicles’ estimated PAV, and sell the vehicles for its own account. The purchase program is offered primarily in the U.K.
Buy It Now, Make an Offer
The company offers an option to its members to purchase specific pre-qualified vehicles. This enables the company to provide a fast, easy, transparent and comprehensive buying option on these pre-qualified vehicles. Additionally, members have the option of submitting an offer amount on certain selected vehicles.
Sales Process
The company offers a flexible and unique sales process designed to maximize the sale prices of the vehicles utilizing VB3. VB3 opens the company’s sales process to members and the general public to view auctions via its website and its mobile application anywhere in the world where internet access is available. The VB3 technology and model employs a two-step bidding process. The first step is an open preliminary bidding feature that allows a member to enter bids either over the internet during the preview days. The preliminary bidding step is an open bid format similar to eBay.
BluCar
The company provides financial institutions, fleet and rental car companies with an efficient method to sell their vehicles. The company has a dedicated team of employees that support the processing and remarketing of BluCar vehicles.
Copart Dealer Services
The company provides franchise and independent dealers with a convenient method to sell their trade-ins through any of its facilities. The company has a dedicated team of employees in the U.S. that target these dealers and works with them throughout the sales process.
Cash For Cars
The company provides the general public with a fast and convenient method to sell their vehicles. Anyone can go to CashForCars.com; CashForCars.ca; CashForCars.de, CashForCars.co.uk, or Cash-for-cars.ie and arrange to obtain a valid offer to purchase their vehicle. Upon acceptance of its offer to purchase their vehicle, the company provides them payment for their vehicle and then sell the vehicle on its own behalf.
National Powersport Auctions
In the U.S., the company provides wholesale powersport vehicle remarketing services through live and online auction platforms to dealers, financial institutions and Original Equipment Manufacturers through its subsidiary National Powersport Auctions (NPA). Powersports include for example motorcycles, recreational vehicles, boats and RVs. NPA also offers comprehensive data services including the NPA Value Guide, which is the industry’s most accurate wholesale valuation tool. NPA corporate offices are located in San Diego, California; and they operate from locations throughout the United States.
Purple Wave Inc.
In the U.S., through its majority ownership of Purple Wave Inc. (Purple Wave) the company provides wholesale construction, agriculture, and fleet remarketing services through no-reserve online auctions at www.purplewave.com, selling such items directly from the sellers location. Purple Wave Inc. offers a range of services including appraisals, listings, marketing, and post auction shipping. The Purple Wave corporate office is located in Manhattan, Kansas.
Copart Recycling
In the U.K., the company has two facilities for U-Pull It from which the public can purchase parts from salvaged and end-of-life vehicles. In general, the buyer is responsible for detaching the parts from the vehicle and any associated hauling or transportation of the parts after detachment. After the valuable parts have been removed by the buyer, the remaining parts and car body are sold for their scrap value. The company also operates GPS which dismantles vehicles and sells used parts.
Copart 360
The company pioneered posting vehicle images online for buyers in 2001, and it has been improving the technology to provide top quality photos since then. In July 2020, the company enhanced online images and videos by launching Copart 360 (C360), its proprietary technology that captures clear 360-degree views of interiors and exteriors of cars, trucks, and vans across U.S. Copart locations. This capability was expanded to the U.K. in fiscal 2021. Interested buyers can view everything from the backseat to the dashboard to the tires by clicking the 360° icon under vehicle images on select lot details pages on Copart.com. Buyers can also zoom in and out or expand to full screen on computers or mobile devices.
Membership Tiers
The company offers three tiers of membership in the U.S. - Guest, Basic, and Premier - for those registering to buy vehicles through Copart.com.
Guest Member Benefits
Guest members can sign up for free to add their favorite vehicles to their Watchlist, set up Vehicle Alerts to get notified when the company adds specific vehicles they’re looking for and view its inventory from their desktop computer or mobile device via its mobile application.
Sales
The company processes vehicles from hundreds of different vehicle sellers. The company typically contracts with the national, regional or branch office of an insurance company or other vehicle sellers. The agreements are customized to each vehicle seller’s needs and often provide for the disposition of different types of salvage vehicles by differing methods. The company’s arrangements generally provide that it will sell total loss and recovered stolen vehicles generated by the vehicle seller in a designated geographic area.
The company markets its services to vehicle sellers through an in-house sales force that utilizes a variety of sales techniques, including personal sales calls, internet search engines, employee referrals, tow shop referrals, and participation in trade shows and vehicle and insurance industry conventions, targeted mailing of its sales literature, and telemarketing. The company markets its services to franchise and independent dealerships, as well as the general public.
Members
The company maintains a database of approximately 1 million registered members (buyers) in the vehicle dismantling and recycling, rebuilding, used vehicle dealer and export industries, as well as members that are a part of the general public, where applicable. The company has established a broad international and domestic buyer base by providing members with a variety of programs and services. To become a registered member, a person or business must complete a basic application either online or through its mobile application. Before any member may purchase a vehicle, they must provide copies of current government issued photo identification.
The company may sell to the general public either directly or members may purchase a vehicle offered at Copart through a registered broker who meets local licensing and permitting requirements. The company markets to members online and via email notifications, sales notices, telemarketing, direct mail, in-location marketing, search engines, social media, radio, television, trade publications, and participation in trade show events.
Intellectual Property and Proprietary Rights
In 2008, the company obtained a patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office that covers certain aspects of its virtual bidding auction platform, VB3. Generally, patents issued in the U.S. are effective for 20 years from the earliest asserted filing date of the patent application. The duration of foreign patents varies in accordance with the provisions of applicable local law.
Seasonality
Historically, the company’s consolidated results of operations have been subject to quarterly variations based on a variety of factors, of which the primary influence is the seasonal change in weather patterns. During the winter months the company tends to have higher demand for its services because there are more weather-related accidents.
Trademarks
Copart, BID4U, CI & Design, DRIVE Auto Auctions, 1-800 CAR BUYER, CA$HFORCARS.COM, COPART & DESIGN, VB3 & DESIGN, VB3, National Powersports Auctions, NPA, Purple Wave Auction, and CrashedToys.com are trademarks of the company.
History
Copart, Inc. was founded in 1982. The company was incorporated in California in 1982 and reincorporated into Delaware in 2012.
