From Irish Farmer to Digital Auction Visionary | OPENLANE
发布时间 2023-12-14 10:00:05 来源
摘要
In this episode, I'm speaking with Peter Kelly, CEO at OPENLANE. This episode is brought to you by: Car Dealership Guy ...
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中英文字稿 
When I look to the future, I think the market of the future is going to be much more of what we think about a normal market than maybe for the last two years. And by that I mean franchise dealers will tend to have plenty of vehicles on their lots, new cars, manufacturers will offer incentives to move those vehicles in the way that they did, but maybe they haven't done as much in the last few years.
当我展望未来时，我认为未来的市场将更加符合我们对一个正常市场的想法，可能会与过去两年相比更加如此。我的意思是，特许经销商将倾向于在他们的停车场上拥有大量新车，制造商将提供激励措施以推动这些车辆的销售，这种做法可能在过去几年里没有那么多。
So they'll be incentives, they'll be lease incentives, all that kind of stuff. We'll probably see a more robust wholesale market. Meaning that when dealers take, when franchise dealers take car in on trade, they'll probably wholesale a good percentage of those rather than thinking, well my lot's empty, I'm going to hang on to all these trades. I think the whole sale goes.
所以会有激励措施，也会有租赁激励措施，等等。我们可能会看到一个更加强大的批发市场。这意味着当经销商接收汽车作为交易时，他们可能会将其中很大一部分批发出去，而不是想着，我的车场是空的，我要留下所有这些交易。我认为批发是可行的。
When consumers get to the end of their leases, they'll find there's not much equity in that lease. I'm going to return that car and put it into the wholesale market. So I think we'll see more of that again in the future than we've seen over the last couple of years.
当消费者到达租期的尽头时，他们会发现这份租赁合同中几乎没有什么资产净值。我打算把那辆车退回去，并放进批发市场。因此，我认为我们将来会看到更多这样的情况，而不仅仅是过去几年中出现的这种情况。
What's up everyone? This is Car D'Oeship Guy. You're listening to the Car D'Oeship Guy podcast, which is my effort to give you access to the most unbiased and transparent insights into the car market. Let's get into today's episode.
大家好，这里是Car D'Oeship Guy。你正在收听Car D'Oeship Guy的播客，我致力于为你提供最客观和透明的汽车市场见解。让我们进入今天的节目吧。
Peter Kelly is the CEO of Openlane, an international auction platform that makes wholesale easy for dealers. In this conversation we discussed, going from Irish farmer to founding a digital car auction platform, Openlane's recent acquisition of Manheim, Canada, Peter's predictions for the car market, the future of automotive wholesale, arbitrage and Canadian vehicles in the US.
彼得·凯利是Openlane的首席执行官，该公司是一个国际拍卖平台，为经销商提供轻松的批发服务。在这次对话中，我们讨论了从爱尔兰农民到创建数字汽车拍卖平台的经历，Openlane最近收购了加拿大的Manheim，彼得对汽车市场的预测，汽车批发的未来，套利以及美国市场上的加拿大车辆问题。
Before we get into the show, don't forget to subscribe to my very own Car D'Oeship Guy newsletter for the latest insights into automotive. Emails go out weekly and contain my most transparent insights into the market. And the best part? It's 100% free. Some of the recent topics I've written about include the state of dealership by sales, Amazon's online car sales announcement, Ford's challenges with its dealer body, and much more. Be the first to know where the market is moving, join 53,000 others and subscribe to the Car D'Oeship Guy newsletter at dealershipguy.com or visit the link in the show notes below. Again, that's dealershipguy.com.
在我们开始节目之前，请不要忘记订阅我的《Car D'Oeship Guy》新闻简报，获取最新的汽车行业见解。邮件每周发送一次，内容包括我对市场的最透明的见解。而且最好的是，它是完全免费的。我最近写过的一些主题包括经销商销售状况、亚马逊的在线汽车销售公告、福特公司面临的经销商问题等等。成为第一个了解市场走向的人，和其他53000人一起订阅《Car D'Oeship Guy》简报，在dealershipguy.com订阅或点击下方的链接。再次提醒，网址是dealershipguy.com。
This episode is also brought to you by Car Now. Car Now is the industry leader in automotive messaging and digital retailing solutions. Car Now's powerful platform creates transparency and trust between customers and dealers by providing seamless dealer management and enhanced communication tools for shoppers. New dealer partners who sign up before the end of the year can get 60 days of free service on any of Car Now's messaging and digital retailing solutions. 60 days. This is a big deal as Car Now partners are experiencing an impressive 77% average chat to lead conversion rate in a substantial return on their investment. Don't miss out. See how Car Now can make an impact at your dealership by visiting CarNow.com slash CDG or visiting the link in the show notes below. That's CarNow.com slash CDG.
本集节目也由Car Now赞助。Car Now是汽车行业的消息传递和数字零售解决方案的行业领导者。Car Now强大的平台通过为购物者提供无缝的经销商管理和增强的沟通工具，创建了客户与经销商之间的透明度和信任。在年底之前注册的新经销商合作伙伴可以在Car Now的任何消息传递和数字零售解决方案上获得60天的免费服务。60天，这是一笔很大的交易，因为Car Now的合作伙伴们在投资上获得了77%的平均聊天转化率和可观的回报。别错过了。通过访问CarNow.com/CDG或点击下方节目注释中的链接，了解Car Now对您的经销商有何影响。这就是CarNow.com/CDG。
I'm just reading through some things. I saw Irish Farm to Construction Career, Stanford MBA incubating the original open land. I'll just take a pause there. Can you give us the whole story? How do we get here?
我只是阅读一些东西。我看到了一个名为“爱尔兰农场到建筑事业”的故事，是由斯坦福商学院MBA诞生的，孵化了最初的开放土地。我在这里稍作停顿。你能给我们讲讲整个故事吗？我们是如何到达这里的？
Yeah, well, first of all, delighted to be here. Yeah, a little interesting journey. As you said, grew up on a farm in the west of Ireland. I enjoyed that a lot. You know, did a lot of farm work as a kid. I think I learned the value of hard work there. But, you know, in my school years, I did pretty well. I ended up going to college doing an engineering science degree.
是的，首先很高兴能来到这里。是的，有一段有趣的旅程。就像你所说，我在爱尔兰西部的农场长大。我很喜欢那个地方。你知道，小时候我做了很多农活。我想我在那里学到了辛勤工作的价值。但是，在我的学生时代，我成绩还不错。最终我进入大学学习工程科学专业。
And when I graduated, I kind of wanted to go leave the country as I went to the UK. I worked in construction. In the UK, building infrastructure projects, a ton of fun. You know, worked with a lot of blue collar workers and immigrants and all sorts of folks in London and various parts of England and Wales, a little bit in Scotland. You know, love that.
当我毕业时，我有点想去英国离开这个国家。我在建筑行业工作。在英国，参与基础设施项目的建造，非常有趣。你知道，我与许多蓝领工人和移民一起工作，他们来自伦敦和英格兰以及威尔士的各种地方，也在苏格兰待过一段时间。你知道，我喜欢这样的工作环境。
Started actually doing a little bit more in technology to help me be more productive in my job. So that's kind of where I started learning about technology. And I guess one thing or another, I got more interested in entrepreneurship, technology. And I thought, man, if I could get out to Silicon Valley to Stanford, that would be a cool thing to do. So I thought, well, I'll apply. And I was fortunate enough to get in. So got in.
开始实际上在技术方面做了一些更多的事情，以帮助我在工作中更具生产力。所以那就是我开始学习技术的地方。我猜或多或少，我对创业和技术产生了更多的兴趣。我想，哇，如果我能去硅谷斯坦福大学，那将是一件很酷的事情。所以我想，好吧，我就申请一下。幸运的是，我申请成功了。所以我就进入了那里。
While I was there, I teamed up with a couple of guys and we said, you know, it's a dot com era. This was 1998, 99 timeframe. A lot of businesses getting started around there and a lot of disruption going on. We were looking at technology auctions. How could we disrupt different industries? One of the guys had a sort of automotive idea. And as we dug in, this open lane vision kind of took place.
当我在那里的时候，我与几个人合作，我们说，你知道的，这是一个互联网时代。那是在1998年到99年之间。很多企业在那时候开始兴起，很多颠覆性的事情正在发生。我们在研究科技拍卖。我们想知道如何颠覆不同的行业？其中一个人有一个关于汽车的想法。当我们深入研究时，这个开放式车道的愿景开始形成。
And I can remember one day we went to a large auction out in the Bay Area, physical auction. And that was a real eye opening day for me because going to that auction, seeing 100 acres of cars, maybe a thousand dealers attending 12 different lanes and the intensity of an auction day, pre technology, really, pre simulcast. Maybe early simulcast. And we just felt, man, this is an industry. The internet is going to change this industry. It'll be fun to be part of making that change. And that's kind of what we did.
我还记得有一天我们去了湾区的一个大型拍卖会，实地拍卖。对我来说，那是一天真正让我大开眼界的日子，因为参加那场拍卖会，看到100英亩的汽车，可能有一千个经销商参加了12个不同的车道，以及拍卖日的紧张氛围，还没有技术先进的系统，甚至算是早期的同步直播（可能指远程拍卖）。我们当时感受到，哇，这真是一个行业啊。互联网将改变这个行业，成为这个变革的一部分将会很有趣。而我们就是这么做到了。
And what did you really do? I mean, what was the original open lane? You know, the original open lane, what we were trying to do was take that whole physical auction and move it online. We felt, why do you need to move the car to a location? Why does the dealer have to come to that location? Can't you just inspect that car, take photos of that car, wherever it is, put it up on the internet and have dealers log on on eBay had just gone public.
那你到底做了些什么呢？我的意思是，最初的开放通道是什么？你知道的，最初的开放通道，我们所尝试的是将整个实体拍卖转移到在线平台上。我们觉得，为什么需要将汽车移动到一个地方？为什么经销商必须去那个地方呢？难道你不能在车辆所在地对其进行检查、拍照，然后将其放到互联网上，让经销商通过登录eBay来操作吗？eBay刚刚上市，我们觉得这样做挺好的。
So into an eBay style auction was our vision and sell the car and cut out a lot of costs to make it more efficient, create, you know, a national market. That was kind of the vision. You know, but I also think back to then, you know, it was pre smartphone. Dial up modem. It was a very different world, right? You know, so the core of the idea made sense. A lot of the necessary components probably weren't really there. So it took a long time to come to fruition.
我们的愿景是建立一个类似eBay风格的拍卖系统，通过卖车来节省大量成本，使其更加高效，并创造一个国家市场。这是我们的愿景。但回想起来，那个时候还没有智能手机，只有拨号调制解调器，这是一个非常不同的世界，对吧？所以这个想法的核心是有道理的，但可能很多必要的组成部分并不真正存在。因此，这个想法花了很长时间才得以实现。
I mean, you were early. I got to say, people probably thought you were crazy. I'd have to imagine. Yeah, we probably were a little crazy. We were early. Yeah, we had a couple of tough years, but you know, we got some traction with a few OEMs who were interested in building these private label solutions for their dealers to sell their off lease cars. So we thought, well, we can use our technology for that. So we got into that and, you know, one customer led to another and yeah, we had some ups and downs, but generally the business grew and the technology caught up a little bit.
我的意思是，你来得早。我得说，人们可能认为你疯了。我得想象一下。是的，我们可能有点疯狂。我们很早就开始了。是的，我们经历了几年的艰难时期，但我们知道，有一些原始设备制造商对于建立这些自有品牌解决方案以出售其过期租赁车辆的交易商很感兴趣。所以我们想，我们可以用我们的技术做这个。于是我们进入了这个领域，你知道的，一个客户引领着另一个客户，是的，我们经历了起伏，但总的来说业务在增长，技术也逐渐迎头赶上了一些。
The second guest I ever had on this podcast was Christopher Coleman, founder of Carlypso, who then went on to find with Clark. Similar story to you in that, you know, Stanford grads, you know, very intrigued by the auto business. And we're focused sort of on wholesale, but their vision was to sort of do wholesale direct to consumer didn't quite work out. They ended up really things did end up working out for them personally. I got acquired by Carvana. I went on to do great things, but yeah, it's interesting. It's on a similar vision.
这个播客上的第二位嘉宾是Carlypso的创始人Christopher Coleman，后来又与Clark创立了一家新公司。和你的情况很相似，你们都是斯坦福大学毕业生，对汽车行业有极大兴趣。我们关注的重点是批发，但他们的愿景是直接面向消费者进行批发，结果并没有完全实现。他们最终确实取得了个人成功。他们被Carvana收购，继续取得了巨大的成就。很有趣，你们的愿景相似。
Yeah, I know, I know Christopher, I met him, I haven't met him for a few years, but I know him from back to the end. Yeah, I figure it. That's awesome.
是的，我知道，我知道克里斯托弗，我见过他，虽然已经有几年没见了，但我对他很了解。是的，我明白了。太棒了。
Were you the first digital auction, like Simon cast aside, which was meant to take a traditional auction and digitize it, correct me from wrong, but were you the first, you know, fully digital auction attempt?
你是第一个数字拍卖平台吗？就像西蒙被抛弃一样，旨在将传统拍卖转变为数字化。如果我没弄错，你是第一个，你知道的，完全数字化拍卖的尝试，对吗？
I would say we were certainly one of the first. There were a few others. Some of them ended up getting rolled up into our company over the next few years. There was a company in Canada called on lane. There was a company based in Phoenix called Auto Trade Center. They all sort of we kind of combined with those companies over, you know, a three or four year period. And then there were a few companies that didn't make it. So there was a five or six, I'd say entrance in that sort of year or two year period back then. But then there was a winnowing out of that as the business sort of evolved.
我可以说我们当时肯定是第一批之一。还有一些其他公司。其中一些最终在接下来的几年内被整合到我们的公司中。加拿大有一家叫on lane的公司。菲尼克斯有一家叫Auto Trade Center的公司。它们都在那个三到四年的时期内与我们合并了。然后还有一些公司没能生存下来。所以可以说在那段时间里，大约有五到六个公司进入了这个行业。但随着业务的演变，这些公司逐渐减少了。
36 hours ago, you guys made a really big announcement. You announced that you are acquiring all of Manheim, Canada and the associated assets and you'll get into that in a second. One of the questions I got from many dealers was simply like confusion about what is open lane, you know, who is open lane. So before we even get into what you're working on, can you give us just like a lay of the land, explain your company's branding, what you do, the different components of the company?
36小时前，你们发表了一项非常重大的声明。你们宣布正在收购全部Manheim Canada及其相关资产，并且你稍后将详细介绍此事。很多经销商提出了一个简单的问题，即对Open Lane是什么感到困惑，他们想知道Open Lane是谁。因此，在我们讨论你们正在开展的项目之前，你能简单介绍一下你们公司的品牌定位、业务以及公司的不同组成部分吗？
Yeah, I understand that. First of all, open lane is an independent publicly traded company. Okay. So we're owned by our shareholders. If anybody in this podcast wants to buy a share, they can. On the public markets. We're not owned or controlled by any other company or affiliated with any other company. We're blessed by having customers across this entire industry from the biggest OEMs to thousands of franchise dealers, thousands of independent dealers. We love this industry and our purpose, the reason we exist is to make the wholesale process easy so our customers give them more success.
是的，我理解。首先，Open Lane是一家独立的上市公司。好的。所以我们是由股东拥有的。如果这个播客中的任何人想购买股份，他们可以在公开市场上购买。我们不受任何其他公司所有或控制，也不隶属于任何其他公司。我们有幸拥有整个行业的客户，从最大的原始设备制造商到成千上万家特许经销商和独立经销商。我们热爱这个行业，我们存在的目的是使批发过程变得简单，为客户提供更多成功的机会。
So what are we? We're the leading, I would say digital marketplace for used vehicles. We're going to sell about 1.3 million vehicles this year. Okay, so it's a lot of vehicles. All of those vehicles are bought by dealers. Okay. And half of those vehicles are sold by dealers. So it's again a wholesale marketplace. And the other half of this, the volume we sell will be sold by commercial customers, finance companies, OEMs, rental companies, and so forth. Most of that volume is in North America, the majority of the US, but we have a strong presence in Canada. We'll talk about that here later. And we also then own a finance company called AFC, which I know many of your audience will be familiar with. That's one of the leading floor plan companies for independent dealers. We floor plan with them many years ago, but we floor plan with them until the point we didn't need the floor plan anymore.
那么我们是什么呢？我可以说，我们是二手车领先的数字市场。今年我们将销售大约130万辆汽车。好的，所以这是很多车辆。所有这些车辆都是由经销商购买的。好的。而其中一半的车辆由经销商销售。所以这又是一个批发市场。而我们销售量的另一半将由商业客户、金融公司、原始设备制造商、租赁公司等销售。其中大部分销售量集中在北美，美国占大多数，但我们在加拿大也有很强的影响力。我们稍后会谈论这个。而且我们还拥有一家名为AFC的金融公司，我相信你的听众中很多人对此会比较熟悉。这是一家为独立经销商提供库存融资的领先企业。我们很多年前开始与他们合作，直到我们不再需要库存融资为止。
Yeah, so that's the company. Now, there has been a lot of change. We did divest of the Odessa business in the US last year. We've grown a lot by acquisition. And over the past, I'll say 24 months, we've been integrating digital platforms into one common platform. We've had car wave, back in cars, now all integrated into an open lane brand in the US. And in Canada, we had a decentrade rev integrated into an open lane brand in Canada. So, I'm excited that we finished this year with one brand, which is open lane in all our marketplaces, US, Canada, and we have some business in Europe. And excited for the future here.
是的，那就是我们公司的情况。现在，公司发生了很多变化。去年，我们剥离了美国的奥德萨业务。我们通过并购实现了很大的增长。在过去的24个月里，我们一直在将数字平台整合到一个共同的平台中。我们曾经有过Car Wave和Back In Cars，现在它们都整合到了美国的一个品牌Open Lane中。而在加拿大，我们将Decentrade Rev整合到了加拿大的一个品牌Open Lane中。所以我很高兴今年以Open Lane作为我们所有市场的品牌结束。我们在美国、加拿大和欧洲都有业务。对未来充满期待。
Tell me more about this acquisition, right? You recently sold Odessa US a couple years back to Carvana. I think many people listen to this know that. So, why buy Manheim Canada so soon after selling Odessa US?
告诉我更多关于这次收购的情况，对吧？你几年前将Odessa US出售给了Carvana。我想很多人都知道这个消息。那么，为什么在出售Odessa US之后不久又收购了Manheim Canada呢？
Yeah, well, a number of reasons. Canada is a core market for us. We've got a strong market position in Canada. Again, formerly trade-driven Odessa, but now open lane. And our business in Canada, I would say, is a combination of physical footprint. We have, I think, 13 sites across Canada from coast to coast. But also a very strong digital platform. All the cars we sell are sold digitally, online. We don't run the traditional across the block in lane auction any longer. So, we sell a lot of cars that never come to our facilities. We sell a lot of cars from our facilities. But they're all sold digitally.
是的，有很多原因。加拿大是我们的核心市场，我们在加拿大拥有强劲的市场地位。过去我们是以贸易为主的奥德萨公司，但现在我们已发展成一个开放平台。我们在加拿大的业务可以说是实体和数字化平台的结合。我们在全加拿大的各个区域拥有13个场地，但同时也有一个非常强大的数字化平台。我们所有的车辆销售都是通过线上的数字渠道完成的，不再采用传统的实体拍卖方式。所以我们销售的许多汽车从未到过我们的场地，也有很多汽车是从我们的场地出售的，但它们全部都是通过数字化平台进行销售的。
Manheim was a competitor in Canada. I guess one thing I'd say is that over the last number of years, there's been a migration of volume from purely physical to a digital, more format. Cars that used to come to a physical auction no longer do. They're sold from the dealers' lots on a digital platform. So, we've seen that in our facilities in Canada. So has Manheim. Cox Automotive divested of some businesses last year in Canada.
Manheim是加拿大的竞争对手。我想说的一件事是，在过去的几年里，销售量已经从纯物理形式转移到了数字化、更多样的形式上。以前会送到实体拍卖会上出售的汽车已经不再有了，现在它们是通过数字平台在经销商的车辆库存上销售。所以，我们在加拿大的设施中也看到了这种情况。Manheim也有同样的经历。Cox Automotive去年在加拿大剥离了一些业务。
And when I saw that, I thought perhaps they were thinking of exiting the Canadian market entirely. So, that initiated a discussion with them around their physical business. And frankly, as I said the other day on an investor call, it enabled us in each market to sort of consolidate facilities to record the market. And then we had to create facilities to create greater scale and efficiency. Because the reality is we had facilities that were not full and not fully utilized and so did they. And this gets a chance to kind of consolidate the volume and have a more efficient sort of physical footprint for the business that actually exists in Canada. Given that we've had a lot of digital change.
当我看到这个时，我想也许他们考虑完全退出加拿大市场。所以，这引发了我们对他们实体业务的讨论。坦率地说，就像我前几天在投资者电话会议上说的，这使我们能够在每个市场上整合设施来记录市场。然后，我们需要创建设施以达到更大的规模和效率。因为事实是我们有一些设施并不满员并没有充分利用，他们也一样。这使我们有机会整合出更高的销售量，并为实际存在于加拿大的业务创造一个更高效的实体占地。考虑到我们经历了许多数字化的变革。
Got it. So you think you're going to get more operating leverage just by more demand filling up your lots and your facilities? I think there's more operating leverage. I'd also say that our digital offering in Canada in terms of a number of buyers was just a lot stronger than Manheim's in Canada. So, I think this also has benefits for Manheim customers. It's going to put those vehicles in front of a greater audience of buyers. And for our buyers, it's also beneficial because now they're going to have access to even greater numbers of vehicles. So, in all of those kind of benefits as well.
明白了。所以你认为，通过更多的需求填满你们的停车场和设施，你们将获得更多的营运杠杆？我认为还有更多的营运杠杆。我还要说的是，我们在加拿大的数字化产品在购买者数量上要比Manheim在加拿大的强大得多。因此，我认为这对Manheim的客户也有好处。这将使这些车辆面对更广大的买家群体。对于我们的买家来说，也是有利的，因为现在他们将有机会获得更多的车辆选择。所以，对于所有这些好处，我们都可以得到。
But fundamentally, the industry has been evolving. It's been moving away from a purely physical model towards a more digital model. You know that you see that on your media empire. That's very evident based on the comments that we see. And I think this transaction kind of reflects that. It's just sort of an evolution of that.
从根本上讲，该行业一直在发展演变。它已经从纯粹的实体模式转向了更加数字化的模式。你知道你在媒体帝国中看到了这一点。根据我们看到的评论，这是非常明显的。而我认为这次交易反映了这一点。它只是这种演变的一种体现。
You have physical auctions, you have dealer dealer marketplaces, backlot cars and plenty of other services you offer. Do you think that the future is a blend of the two? Or do you think that the industry is trending in one direction versus another? I think the future, no matter what industry you're in, is going to be more digital than it was in the past. Just if we look at the next generation, my kids coming up, the way more digital I ever was, new people entering the industry are more digital than people who entered 20 years ago. So, I think pick your industry. It's going to be more digital in the future. I think that's true of our industry too. I think both have a role to play.
你们有实体拍卖会，也有经销商市场，还有库存车和其他许多服务。你认为未来是两者的结合吗？还是你认为行业正朝着一个方向发展而非另一个方向？我认为，无论你在哪个行业，未来都会比过去更加数字化。就拿下一代来说，我的孩子们正在成长，他们对数字化的接触远远超过了我，新进入这个行业的人对数字化的接受程度也比起20年前进入行业的人要高。因此，我认为不管是哪个行业，未来都将更加数字化。我认为我们行业也是如此。我认为两者都有发挥作用的空间。
But when I think of what companies I openly offer today, so we can go inspect a vehicle anywhere at any dealership or any other facility. We can inspect a vehicle quickly and inexpensively. We can put that vehicle into a digital marketplace immediately. It'll immediately attract interest from buyers and bids. It can be sold that day and it can be delivered tomorrow. That's incredibly efficient. That's just an incredibly efficient engine. It benefits the seller. It benefits the buyer. And I just think that's going to win the day, long run in this industry.
当我考虑我今天公开提供的公司时，我们可以随时随地在任何公司或其他场所检查车辆。我们可以快速且经济地检查车辆。我们可以立即把那辆车放入数字市场。它将立即吸引买家和竞价。它可以在当天售出，明天就能交付。这非常高效。这只是一个非常高效的引擎。它有助于卖方，也有助于买方。我认为从长远来看，这将在这个行业中取得胜利。
I've seen that play out in the off-least space, which is where Open Lane started. We started with off-least customers selling off-least vehicles. And when we started, we were selling 20% of the cars that the seller was posting. And then 15 years later, it was 60% of the cars. So, I see that now playing out in the dealer to dealer realm. Franchise dealers can now sell directly from their lot through services like ours. It's convenient. It's fast. It's efficient. So, I'm just a believer in that. And then as CEO of the company, you've got to make choices on where do we commit our resources? And I'd rather commit our resources into that part of the industry where I think we're going to see the growth and where we're going to have the most positive impact for our customers. And that's what we're doing.
我已经见证了这种情况在Open Lane开始时的发展，那时是在二手车市场上。我们最开始是为卖家销售二手车，当初我们只能卖出卖家发布信息车辆数量的20%。然而，15年后，这个比例已经增长到了60%。所以我现在看到这种情况也在经销商之间的领域发生。特许经销商现在可以通过像我们这样的服务直接从他们的场地销售车辆。这是方便、快捷、高效的。所以我对此深信不疑。作为公司的首席执行官，你必须在哪个领域投入我们的资源上做出选择。我更愿意将我们的资源投入到我认为会有增长并对我们的客户有最积极影响的行业部分。而我们正在这样做。
What do you think that positive impact is? What do you think is the key to a successful auction at your scale? What do dealers really want? Yeah. It's a good question. I go back to our purpose statement, make wholesale easy so our customers can be more successful. Our customers are businesses. They live and die on the numbers on their financial performance at the end of every month and quarter. I recognize that.
你认为积极影响是什么？你认为在你们这个规模上进行成功拍卖的关键是什么？经销商真正想要什么？是的，这是个好问题。我回到我们的目标陈述，让批发变得简单，这样我们的客户才能更成功。我们的客户是企业，他们的生死在每个月和每个季度末的财务表现上。我认识到这一点。
Wholesale is important for our customers, but usually it's not their core business. Dealers, core business is probably retailing cars. Wholesale is important for the excess trades you have and for sourcing vehicles if you're an independent dealer. But it's not the core business. The core business is retail. If you're an OEM, the core business is manufactured and merchandising. Wholesale is important. We need to make it easy. And that's what we sort of. That's why I try and emphasize with our team every single day.
批发对于我们的客户非常重要，但通常并不是他们的核心业务。经销商的核心业务可能是零售汽车。对于您有的过量交易和作为独立经销商来寻找汽车，批发是重要的。但它不是核心业务，核心业务是零售。如果您是原始设备制造商（OEM），核心业务是制造和销售。批发是重要的。我们需要让它变得简单。这就是我们努力做的。这就是为什么我每天都试图强调给我们的团队的原因。
So what really matters to the seller? What matters to our sellers is, can you sell a high percentage of my cars? Can you sell it fast? Can you get market price? Right? And get it off my lot quickly. I think those kind of attributes. And for a buyer, can you offer me a broad selection of inventory? Can you be easy to do business with? The prices need to be reasonable. I mean, we don't set the prices on the vehicles. We're just the marketplace. But the fees need to be reasonable. You need to have condition reports I can trust. You know, all of these types of things. But I think you can. We just still all that down into the word sort of easy. The process has to be easy and painless for the customers. We've got to be a company our customers can trust to do business. We've got to trust the condition reports, so on and so forth. So that's the area we really focus on.
卖家真正关心的是什么？对我们的卖家来说，最重要的是能否以较高的比例销售我的车辆？能否快速销售？能否得到市场价？对吧？并且迅速将车辆清出我的场地。我认为这些属性非常重要。而对于买家来说，你能为我提供广泛的库存选择吗？你是否易于开展业务？价格需要合理。我的意思是，我们不设定车辆的价格。我们只是一个市场。但费用需要合理。你需要有我可以信任的车况报告。你知道，所有这些类型的事情。但我相信你可以做到。我们只需要把这一切归纳到一个简单的词“容易”中。过程对客户来说必须简单和无痛苦。我们必须成为一个值得客户信任的公司。我们必须相信车况报告等等。这就是我们真正关注的领域。
Listen, I think it's a journey. I think we're better than we've ever been before at it. We hope to be better next year than we're this year. And then obviously we try and do it at a very competitive price, fee structure, etc. And I think we compare very well on that front too. I did a podcast a couple months back with Bob Hollandtad. And I don't know if you got exposed to that one, but I highly recommend it. All about auction business to come up very, very, very entertaining and interesting. I should listen to that. I know Bob. I didn't hear that podcast, but I've met Bob on a number of occasions. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll send that to you after we finish this.
听着，我认为这是一次旅程。我认为我们在这方面比以往任何时候都更好。我们希望明年比今年做得更好。当然，我们还努力以非常具有竞争力的价格、收费结构等来做。在这方面，我认为我们也做得很好。几个月前我和鲍勃·霍兰塔德合作做了一个播客节目。我不知道你有没有听到那个，但我强烈推荐。这个节目非常有趣和有意思，全是关于拍卖业务的。我应该听一下。我认识鲍勃。我没有听过那个播客，但我在许多场合见过鲍勃。是的，结束之后我会把它发给你。
You mentioned. I forget the exact number you mentioned, but the millions of transactions you oversee. Annually, what is your take right now on consumers, not a motive in terms of just supply, demand, affordability? How do you think about that? Yeah. You know, the world out there is changing again pretty rapidly right now. And I hesitate to predict because the last few years have been so difficult to predict. I think we're all kind of humbled by. I say my crystal ball is very murky. I can't really see into it very well. But why are we seeing? I kind of think that when we look back, we'll think that these last few years were kind of an anomaly. The pandemic supply disruption caused a massive run up in new car prices, used car prices, and all the implications of that. And I think we're seeing that sort of unwind right now. There's an affordability issue with used vehicles and new vehicles, right? Prices are high, interest rates are high. And the consumer can't show up. I don't think, or a lot of consumers can't show up and make that work. And I think something's going to have to give there, which is either interest rates need to come down a little bit, which could happen. Or used vehicle prices will remain under pressure, which they are right now. So, you know, I think that's one thing. I think affordability at the consumer level is important.
你提到了。我忘记了你具体提到的数字，但是你管理的数百万交易。以供给、需求和可负担性为基础的动机以外，对于消费者，你现在怎么看？你怎么想？ 是的，你知道，现在外面的世界正在快速变化。我犹豫是否应该预测，因为过去几年很难预测。我觉得我们都有些谦卑。我说我的预测能力非常糟糕。我真的无法很好地看清楚。但是为什么我们会看到这种情况呢？我有点觉得当我们回望时，我们会认为这几年有点异常。疫情对供应造成了干扰，导致新车和二手车价格飙升，以及由此带来的所有影响。我觉得我们正在见证这种情况正在逆转。二手车和新车价格都存在可负担性问题，对吧？价格很高，利率也很高。消费者买不起。我不觉得，或者说许多消费者买不起。我觉得必须有所变化，可能是利率需要降低一点，这是可能的。或者二手车价格将继续承受压力，就像现在一样。所以，你知道，我觉得这是一个问题。我觉得消费者层面上的可负担性很重要。
What about your customers? Well, our customer, our customer then is the dealer, right? You know, here's what I'd say is dealers. The one thing I've got to be like super impressed with with dealers, given my 20 plus years now in the business, dealers are extremely resilient. Right? Dealers in that sort of 20 plus year period, they've encountered all sorts of markets, good markets, recessions, pandemics. And they figure it out.
你的客户怎么样？嗯，我们的客户，我们的客户是经销商，对吧？你知道，我要说经销商是一件让我非常佩服的事情，因为我已经在这个行业工作了20多年了。经销商非常有韧性。在这个20多年的时间里，无论是好的市场，经济衰退，还是疫情，经销商都遇到过各种各样的情况，但他们总能想办法解决。
You know, I think dealers offer a very valuable and necessary service, whether it's franchise dealers or independent dealers. They support the supply chain of new and used vehicles and their entrepreneurs. And, you know, they figure out how to make it work. I think there probably are some challenges that a declining price environment is tough when you hold inventory. So, you know, if used vehicles are depreciating, you want to be really sort of mindful about how much inventory you're holding, don't hold it too long, you know, all that sort of stuff. And we have to be mindful about that as well, because we finance many of those dealers, right, on the independent dealer side, right?
你知道，我认为经销商提供了非常有价值和必要的服务，无论是特许经销商还是独立经销商。他们支持新旧车辆及其企业家的供应链。而且，你知道的，他们知道怎样让它发挥作用。我认为，在持有库存时，衰退的价格环境可能会带来一些挑战。所以，你要非常注意你持有的库存量，不要持有太久，你知道，等等。我们也必须对此保持警惕，因为我们为许多这些经销商提供融资，对吗？
But I guess if I had to sort of distill it all down, I'd say, when I look to the future, I think the market of the future is going to be much more of what we think about a normal market than maybe for the last two years have been. And by that I mean franchise dealers will tend to have plenty of vehicles on their lots, new cars, manufacturers will offer incentives to move those vehicles in the way that they did, but maybe they haven't done as much in the last few years. So, they'll be incentives, they'll be lease incentives, all that kind of stuff.
我想，如果我必须将其浓缩成一点，我会说，当我展望未来时，我认为未来的市场将更加符合我们对一般市场的想象，可能会有过去两年那样。我的意思是，特许经销商将在他们的经销场上有足够的车辆，新车，制造商将提供激励措施来清理那些车辆，就像他们过去做过的那样，但可能在过去几年没有做得那么多。所以，将会有激励措施，会有租赁激励措施，所有这些。
We'll probably see a more robust wholesale market, meaning that when dealers take, when franchise dealers hit car and on trade, they'll probably wholesale a good percentage of those, rather than thinking, well, my lot's empty, I'm going to hang on to all these trades. I think they'll wholesale those. When consumers get to the end of their leases, they'll find there's not much equity in that lease. I'm going to return that car and put it into the wholesale market. So, I think we'll see more of that again in the future than we've seen over the last couple of years.
我们很可能会看到一个更健壮的批发市场，这意味着当经销商收回汽车并交易时，他们可能会将其中一部分批发出去，而不是觉得“我的车场是空的，我要留住所有这些交易”。我认为他们会批发这些交易。当消费者租约结束时，他们会发现租赁的汽车几乎没有任何资本回报。我会将这辆车退还并且放入批发市场。因此，我认为我们在未来会比过去几年看到更多类似情况的出现。
It feels like we're in the unwind period still at this point, because you're seeing on one hand, Stellantis, Chrysler, Dodge, EPRAM, etc. They have lots are packed, incentives are starting and continuing to increase. On the other hand, I'm getting consumers who every day write to me, hey, I'm looking for a grand highlander hybrid or Toyota Sienna and I just can't get it still. And it's very much that, you know, very, you know, case-shaped recovery, however you want to call it, where some brands are still doing, you know, very good with supply. Others are still lacking and it's that, you know, in between stage still.
目前感觉我们仍然处于调整期，因为一方面我们看到Stellantis、Chrysler、Dodge、EPRAM等公司，车辆库存充足，激励政策开始并继续增加。另一方面，我每天都收到消费者写信给我，说他们正在寻找高地豪兰混动车型或者丰田Sienna，但仍然无法购买到。这种情况非常典型，你可以称之为"非典型复苏"，一些品牌的供应依然不错，而其他品牌则依然缺货，我们还处于这种中间阶段。
They went as high as 50% up versus pre-pandemic and I think they've come down maybe 20%. So, today they're about 30% higher. My guess is they come down a little bit more, but I don't think they're ever going to go back to where they were. But it has been inflation, right? The dollar in our pockets actually worth less today than it was then. And there's been a deficit of cars produced, right? Structurally for the last two, three and a half years to three years, there's just been fewer new cars built. And that's a deficit of used cars, right? So I think all that kind of supports values and prevents them from going all the way back to where they were. But again, I think we're still in a little bit of an unwinding, a little bit more unwinding to do, probably.
他们的价格上涨了高达50%，相比疫情前的价格，我觉得已经回落了大约20%。所以，现在它们大约高出30%。我猜它们还会继续回落一点，但我不认为它们会回到原来的水平。但确实存在通货膨胀，对吧？我们口袋里的美元现在实际价值比以前少了。而且汽车产量也存在逆差，对吧？在过去的两年半到三年里，新车的产量一直偏少。这就造成了二手车的供应不足，对吧？所以我觉得这些因素都支撑了车辆的价值，阻碍了它们完全恢复到以前的水平。但我认为我们还有一点点调整需要做，可能。
Yeah, and you mentioned inflation. I mean, cost to produce a car went up. And so structurally, the entire market is buoyed like that. Tell me more. I think you were mentioning, we were talking about your operations in Canada, your expansion. You're just looking for your different brands. I was even surprised. Some brands that I wasn't aware of. But, you know, many, many different brands offering lots of services throughout the industry. Why do you look abroad for value? Where does that, you know, what drives that? You're mentioning you're also very acquisitive, which makes, you know, makes a lot of sense. But tell me about like looking abroad. What drives that decision?
是的，你提到了通货膨胀。我的意思是，汽车生产成本上升了。从结构上讲，整个市场都是这样支撑的。告诉我更多吧。我记得我们曾谈到过你们在加拿大的业务，你们的扩张计划。你正在寻找你们不同的品牌。有些品牌我甚至不知道。但是，你知道，在整个汽车行业，有很多不同的品牌提供各种服务。为什么你们会去海外寻找价值呢？是什么驱使了这个决定？你也提到你们非常善于收购，这很有道理。但是告诉我一下你们寻找海外机会的原因。
I guess what I'd say is we have been a inquisitive. I mean, I've been CEO for two years. I've maybe been a little less acquisitive and more focused on the integration of the businesses we have.
我想我要说的是，我们一直是好奇心旺盛的。我的意思是，我担任CEO已经两年了。也许我在收购方面变得稍微保守了一些，更加注重整合我们已有的业务。
We do have a business in Europe. It's now called open lane Europe. And it's doing quite well. It's growing. It's definitely a contributor. I'm glad we own the business. I think it was a good deal, a good acquisition for us. But I will say my focus is very much North American based. More than 90% of the cars we sell are in North America. Frankly, the environment in North America has been a challenge, right? In the wholesale space. There's just been fewer vehicles for the last few years. So we've been challenged there. We've been working through that. That's been my focus. And that's going to continue to be my focus.
我们在欧洲有一项业务，现在叫做开放车道欧洲。它的经营状况非常好，持续增长，并为我们做出了积极贡献。我很高兴我们拥有这个业务，我认为这是一笔划算的买卖，对我们来说是一次成功的收购。但我必须说，我的重点仍然是北美市场。我们销售的汽车中，超过90%都在北美地区。老实说，近几年北美的批发市场环境一直存在挑战，汽车数量减少。所以我们在那里面临一些困难，但我们一直在努力克服。那是我的重点，并将继续成为我的重点。
You're right. There aren't a ton of synergies between North American and Europe, which I mean. You know, European buyers aren't logging into our marketplace in North American buying cars and taking them over there. And neither is the opposite happening, right? So they're very distinct, separate geographies. So you're into the realm of like technology synergies and business model synergies. But I'm glad we own the business we own, but my focus is clearly on North America.
没错。北美和欧洲之间确实没有太多的协同效应，这就是我的意思。你知道，欧洲买家并没有登录我们的北美市场购买汽车然后运到那边去。反之亦然，对吧？所以它们是非常独立、分离的地理区域。因此，你要考虑的是技术协同和商业模式协同。但是我很高兴我们拥有我们拥有的业务，但我的重点显然是北美地区。
On that point, so you mentioned European buyers are not looking at North American cars, which makes total sense of when expect otherwise. Do you think just American dealers and American market in general, do you think they should be looking towards Canadian vehicles for potentially better value? Is there that arbitrage there? What do you think about that?
在这一点上，你说欧洲买家不看好北美汽车，这完全是可以理解的，否则会有点奇怪。你认为仅限于美国经销商和美国市场来说，他们是否应该关注加拿大车辆，以寻求潜在的更好价值？是否存在套利机会呢？你对此有何看法？
Yeah. Well, so the reality is there is a healthy, well, in many years, there's a healthy cross-border trade. And it's typically of Canadian vehicles into the US market. I'm very familiar. Yeah. Okay. Got it. And those volumes have been very high these past few years, very high these past few years. The strength of the demand in the US, you know, the rapid appreciation of used vehicle values caused buyers to work and I get these vehicles. And so that was a real strong driver of Canadian market performance, I'd say in 2021, 2022. And then you mentioned the word unwinding a few months ago. I would say over the last few months, we've seen a real fall off in that as the US market has cooled. It's had a disproportionate impact in Canada because that demand, that extra demand, not only did the Canadian market cool, but then that extra demand also went away. So it took a double whammy, right?
是的。嗯，现实情况是多年来，有一个健康的跨境贸易，主要是加拿大车辆进入美国市场。我非常熟悉。是的。好的。明白了。过去几年，这种贸易量非常高，非常高。由于美国市场需求的强劲，二手车价值的快速增长促使买家努力获取这些车辆。因此，我可以说这是2021年和2022年加拿大市场表现强劲的一个真正动力。然后你几个月前提到了“减少”。我可以说在过去几个月里，随着美国市场的降温，加拿大市场的交易量大幅下降。这对加拿大市场产生了不成比例的影响，因为不仅加拿大市场降温，而且额外的需求也消失了。所以可以说是两方面的打击，对吧？
So, but there's a bunch of businesses and you probably know some of them who do a great job of, you know, they purchase vehicles in Canada speculatively, you know, hundreds of them, thousands of them. They take them down to auctions in the US or digital platforms in the US and they obviously work, they change the odometer to miles and do get the legal process figured out and sell the cars down here. And I mean, there's full lanes full of Canadian vehicles. Yes. So that's, you know, I don't remember seeing that in like the earlier 2010s and then maybe I was just too young and, you know, in the industry, but I, for me, I felt like it started more around like the mid.
嗯，但是有很多企业可能你们其中一些可能了解，他们做得很好，你知道，他们在加拿大大量购买车辆，数以百计，数以千计。他们将这些车辆运到美国的拍卖会或者在线平台上销售，显然他们会更改里程表上的公里数，合法程序也都弄清楚了，然后在这里出售汽车。我的意思是，车道上都是满满的加拿大车辆。是的，所以，你知道，我不记得在2010年代早期看到过这种情况，或许是因为我当时太年轻了，还不了解这个行业，但是对我来说，我感觉这种情况开始发生得更多约在中间。
2010s and are these pick up? You're probably, well, it has ebbed and flowed. Exchange rate really matters, right? So I would say in the, in the aughts, the 2000 to 2010, there were some years there where there was very strong export volume. And then the Canadian dollar strengthened and almost got to parity for a while. And I think the export market kind of diminished. And then it built back up and then it really exploded through the pandemic. And that was sort of compressing again. So it comes in cycles.
2010年代和现在是否仍然存在这种情况呢？你可能会猜测，嗯，这种情况起伏不定。汇率真的很重要，对吧？所以我可以说在2000年到2010年之间，也就是上个十年的一部分时间里，出口量非常强劲。然后加元升值，几乎与美元达到了1:1，有一段时间。我认为出口市场因此有所减弱。然后又重新增长起来，然后在疫情期间真的爆发了。而现在又开始有所下降。所以这种情况呈周期性变化。
Because you have additional embedded costs and whatnot. Exactly. Exactly. This change really matters. You know, obviously, and then the rest of demand in both markets matters as well.
因为你有额外的嵌入成本和其他费用。完全正确。完全正确。这种变化确实很重要。显然，两个市场的其他需求也很重要。
Peter, I know you're super tight on time. Really appreciate you making this on a, you know, 12 to 24 hour notice. So we appreciate you coming on. So before we wrap up, I mean, just what is the future for Open Lane looking like? I'm sure we'll have many more conversations, but give us a little teaser.
彼得，我知道你的时间非常紧张。非常感谢你在只有12到24小时通知的情况下还能参加这个活动。我们真的很感谢你的到来。在我们结束之前，Open Lane未来的发展如何？我相信我们还会有很多讨论，但是可以透露一点给我们吗？
You know, I'm very excited about the future, not just of the company, but of the industry. Love this industry. Listen, people need transportation. They need to get to work. They want that freedom that car ownership brings. So I think that's inherent in what we provide.
你知道的，我对未来非常兴奋，不仅是对公司，还对整个行业。我热爱这个行业。听着，人们需要交通工具。他们需要去上班。他们希望拥有车辆所带来的自由。所以我认为这就是我们所提供的内在价值。
I think dealers are essential to everything this industry does. So we love serving dealers, franchise independent dealers in US and Canada. You know, wholesale volumes have been under pressure for the last few years. I think that's going to change. You mentioned the unwinding. I think that's going to put more vehicles into the wholesale channel over time. It's going to be slow and steady, but that's still good. Our business will grow.
我认为经销商对这个行业的一切都至关重要。因此，我们喜欢为美国和加拿大的经销商、特许经销商和独立经销商提供服务。你知道，过去几年来批发销售量一直受到压力。我认为这将会改变。你提到了逐步解开的过程。我认为这将随着时间的推移将更多车辆流入批发市场。虽然这个过程会缓慢而稳定，但这仍然是好的。我们的业务将会增长。
And then I'm just excited about it more digital future for this industry. You know, we've got great platforms, great technologies, great team. And again, we're focused on leveraging those technologies to make the process easy for dealers. Make the wholesale process easy, help make dealers more successful. And that creates an exciting future for all of us, I hope, and I believe.
然后我对这个行业的数字化未来感到兴奋。你知道，我们拥有出色的平台、先进的技术和优秀的团队。而且，我们正在专注于利用这些技术，使经销商的工作变得更加容易。使批发过程变得简单，帮助经销商取得更大的成功。我希望这将为我们所有人创造一个令人兴奋的未来，我坚信这一点。
Well, Peter, thanks so much for coming on. If anyone wants to learn more about Open Lane, you can go to openlane.com. I just confirmed you definitely have the domain. So we're good there. And Peter, this was great. Thanks so much for making the time. You know, pleasure to have you on. Thanks, Cardi Dershope Guy. I'm excited to be on your podcast here. Thank you.
嗯，Peter，非常感谢你的参与。如果有人想要了解更多关于Open Lane的信息，可以访问openlane.com。我刚刚确认了你的确拥有该域名，所以我们在这方面没问题。Peter，非常棒，感谢你抽出时间。很高兴能够邀请你来。谢谢，Cardi Dershope Guy。我很兴奋能够参加你的播客节目。谢谢。
All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
好的。希望你喜欢这一集。请给这个播客一个评分。考虑订阅这个节目，并在节目说明中查看相关链接。感谢收听。下次再见。