Coronavirus Updates

In these difficult and uncertain times, Copart UK are taking several steps to ensure we continue to operate in the UK to the highest possible standards and minimise risk to our Copart teammates and valued Members.  

Full details as to our approach can be found by viewing our COVID-19 Office and Operations Centre Risk Assessment and COVID-19 Transport Risk Assessment.

With the situation around Coronavirus changing daily, we will be posting regular updates on the effect on our service, and how we're tackling the changes to avoid as much disruption as possible to your bidding and buying experience.

Past Updates 
 

Update on 02/04/2020

Our unique position in supporting the UK Insurance industry.

Copart plays a vital part in the claims processing supply chain for a significant proportion of the UK’s leading motor insurers.

We handle in excess of 400,000 vehicles a year and return significant revenues to them. At the most fundamental level, we facilitate policy holders getting payments for their total loss motor accident claims.

In order to enable the continuation of this claims process, Copart continues to operate parts of our vehicle recovery and transportation capability. Whilst this requires some employees to work in our Operations Centres, we have moved almost the entirety of our office-based staff to work from home. We have done this in a staged approach to maintain critical business functions. These critical business functions relate to the services we provide to the insurance sector. Other functions have been closed or significantly reduced, and wherever we have employees on our premises, we are stringent in practising the social distancing measures recommended by the Government.

It is important to note that we have closed all public and third-party access to all our Operations Centres around the UK. This prevents any of our customers, members of the public, policy holders and/or any other 3rd party companies that normally visit from accessing our premises. We maintain our operational capability on the following basis:

• The Financial Conduct Authority deem insurance companies' claims services ‘essential’. This is stipulated in the ‘Requirement for movement to perform essential public service following the declaration of the Secretary of State in accordance with clause 50 and Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Bill’.
• As Copart is the largest nationwide operator for the insurance sector, we collect, transport and store accident-damaged vehicles across the UK on a daily basis as a core part of the claims process.
• We are therefore a designated ‘critical’ outsource partner for the insurance industry and as a result we must, where practically possible, maintain a safe but functional collection capability to reduce blockage in the insurance claims supply chain.
• For clarity, our insurance customers include (but are not limited to) Admiral, LV Insurance, Aviva, AXA, Markerstudy Insurance Group, Hastings Insurance, Enterprise Group (Alamo, National, Enterprise), Kindertons, Accident Exchange Ltd, Watford and Southern Rock Insurance, CUA Claims Ltd. As such, we have received individual written confirmation from these insurance customers that we are classified as a ‘critical service partner’ and must maintain services.
• We also act as a significant outsourcing partner across Engineering, Claims Processing and Settlement Services. This means that some of our teammates have delegated authority to settle claims and make physical payments on behalf of insurers.
• As a member of the Freight Transport Association, we have received a letter confirming that the Department for Transport considers it essential that the work of the logistics sector should continue to the greatest extent possible through the Covid-19 crisis, and that haulage drivers, managers, warehouse staff and all other logistics professionals need to continue to go about their business to keep supply chains moving.
• In addition to supporting the above we are also maintaining (albeit to a reduced capacity) our vehicle storage and delivery capabilities as stipulated under the Government’s ‘Retail Exceptions’ guidance - “Storage and distribution facilities, including delivery drop off points” – to enable the appropriate movement and storage of vehicles.
• We also hold a responsibility to the UK Environment Agency to continue to collect End of Life Vehicles due to salvage and waste management commitments (“collection, processing, recycling and disposal of waste including scrap metal and therefore ELV’s” are permitted – British Vehicle Salvage Federation).
• Agreement with Trading Standards on the continuation of services

Our Ongoing Response to COVID-19.

In terms of our response to the planning and corresponding actions taken, Copart began this process many weeks ago, and we continue to do so on a daily basis through our own Copart Operational Business Reassurance team (COBR).

This team is made up of the Directors of our business and related functions. We implemented a series of measures some weeks ago, including travel restrictions, and have updated or added to them since. This remains a fluid situation and we remain vigilant in our assessment. We have adopted the Government guidelines at each stage and have actioned the following;

• Assessed the workforce against the Governments Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance published on the 16th March and 21st March
• Immediately initiated an increase in our cleaning regimes, introduced alcohol hand sanitisers in offices, staggered breaks, implemented social distancing and introduced ‘no touch’ signatures for drivers
• Created (and maintained on a daily basis) an ‘at risk’ register of teammates which identifies all individuals that were deemed at risk with underlying health issues, who are over 70 or pregnant, and these individuals were migrated to home working
• Anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19, or anyone cohabiting with someone showing symptoms was also sent home
• Any individual worried about the situation was also given the opportunity to go home on a paid or unpaid basis depending on their circumstances
• From the outset we have provided regular internal communications to cascade Government advice on hygiene and social distancing inside and outside of work
• Deployed specific policy and advice relating to COVID-19 to our Line Management community
• Locked all Copart Operations Centres so no public or trade access is allowed
• Instigated a ‘delivery only’ service to our customers removing face to face contact at our centres
• Introduced a range of measures to protect our transport drivers including the adaptation of their operating process and provision of personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Deployed to our frontline staff a number of tools and working practice changes to meet the Government guidelines
• wE ontinue to offer absence options to any teammate who does not wish to work - through paid and non-paid time off options and we support them in doing so
• We continue to liaise closely with our customers and industry bodies, including the Department of Transport, Freight Transport Association and local police where appropriate.

Update on 25/03/20

Important Auction Announcement for All Members
Due to the continued escalation of the Coronavirus we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend our Member collections with immediate effect. This is being done as a direct result of the new guidelines issued by the Government.

This also means with immediate effect (25th March 2020) only online payments and scheduled deliveries will be possible.

For any Members who have purchased in auctions but have not yet picked up vehicles, we will arrange a delivery for you, or a refund on the vehicle.

We are implementing this change to protect the interest of both our Members and Copart teammates.

It is important to note that you are still able to purchase vehicles in our auctions and pay using our online payment systems.

How to continue buying:

Digital payments - Members will be able to make payments online. Cash payments will be temporarily suspended. Information about all online payment methods are available on our website.

Nationwide deliveries - Vehicles can be delivered to you in this interim period through Copart's mainland UK delivery service. Find out more

If you already have plans to collect a vehicle in the coming days, please contact the Operations Centre where the vehicle is being stored. The Operations Centre will be able to provide you with dates and times for Copart to deliver your vehicles, or to discuss alternative options.

We apologise for any inconvenience that the changes may cause, however, these changes are necessary due to the changing situation relating to COVID-19.

Keep up to date with the latest information on how the Coronavirus is impacting Copart by regularly checking our live updates.

Update on 24/03/2020

To our Members:
At present, our auctions remain open. This is because our auctions are 100% online, and if you couple this with our capability to deliver vehicles to Members, it reduces the need to physically interact.

We are absolutely focused on protecting both our teammates and our Members so we have implemented social distancing at our Copart Operations Centres. It is important that as many Members as possible make use of the great range of online services we offer to minimise non-essential visits to our Operations Centres. If you do need to pick up vehicles, please respect all the measures that are currently in place. Please note the following:

• We are temporarily stopping Member viewings at this time.
• Use our Transportation App to collect vehicles where possible.
•  We strongly encourage all Members to use digital payments.
• Use touchless access the gate - use the Copart Mobile App to get a QR code for the gate pass.
• Schedule vehicle pickups - Use the Copart Transportation App to minimise wait times and in-person contact.
• Utilise our mainland UK delivery service – We are currently offering 10% discount on all deliveries and you won't have to pay a load fee of £15.
• Any Members entering the reception area of our Operations Centres will be dealt with on a 1-by-1 basis, so no close queuing will be permitted.

 
Thank you for your continued support and remember you can keep up to date with the latest information by regularly checking our live updates as we continue to review our approach daily.
 

Update on 18/03/2020

We are currently open, as all of our Members can bid, buy and pay online. In addition, Members can use our Transportation App to collect vehicles, which removes the need to enter our Operations Centres. And, to further reduce physical visits to our locations, we are also offering all our Members 10% discount on deliveries and auto-deliveries…

As you will no doubt be aware, the situation around the Coronavirus remains pretty fluid with the UK Government now issuing updates on a daily basis. As such, we wanted to let you know what steps we at Copart UK are taking to ensure we continue to operate in the UK to the highest possible standards and minimise risk to you, our Members.

Of course, we will continue to communicate to you, but at this point, we have three distinct areas of focus:

Minimising the spread (prevention is better than cure)

1. Knowledge is power – we continue to update all our staff on the right prevention practices in line with the UK Government advice provided from gov.co.uk.


2. Increased hygiene practices – We’ve introduced an increase in cleaning regimes with more frequent and deeper cleaning of our Operations Centres and Head Office, including a specific focus on high contact areas such as desks, counters and public spaces. We’ve also introduced hand sanitisers which are available for visitors at the counters, plus additional hand sanitisers located within back office areas of our Operations Centres (near entrances).


3. Our Drivers - All our drivers have been issued with hygiene advice (in line with Government advice) plus sanitisers to wipe high contact areas in their vehicles. In addition, as they collect vehicles and signatures from customers, they have been issued with hand sanitisers and wipes with instructions to clean after every use. We have also enabled a 'no touch' signature method for any customers not wishing to touch devices.

Keeping the Auctions Active

1. No change to buying vehicles – We know how vital the auctions are to you. As you know, our auctions are conducted 100% online, which means we will continue hosting auctions. As Members, you are of course able to bid on vehicles on Copart.co.uk or our Mobile App if you are unable to go to your normal place of work.


2. Payments and Pick Up - Online payment options continue to be available and we continue to encourage our Members to pay online rather than in the Operations Centres for their purchased vehicles. To make it easier to pick up your vehicles, we have recently launched our new Transportation App so you can choose the date and time of your pick up, or you can, of course, arrange deliveries (UK mainland only) to you if required.

Covering off the ‘what-ifs’

As part of our now daily management reviews, we are testing a number of different ‘what-if’ scenarios to ensure we can maintain services for all our customers, no matter what. This helps us plan for all eventualities, such as reduced staffing levels in our fleets or Operations Centres.

You can be confident of our ability to re-route demand across our owned UK Operations Centres, leveraging support from our US IT teams and utilising our UK wide fleet and sub-contractors to continue to pick up and deliver vehicles.

More information about our contingency plans can be found on our blog.

For the latest updates related to Copart's response to Coronavirus, keep checking Copart Member News.