By CHERYL JENSEN
Published: July 13, 2008

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Jim Yates, president and CEO of Alliance Inspection Management (AiM), has been named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award in the Greater Los Angeles area. 

AiM is the premier new and pre-owned vehicle inspection company in North America that combines breakthrough technology with deep industry experience to provide a trustworthy, independent bridge between buyers and sellers.  The company offers a comprehensive range of vehicle inspection services to verify the condition of new, off-lease and fleet vehicles at vehicle assembly plants, rail yards, ports, customers’ homes, dealers and auctions.  AiM annually conducts more than 10 million vehicle inspections.

“Although AiM was founded less that three years ago, I’m proud that our management team and our 400+ employee inspectors out in the field have delivered on the promise of providing timely, consistent and accurate vehicle inspection reports with a focus on customer satisfaction,” said Yates.  “Being named an award finalist by Ernst & Young underscores the great work everyone at AiM is doing and validates our unique vision for the vehicle inspection industry.”

Executives were selected as finalists from an original pool of 70 business leaders representing companies in the Greater Los Angeles area.  Winners will be announced June 24 at a gala event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  AiM is the only automotive-related company among the 18 finalists.

“These finalists are the best of the best, embodying the unique spirit of entrepreneurism,” said Brian Ring, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program Director for the Greater Los Angeles area.  “They positively impact our region in a major way, through jobs, community growth and development and innovation.  Ernst & Young is proud to salute them.”

AiM’s achievement comes as no surprise to its growing list of business partners, including Chrysler Corporation, Nissan North America, General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), Tokio Marine, Union Pacific, CSX Transportation and several major rental cars companies

“We have plenty of vendors already…what I want are Strategic Partners,” said Peter Grady, Director, Fleet & Remarketing Operations, Chrysler Corporation.  “We think AiM is that kind of partner.”

“AiM has successfully built a bridge between internet buyers and sellers which facilitates successful used car transactions,” said Bill McIver, National Director Remarketing Sales and Business Development, General Motors Acceptance Corporation.  “They have demonstrated the ability to inspect vehicles from the on-line buyer's point of view.  This helps us sell more vehicles over the Internet with greater buyer satisfaction.  Their ability and dedication to standing behind their inspections brings trust to the marketplace and allows buyers to bid with confidence knowing the vehicle has been represented accurately.  We view AiM as an integral business partner in our ability to grow our Smartauction platform.”

Greg Thibault, Vice President Fleet Disposal, Avis Budget Group, Inc. noted that, “Avis Budget Group selected AiM for vehicle inspection services from a very talented field of inspection service providers and they have exceeded their commitment to provide a high level of service and quality for our company.”

And the 2nd largest licensee for National Car Rental added its own evaluation of AiM.  “It is rare in today’s technology driven world that you find a company that not only exceeds your expectations, but does it with a joyful ‘Human’ exuberance,” said David J. Pilcher, Executive Vice President, Arelco Inc. dba National Alamo. “Since doing business with AiM, I have had the pleasure of dealing directly with both front line folks as well as all the company leadership.  In every encounter, it is obvious that these people really enjoy what they do and they do it very well.  This does not happen by accident.  It can only be fostered by great leadership.  Gee…what a novel idea!  One that will never come from a micro processor.”

David M.Wheeler, Assistant Vice President Damage Prevention Services, Union Pacific Corp., said “AiM’s commitment to the new car industry has been consistent with their motto to ‘deliver on the promise’.  They are a great partner in regards to damage prevention and claim reduction and we look forward to continuing and expanding our relationship with them.”

An endorsement from CSX Transportation rounds out the list of business partners congratulating AiM on its selection as a finalist in the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award program. 

“We have a long-standing, working relationship with AiM in terms of preventing damage to, and reducing claims on, new vehicles throughout our network. They have experienced professionals at the field locations, and their management team is proactive in developing new processes and systems to add value to our efforts,” said Rob Rice, Director Load Engineering & Design Services, CSX Transportation.  “They are a valuable partner for us and our relationship is growing.” 

This year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program celebrates its 22nd anniversary.  Regional award recipients will be eligible for consideration in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year national program. 

Alliance Inspection Management Takes The Wheel Of Change

by Thyda Duong Staff Writer

Of the 15 million to 17 million new cars sold every year in the United States, roughly 10 million are inspected by one Long Beach-based company.

Since it began in November 2005, Alliance Inspection Management (AiM) has operated as a national, independent third-party evaluator of new, off-lease and fleet vehicles, inspecting cars at ports, rail yards, assembly plants, dealers, auctions and customers’ homes.

The company employs 450 people across the country – including 20 in Long Beach – and at the core of its operations is a management team well-versed in industry operations, given team members’ various backgrounds in the inspection business, at automobile companies and in the finance and information technology industries.

“We come from being a user of inspection services, and because we were frustrated with finding a good provider of that service, we actually flipped over and built one that would satisfy the needs of people like us,” says President and CEO Jim Yates, who served as director of remarketing for Nissan North America from 1998 to 2005. “It’s a unique element of our company.”

AiM’s vision, Yates adds, is to raise the quality and value of the inspection industry. “In the old days, the inspection business was an inexpensive commodity that people didn’t place a lot of value on, and because they didn’t place a lot of value on it, you couldn’t charge a very fair market price for your services,” he notes.

By creating quality condition reports and developing more efficient ways to collect and examine data, prevent damage to new cars and value the used vehicle as an asset, AiM will play a more significant role in the industry, he adds.

“I see us getting more and more involved on both the new and the used side in adding value for our customers, which will allow us to grow and become a more important part of the process,” he explains.

AiM’s rapid growth and efforts to create change in the vehicle inspection industry have not gone unnoticed; a panel of regional business, academic and community leaders has selected the company as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year award for the Greater Los Angeles Area. In addition, Mobile Enterprise Magazine named the company a best field-service award winner in 2007.

While the company’s main office is located in Long Beach, an equally important office is in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where the company services major customers such as General Motors and Chrysler. Smaller offices are also located in Jacksonville, Florida; Quonset Point, Rhode Island; and Mesquite, Texas.

In addition, AiM has three other companies that are part of its overall business, including its integrated subsidiary AutoComm Inc., Canadian company AutoComm Ltd. and TCM Total Claims Management, which assigns responsibility for transportation damage and carries out claims processing for manufacturers.

“Because of our inspection and footprint, we can determine where the car was damaged, [and] who had the car when it got damaged,” Yates says. “So it’s kind of an outsourced claims business, which is a growing opportunity for us as well – a natural offshoot to what we do.”

Part of the foundation of its business, however, is new-car inspection. AiM inspects vehicles at the end of the manufacturing line for quality checks and works jointly with vessel carriers, rail companies and industry to ensure quality and minimize damage during shipping and handling. It also performs inspections at dealerships for transportation damage.

During its inspections, AiM collects information on the frequency, location and severity of damage. Manufacturers are using AiM’s findings to determine how to best protect the vehicles, including where to install plastics and cushions.

“If we inspect 100 cars and we notice that 10 cars have a scratch on the driver’s-side door, there’s something going on in the process that is affecting that. So then we’ll follow that back . . . and try to figure out where that’s happening in our process so we can stop that,” Yates explains.

He notes that the levels of damage frequency change in different stages of transportation. The damage that occurs as a car is discharged off of a vessel, for instance, is very small, at roughly 1 out of 100. The opportunities for damage, he says, increase as people move the vehicles and load them onto trucks or rail cars. By the time the car arrives at the dealership, the rate is 3 in 100.

Used-vehicle inspections constitute another large part of AiM’s business, and this, Yates notes, is where the real evolution is occurring.

AiM inspects roughly 500,000 used cars annually, working with several manufacturers and rental car companies – including Nissan, Chrysler and Avis – to assess the condition, mileage and overall value of a car. AiM’s inspectors integrate various technologies into their work, using Panasonic Toughbook computers, digital imaging, Web-based scheduling and logistics.

Business-to-business sales of used cars are gaining popularity in the realm of Web-based marketplaces, he adds. The shift to online sales and purchases is transforming the industry from a historically industrial business into one that is becoming closer to the consumer over time, he says.

“Web-based auctions are becoming a very, very efficient way to sell these vehicles,” he explains. “Facilitating that growth is the fact that they always needed an electronic inspection condition report. . . . We’ve got real-time technology – hardware and software – [so] that we can go out, do an inspection, post that inspection up to a Web site the same day, instantaneously. . . . And because of that, you minimize transportation shipping costs, you minimize logistics fees, reconditioning fees [and] auction fees.”

The next evolution is the rise of Web-based consumer purchases, which Yates expects to become increasingly popular over the next several years. “Consumers are getting comfortable [with] buying on the Internet, especially the younger generation. I think that it’s our obligation to help build the infrastructure that will facilitate the necessary comfort level. And once that happens, . . . it will grow very rapidly.”

LONG BEACH Calif. - Alliance Inspection Management (AiM) is pleased to be named a 2007 Mobile Enterprise Magazine best field service award winner.  AiM is in excellent company with first place winner Best Buy’s Geek Squad and another honorable mention winner Stanley Steemer International, both widely known brand names with extensive field service operations.  

AiM is a third-party automotive inspection company that handles both new and used cars. Inspecting leased cars for individuals whose leases are ending is a complex field service problem, so AiM contracted with ServicePower to deploy the company's ServicePower and ServiceMobility (developed jointly with KonaWare) routing and dispatch solution on Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 rugged laptops.

According to AiM Chief Operating Officer Robert Clucas, ServicePower's CRM tools helped determine "the where and the how many" when the company first distributed its technicians across the United States.Now, ServicePower's solution dynamically routes roughly 100 inspectors, performing around 9,000 inspections per month, and collects route progress and job status information from technicians via the GPS-enabled ToughBooks (which also provide turn-by-turn directions). If a technician is delayed, ServicePower automatically recalculates schedules and redistributes workloads to maintain inspection appointments." We're able to tell [lessees] pretty much exactly when we're going to be there," says Clucas. He also notes that ServicePower's detailed real-time reporting is a useful management tool. "It's so visual, you can see at a glance where your problems are."

"We're extremely pleased with the system; the efficiencies are far greater than we expected," adds Clucas. "We thought [technicians] would be able to do eight or nine inspections a day, but some inspectors do upward of 15, 16 or 17. It's enabled us to virtually eliminate customer complaints about not being able to get an appointment." Assuming a 20 percent increase in efficiency from the system, AiM reached a positive ROI within two months of the launch.

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veteran automotive executive Jim Murphy joined Alliance Inspection Management – AIM today as vice-president and Chief Financial Officer. The announcement was made by AIM CEO Jim Yates.

“We’re pleased to add Jim Murphy to our team,” said Yates. “He brings us experience and perspective from all sides of the automotive industry – from dealerships to manufacturers – and rounds out our team.”

Murphy joins AIM from AutoNation Inc. where he held various positions in Finance at the dealership group over the last five years.

Most recently Murphy was Vice-President of Finance Operations and Purchasing at AutoNation’s headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale Fla.

He holds a Masters in Finance degree from Penn Sate.

Murphy began his career at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., where he held ever increasing responsibilities before joining Nissan North America in 1994.

Newly formed Alliance Inspections Management (AIM) is driving change in the vehicle inspection industry.  Its mission includes increasing quality, inspector training, and IT solutions.
 
Finding a trustworthy bridge between vehicle buyer and seller continues to challenge many in the fleet industry.  As the inspection industry continues to move toward online, nontraditional transactions, many manufacturers, financial institutions, leasing companies, and daily rental companies seek an independent, third-party alternative.  Typically, these inspections are used to determine vehicle values, customer liability for excess wear and use at he end of lease term, and fleet vehicle repurchase eligibility, as well as to assign responsibility for vehicle damage (primarily transportation damage).
 
In response to this increasing demand, Jim Yates, director of remarketing for Nissan North America, Inc. from 1998 to 2005, formed Alliance Inspection Management (AIM) in November 2005. The company, based in Long Beach, Calif. — with offices in Sedona, Ariz., and Detroit — is a national, independent third-party evaluator of new and used (off-lease/ fleet) vehicles. “AIM was conceived out of the continued frustration in dealing with off-lease inspections issues, including the lack of a real, national, independent, third-party alternative,” said Yates, the company’s president and CEO. “Our mission is to be a viable option to regional inspection companies, contract (non-employee) inspectors, and auction-based inspection companies.”

AIM Acquires AutoComm to Augment Marketplace Position

After the formation of AIM, the company immediately acquired AutoComm, a new-vehicle inspections provider established 18 years ago. AutoComm offers a range of services to major auto manufacturers and transportation carriers, including data collection, data warehousing, data transmissions, claims handling, damage appraisals, and comprehensive reporting for damage prevention analysis.  According to Yates, the purchase will significantly strengthen AIM’s market presence, giving it a national footprint with more than 240 employees at 60 U.S. locations, as well as 10 offices in Canada. AutoComm performed more than 7 million vehicle inspections in 2004.  "AIM will now be able to integrate new technologies with personal service in an industry not known for either,” Yates said. “We will be able to provide that much-needed, credible bridge between the sometimes- conflicting needs of buyers and sellers.”

AIM Sets Out to Drive Change in Inspection Industry

The company’s primary mission, according to Yates, includes converting a fragmented and troubled industry. He says that the current inspection industry lacks an understanding of the remarketers’ needs, quality condition reports, detailed inspector training, appropriate customer service, and adequate IT solutions to handle real-time scheduling and data collection and reporting.  “The industry has also seen a continued high off-lease volume and a consumer and dealer shift to online sales and purchases,” he added. The company is currently expanding into the off-lease and fleet vehicle inspection business, including the Internet-based inspection business.

AIM will target three sub-areas of the used-vehicle inspection market: off-lease (pre-term) vehicle inspections, auction-related inspections, and fleet vehicle inspections. In the near future, the company plans to expand into remarketing operations, transportation management, and marshalling yard activities.

Yates Says Future of Inspection Industry Looks Promising

The vehicle inspection industry is driven by a need to value approximately 17 million new and 25 million used vehicles per year, with an asset value exceeding $750 billion, Yates estimates. As the majority of these vehicles are still covered by the new-vehicle warranty, this inspection activity focuses on the car’s physical condition. The inspection industry’s growth during the past five years, according to Yates, has been driven by customer acceptance of leasing as an alternative to purchase (estimated at more than 4 million units per year) and the subsequent increase in vehicle lease returns; manufacturer-enhanced leasing programs to support volume; consumer legislation passed in several large leasing states that dictates lease end-of-term customer rights and billing procedures; and Internet sales of used cars and the need for independent condition appraisals prior to sale/purchase.

Moving forward, Yates predicts the inspection industry’s growth over the next five years will be driven by:

• Continued consumer acceptance of leasing.
• Continued growth of Internet-based sales of used cars to dealers and consumers.
• Pending national consumer legislation (Uniform Consumer Leases Act).
• Continued movement toward third-party inspections.
• Used-vehicle certification and extended warranties.
• Customer repurchase loyalty initiatives. 

Yates also foresees that with the growth of used-vehicle sales on the Internet, the seller increasingly will be held responsible for any misrepresentation of vehicle condition.  “A true representation of vehicle condition and full disclosure of prior repairs is essential and required by law,” he said. “This is a very large opportunity for third-party inspection services that can provide consistent, electronic condition reports in a timely manner and efficiently manage an extensive mobile workforce.” Vehicle inspection is a core activity to remarketing business, and according to Yates, AIM is currently working as a credible, independent, third-party alternative to help the industry.