Niels Spitters, chief executive officer and founder of Intrador said: “The result has been our developing a range of software products that translate data with smart algorithms into opportunities for our customers, who include equipment lessors, manufacturers of equipment, rental companies, dealer groups, retail traders, banks, and automotive companies.”

Intrador’s product range starts with MarketWatch, which provides a detailed insight into the used machine market on a worldwide basis by analysing more than 30 different web portals around the world.

It allows customers to understand the best locations to buy and sell equipment, what trends are happening in various marketplaces, and what the turnover rate in equipment is in specific regions.

The Intrador Audit App is designed to enable floor-checks, the assessment of how much stock a dealer has on the premises, and inventory audits from anywhere in the world using self-audits.

When audits are carried out using a smartphone to scan a code on each machine and update information, the software is constantly verifying the data that is entered into the app using artificial intelligence to minimise audit costs.

Intrador’s alignment director Martijn Van Eijk said: “It massively reduces the cost of an audit as well as reducing the auditor’s CO2 footprint. It is fully modifiable as a white label product to any house style or branding. The app is quite unique because dealers can utilise it themselves and people don’t need to drive all over the country doing it for them.”

Risk management functions built into the software enable analysis of who is conducting an audit on any given vehicle, when they are doing it and the coordinates to provide the location of equipment.

Spitters added: “We are constantly on the lookout for potential fraudsters. One method we’re seeing crop up more and more is that fraudsters will take a photo, of a photo of the serial number rather than the actual serial number.

“Artificial intelligence detects this kind of fraud, notifying us of any potential threats, in which case, we immediately notify the leasing company.”

The Intrador Remarketing App supports used equipment asset inspections on a global basis.

Remarketing inspections on used equipment are traditionally a complex business, but Van Eijk said the app allows operators to assess all technical information that is required speedily, in all languages, cost-effectively.

Finally, Intrador Auctions and Biddings is a white-label sales platform. It can import data from the remarketing app to accelerate the sale process, as product descriptions, technical status and photos can all be added while the asset is still ‘in the field’.

Spitters originally gained experience in the fleet management sector, working from 2000 to 2009 for Heijmans, the European construction services company before Intrador was established in 2017.

He was responsible for the fleet management of around 3,500 cars and 750 commercial vehicles.

He said: “I then negotiated the sale and leaseback of the car fleet with LeasePlan Nederland.

“Later I spearheaded a new department for the company’s equipment fleet. This included establishing an open calculation methodology for capital intensive equipment, and constructing and implementing a management package for customers’ equipment.”

Improving the industry

While monitoring the auction industry, Spitters identified a gap in the market when he saw the spread of pricing for similar equipment.

He said: “I began noticing a large difference between the purchase prices on different equipment. I saw a price difference of around 300% between the largest and the smallest offer for machinery like an excavator which equalled a difference of around €30,000. After this, it was clear that the vast majority of industry players had little idea what any individual piece of equipment was truly worth.”

Meeting with Van Eijk, who came with a background in the automotive leasing and motorcycle trades, proved to be the catalyst for the formation of Intrador.

With an in-depth knowledge of commercial strategy, dealership processes, business development in both retail and wholesale, and franchise organisations, Van Eijk has held a range of senior positions in the auto industry.

He was previously export manager for MotoPort Europe, where he was responsible for the company’s international activities in Europe and Russia. He also steered the company into a variety of new markets and built up brands in APAC and North America.

After spending eight years in this role, he was appointed global head of sales and marketing for the Jekill and Hyde Company, a global manufacturer of motorbike exhaust systems, before taking up an offer from Spitters to join Intrador.

Since then, the company has carefully protected its independence to ensure it provides pure market insight with no external influences.

Spitters added: “We help customers to work smart, manage the assets, structure processes and we arrange for all data to be digital and available in real time. This lowers their daily costs, increases speed and quality, and lowers their carbon footprint.”

Martijn added that through machine learning, its systems can use a single photo to recognise a piece of equipment and assess its condition.

Spitters said: “There is no company doing all of what we do, in all of the stages of an asset.”

Intrador’s applications are already used globally following a partnership with one of the biggest leasing companies in the world, based in the Netherlands.

“This has been an important and exciting partnership for us and has enabled us to implement our solutions in Brazil, several European countries, the US, and is set to be rolled out in another 30 countries this year,” Spitters added.

“Looking to the future, I see us working with many more (leasing) companies and equipment manufacturers, and working more and more into the data side of the business, and expanding the solutions we can offer by leveraging this data.

“We urge companies as much as possible to start collecting data now, and to start working with innovative companies who can develop these tools. That would be a huge step in further professionalising the industry.” 

* Pictured: Intrador’s alignment director Martijn Van Eijk (left) and chief executive officer Niels Spitters (right) receive their awards from judging panel chairman Peter Thomas, chief executive officer and founding partner of Theorica