Traka Automotive’s networked key management systems and cabinets were installed across all three Lookers Audi South sites in Camberley, Guildford and Basingstoke over a six-day period in October 2016. Three cabinets were installed in Camberley and two in both Guildford and Basingstoke.
The Traka key cabinet at Camberley Audi Sales has capacity for 180 keys. Camberley Audi Aftersales Centre has the same capacity. While the third cabinet has just gone live in the compound offering iFob slots for 200 further keys. Guildford has capacity for 360 keys in Sales and 180 in its aftersales centre. Basingstoke also has capacity for 360 keys in sales and 180 in the aftersales rea. All Lookers Audi South-based key cabinets were fitted with insurance-approved high security roller shutters for added security. Total system capacity across all three sites is now 1,316 key slots.
In the aftersales, where few staff have access to a PC, vehicle records are brought up on Traka Automotive’s software via networked tablets cited on the wall close to the key cabinets. In this way, users can find the keys of the car they need to work on next and, grab them and then, using a prescribed zoning system also displayed close by, locate the area that car is parked very quickly.
Traka Automotive’s system enables all new vehicle details to be transferred automatically from Lookers Audi’s CDK Global’s Dealer Management System (DMS) straight up into the new electronic key management system as soon as they arrive on site. It now takes less than a minute for all new vehicle information (make, model, VIN, status, registration and customer details) to be moved into the Traka system.
New sets of keys are then attached to the iFob which holds all vehicle information linked to those keys. This is then slotted into a secure Traka key cabinet. As soon as this is done, an electronic record of the keys location, together with the identity of the key’s last handler, is made available to authorised users of Traka’s software.
Michael Wrigley added:
Traka’s installation team worked with us to ensure that the citing of the key cabinets, particularly in our service areas, optimised speed of access to keys for valeters, drivers and technicians. It was great to hear Traka’s views on cabinet citing, based on previous installs they had completed in aftersales and PDI centres.
In the seven months since the new Traka Automotive electronic key management system went live across all three Lookers Audi southern sites in November 2016 it has logged over 300,000 key movements. New key assignments in the last four weeks were 2,837, while searches for keys over the last four weeks is up to 36,667 and iFobs moved in the last four weeks’ stands at 42,574.
Paul Smith, Director, Traka Automotive interprets these numbers as follows:
By any measure, the Lookers Audi key management system is already in heavy and almost universal use across all its southern sites after rapid adoption in the first couple of months - and these numbers do not yet reflect system usage in the pound which has only just gone live. Such has been the systems’ success in these southern dealerships that Lookers Audi’s nine dealerships in the north are now planning to implement the same specification Traka Automotive system in the coming months.