People
Cars get tracked. People get credited.
Trueline records what is done to each car, by whom and when, and credits the work. Personal report cards stay off until the store turns them on, and only three people ever see one.
People & dataPre-owned operations for Canadian franchise dealers
Run the whole pre-owned business on one true record.
Trueline records every handoff from appraisal to delivery, turns the rules into gates the work can’t skip, and shows the whole store the same picture, from the service bay to the boardroom.
Designed with a working Ontario franchise store · in development
A car’s record Example data
Stock 4521
2022 CR-V EX-L · trade-in
4 d 6 hto the line
- Mon 5 OctLanded, VIN scannedLot attendant
- InspectedTechnician
- Estimate sentService advisor
- Tue 6 OctEstimate approvedwaited 1 d 2 h · target 4 hUsed-car manager
- Thu 8 OctParts receivedon order 1 d 15 hParts
- Repaired, safety certifiedTechnician
- Fri 9 OctDetailedDetailer
- On the line, live onlineMerchandising
- Tue 13 OctSold, 22 of 22 disclosures certifiedF&I
- Wed 14 OctHanded over, every gate clearDelivery
$151 carried to the line81% of it waiting
The problem
Cars wait longer than anyone thinks.
Approvals sit. Parts and vendors run late. A car waits for a bay, then for detail. The work lives on whiteboards, spreadsheets and group texts, so the waiting shows up only once the car is already old.
- About 10 days
- for the average store to get a used car front-line ready; best-practice shops aim for 3 to 5
- About $40
- a day to hold a used car, by U.S. industry estimates
- 3–5 days
- what managers without tracking often guess recon takes; measured, it is often 10 to 15 or more
Sources: Reynolds and Reynolds (2021); Rapid Recon; AutoSuccess (2017), citing NCM Associates. U.S. estimates in U.S. dollars.
Example data What an example store’s 47 used cars have cost to carry since midnight.
One platform
From the appraisal to the funded deal, not just through recon.
Recon trackers follow a car through one department and stop when it is front-line ready. Trueline starts at the appraisal and stays with the car until the deal is funded, so the waiting, the gates and the cost are all on one record.
- 01AcquireAppraisals, trade-ins and purchases
- 02DecideRetail, certified, as-is or wholesale
- 03ReconditionEstimates, approvals, parts, vendors
- 04To the lineQuality check, photos, listing
- 05SellThe deal, and the disclosures
- 06DeliverThe handover gate, then funded
What changes when the work runs on one record.
Four things a whiteboard and a recon tracker can’t do together, and the reason the numbers at the end can be trusted.
- Recorded
Every handoff, with a name and a time.
More than 85 timestamps per car. Every step has an owner and a cover, so nothing waits without a name on it, and the log is never edited after the fact.
How it works - Enforced
Rules as gates, not checklists.
The customer can’t sign until all 22 disclosures are certified, and a car can’t be handed over with an expired safety certificate, unsigned paperwork or missing plates.
Compliance - Shared
One picture, from the bay to the boardroom.
Each role opens on its own work. Technicians and the lot work from a phone, and each handoff is recorded once, by the person who made it.
Who it’s for - Measured
What every car cost, and why.
Time to line by stage and by who held the car, carrying cost per car, and a report card graded against your own targets.
Insight
Where it sits
Keep your DMS. Retire the whiteboard.
Your DMS stays the ledger and your appraisal tool keeps pricing. Trueline is the operating layer between them: the work, the gates and the record of every car.
- Appraisal and pricingvAuto and the tools you price with todayYour appraisals come into Trueline from the daily vAuto export.
- TruelineThe work, the gates and the recordEvery handoff, every role and every car, from the appraisal to the funded deal.
- DMSAccounting, repair orders, parts orderingStays the ledger. Trueline records what was done there.
What it retires
- Whiteboards and wall boards
- Spreadsheets and paper checklists
- Group texts and calls to find a car
- Recon trackers that stop at the front line
Insight
Insight that comes from the work, not from a report.
Because every handoff is recorded as it happens, Trueline shows where each car’s time went and what it cost, without anyone filling in a form or explaining a delay.
- Time to line by stage, and by who held the car
- Carrying cost for every car, and above your own targets
- A store report card graded A to D
- Alerts, line-date forecasts and morning briefings, when you switch them on
What a week is worth
At $40 a day, a week off time to line keeps $280 a car. At 30 used cars retailed a month, that is about $100,000 a year.
7 days × $40 × 360 cars, at the U.S. industry estimate of about $40 a day. A benchmark, not a promise: Trueline shows you your own.
A car’s ledger Example data
Stock 4521
2022 CR-V EX-L · trade-in · landed Mon 08:40 · on the line Fri 14:40
$1514 d 6 h to the line
Intake & photosLot attendant · 3 h 00 m
cost $4
InspectionTechnician · 2 h 10 m
cost $3
EstimateService advisor · 1 h 50 m
cost $3
Waiting for approvalUsed-car manager · 1 d 2 h · target 4 h
cost $39
Parts on orderParts · 1 d 15 h 30 m
cost $59
RepairTechnician · 5 h 00 m
cost $7
DetailDetailer · 17 h 30 m queued, 3 h worked
cost $30
Photos & listingMerchandising · 4 h 00 m
cost $6
worked 19 h · $27waiting 83 h · $124
People and data
Data
Your store’s record stays your store’s.
Each store’s records are kept apart and change only through Trueline, with every action logged. Nothing is shared with a manufacturer or another dealer without your say.
How the record is keptSee your pre-owned day on one record.
A walkthrough with the people who built Trueline: the appraisal board, the shop, the gates and the report card, on an example store. Trueline is in development with a working Ontario franchise store.
Figures marked Example data come from an illustrative store, not a real dealership.