DES PLAINES, IL - More than 5,000 vehicles leased by Wheels, Inc. clients have been sold via WheelsDirect, the company's online driver and employee sale program.

Wheels introduced the WheelsDirect program to meet ongoing requests to provide a Web-based tool that enables clients to provide employees with Web access to information about company vehicles that are going off-lease and are available for purchase. “WheelsDirect provides employees with all relevant data on the off-lease vehicles but also manages the administrative activities associated with an employee vehicle purchase,” said Darrin Aiken, assistant vice president of Wheels Remarketing.

WheelsDirect also delivers major benefits directly to clients, according to Aiken. “These sales eliminate auction costs and are rapidly concluded. Wheels works with each organization to clearly identify resale goals and to develop an appropriate resale pricing strategy,” he said. “As a result, the upstream selling through WheelsDirect maximizes results for our customers.”

Designed to make the purchase process as easy as possible, WheelsDirect provides multiple online tools to support vehicle financing, servicing, and relocation. All key aspects of the program, including the length of time that vehicles are available, information posted online about each vehicle, and all buyer- and driver-focused communications are customized to meet client- specific needs. “While offering off-lease vehicles to drivers and employees is a fairly universal concept in the fleet management sector, the requirements and objectives for each program can be very different,” Aiken said. “We worked closely with our customers to create a program that supports client needs across a broad spectrum and that could be easily customized for client- specific needs. Reaching the 5,000 vehicle sale milestone is clear evidence that Wheels reached that objective,” he added.