Would you like to tell us about your company's business and what you do?
My name is Flowie Demdam. I am from Toyota Financial Services Philippines Corporation. I am part of the New Mobility Business Unit under the Marketing Operations Department. As part of the New Mobility Business team, I am handling product planning and development for new products and one of those products is Connected Auto Loan.
What is Connected Auto Loan?
In recent years, the use of automobiles as a means of transportation has been increasing, and with the expected expansion of automobile sales in the Philippines, demand for auto loan services for prospective car buyers has also been growing.
The "Connected Auto Loan" proposed by TFSPH is an alternative way of providing loan approval to customers by installing a G-Fleet enabled device with location information acquisition capability in their vehicles.
In terms of our company, TFSPH operates a lease purchase business by providing automotive financial services to Toyota and Lexus fleet and retail customers in the Philippines. Our goal is to support Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) with car sales and of course, offer mobility solutions and new products to our customers. That is our objective in the Philippines.
Could you tell us how you introduced G-Fleet?
The G-Fleet system that we are using right now for our Connected Auto Loan product was introduced by our partner TMP. They were the ones who recommended the system to us so that we can locate or track our connected vehicles. To give an overview, our Connected Auto Loan product is an alternative way of providing loan approval to customers who are not satisfying certain loan conditions.The purpose of this product is to increase car sales with customers who cannot pass normal loan conditions, and to use the G-Fleet system to monitor vehicle location so as to ensure asset security.
How are you using G-Fleet after the introduction?
For the G-Fleet system, we have seen that it is an effective tool after its introduction. The G-Fleet system as mentioned is being utilized by our team members to be able to locate and track our connected vehicles. That really helped us in mitigating the risks involved. In our daily operations, the G-Fleet system is really helpful. To share, we are using the G-Fleet system on three minutes per session on the average. The maximum session or the frequency that it is being accessed by our users would be 10 times a day for different purposes, The G-Fleet can be used to locate or track the connected vehicles. We can also extract reports from the system and register our new connected vehicles. Those are the functions that we do with our G-Fleet system.
Could you tell us what you think is the most attractive or advantageous feature of the G-Fleet?
Of course its main function which is being able to track and locate our connected vehicles is its most attractive function. In the G-Fleet system specifically, the home page, we can automatically see the connected vehicles and we find it very useful because in one glance, we can see all the connected vehicles nationwide or in the Philippines.
What kind of or positive effect Have you seen or noticed since the introduction?
For example, how much did it improve in terms of numbers?
In terms of numbers, we see that it has helped us a lot actually, not only the G-Fleet system, but the Connected Auto Loan product itself. The Connected Auto Loan product enabled us to provide loan approvals to those customers who are not or who will not be able to be approved in the first place. In 2020, the number of connected vehicles that we have released is total 186. And in 2021, there is a significant improvement because we already have 634 connected vehicles released from January to August. We see that the Connected Auto Loan together with the G-Fleet system has helped us in terms of improvement in numbers.
What has been the reaction of customers who have actually passed the loan approval process with the Connected Auto Loan with G-Fleet system?
For the customers, I think since they know that they have some certain conditions or parameters which will not allow them to be approved, I think they are very satisfied with this product since they have been approved because of Connected Auto Loan.
What do you think will happen to the market for Connected Auto Loans in the Philippines?
I can see its potential for growth, meaning it will be used for other mobility products, and it will also be used for other business models. Right now we have a business to customer model but it will also be utilized for BtoB models.
Do you see any possibility of expanding to BtoB?
Yes. Because, that's the future that we also see or the direction that we see.