Public Auction

Retired public vehicles are typically sold at open auction rather than traded privately, because a public sale is competitive, auditable and visible. Online platforms have largely displaced the sale-yard model, which widened the buyer pool a lot.

What the asset returns is more controllable than fleets tend to assume. Condition at sale, the accuracy of the description, photographs, whether it starts and drives, and the timing all move the price materially. The same unit presented properly and presented as a tow-away are different sales.

The structural problem is where the money goes. Where proceeds return to a general fund rather than to the fleet fund that carried the asset, nobody who influences resale value has a reason to protect it, and the effort put into presenting vehicles well reflects that. Crediting disposal proceeds back to the fund that owned the asset is the fix, and it is a finance decision rather than a fleet one.