The problem
Your motor trade insurer expects license checks before anyone drives your stock, and finance lenders expect you to keep the sale paperwork. On paper, forms go missing and details get copied wrong. A forecourt doing 30 test drives a month spends about 10 minutes on each form, 5 hours a month, and still can't find the one form the insurer asks for.
What the AI does
MotorDesk reads names and addresses from a photo of a customer's license, passport or utility bill, stores driving license data and links to UK license checking tools. Test drive and courtesy car forms can be signed electronically on any device. For sales, you upload your legal and finance documents, group them into packs and send them for eSign with the invoice. Everything sits on the customer's record, ready when an insurer, a lender or the FCA asks.
A worked example
A 25-car dealer in Norwich does about 30 test drives a month and arranges finance as an FCA-authorized credit broker. They move test drive forms and sale document packs to MotorDesk Growth, with license details captured from a photo.
Before
10 minutes of paperwork per test drive, 30 a month: 5 hours, with forms filed in a drawer
After
About 3 minutes each: 1.5 hours a month, with every form signed and on the customer record
What it's worth
About $140£105€125A$202C$197 a month in time, at an assumed $40£30€36A$58C$56 an hour for 3.5 hours saved. That is less than $198£149€177A$286C$280 a month for MotorDesk Growth, so it only pays back as part of the system the dealer also uses for stock, adverts and invoicing; the bigger gain is having every signed form on file.
How to set it up
- List what your motor trade insurer requires before a test drive and what your finance lenders require you to keep.
- Set up your test drive form for eSign in MotorDesk, with license details captured from a photo.
- Check each license through a UK license checking service before handing over keys, as your insurer requires.
- Upload your sale and finance documents and group them into a standard pack sent with each invoice for eSign.
- Each month, open five recent customer records and check every pack is complete.
What goes wrong
- Reading details from a photo can get a character wrong. Check the name, address and license number against the license itself.
- License details are personal data under UK GDPR. Tell customers why you keep them and for how long, and delete them when you no longer need them.
- If you broker finance, your FCA duties, including Consumer Duty, cover how you explain and record the deal. eSign stores the paperwork; it doesn't make the sale compliant.
- Your insurance policy decides which checks you need, not the software. Read its conditions.