Please stand by. Good day everyone and w elcome to the Copart, Inc. second quarter fiscal 2020 earnings call. Just a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Jay Adair, Chief Executive Officer of Copart, Inc.. Please go ahead sir.
Thank you Samantha. Good morning, everyone, and it's a pleasure to welcome you all to the second quarter call. I'm going to turn it over to Jeff Liaw, our President for Safe Harbor, and then I'll give you a quick update on the company, and he will give you an update on financial performance. Sure with that, Jeff?
Thanks Jay. During today's call, we'll discuss certain non-GAAP measures, which include adjustments to reverse the effect of certain discrete income tax items, disposal of non-operating assets, foreign currency-related gains, certain income tax benefits and payroll taxes related to accounting for stock option exercises, and the effect on common equivalent shares from ASU 2016-09. We've provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures on our website under the Investor Relations link and in our press release issued yesterday. We believe these non-GAAP measures, together with our corresponding GAAP measures, are relevant in assessing our business trends and performance. We analyze our results on both GAAP and non-GAAP bases. In addition, this call may contain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied by our statements.
We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion of the risks that could affect our business, please review the Management's Discussion and Analysis portions in our related periodic reports filed with the SEC. Jay?
Thank you Jeff. For starters, I'd like to state that we have never been better prepared for the future. When we think about capacity, we think about it globally, and whether it's in Europe or the U.S., we have more capacity today than we have ever had. This is an effort that has been ongoing for the last five years to build out a network of locations that are closer to the car and that have more room so that we can continue to handle vehicles that come in due to continued total loss rates, again, due to technology in cars and due to market share gains that we have seen over the last five years. We expect that both those trends will continue, and I'm happy to say we have the capacity to handle that.
When it comes to catastrophes, whether they be small catastrophes or superstorm events, there is no match for the way that Copart handles a cat. Our preparedness has never been better through equipment that we utilize in the field, through locations where we have large facilities that can store 20, 30, 40 thousand vehicles in a superstorm event. To the process we've developed over the last five years and to the technology that we deploy, it is not an understatement to say that our position in the industry is unmatched when it comes to those events. Our people are also the best in the industry.
Whether it be through our tenure as the company has achieved so many years of success now, whether it be the training or the talent, their ability is unmatched, and I put a huge amount of credit on our success over the last five years in wins due to the people that run this company. Our technology continues to lead the industry. We've been a leader in the technology space now for 20 years, moving completely online back in 2003, 17 years ago. I would put our Technology Teams up against any of the Tech Titans in Silicon Valley. What we have developed over the years and what we are developing currently, and that we'll be rolling out in the years to come, will continue to keep the gap between us and our competitors and offer a service offering to our customers that is unmatched.
Copart is a technology company, but we're also a landholding company with over 10,000 acres, over 200 facilities, and we're also a logistics company. We're picking up over 250,000 vehicles a month, and we do that from assignment to pickup in less than a day. Through our people, our process, and our technology, we'll continue to win. With that, it's my pleasure to turn it over to our President, Jeff Liaw, for an update on the financials and the performance of the company. Jeff?
Thank you Jay. As Jay noted, we are pleased with our results for the second quarter. It's a record second quarter for Copart in revenue, gross profit, and operating income. We experienced global revenue growth of 18.6% or $90 million in change over last year. Our U.S. revenue grew at 23.8%. The international revenue nominally declined 2.6% year-over-year, but that's primarily due to converting a substantial U.K. customer from a purchase-based sales contract to a fee-based arrangement instead. Our global service revenue grew $93.2 million or 22.4% year-over-year, which along with units sold, is a more accurate measure of the underlying activity in our business. As we've noted on our prior calls, vehicle sales and costs are disproportionately visible in comparison to their economic relevance to our business.
Our purchased vehicles declined $3 million year-over-year for the second quarter or 4.4%, due primarily again to the shift of the U.K. customer from a purchase arrangement to a fee-based consignment engagement. Our global unit sales grew by 13.7% year-over-year, with U.S. units growing 15.3% and international units growing 5.7%. Our U.S. unit growth was driven by organic growth from our existing insurance customers and non-insurance customers, as well as market share gains. The long-term trends we noted in prior discussions in favor of rising total loss frequency are continuing, driving organic growth from insurance customers as the strong salvage returns we generate at auctions continue to become more and more economically attractive compared to rising repair costs.
We continue to grow our non-insurance business as well, nominally on a unit basis, 5.8% year-over-year, which reflects growth in certain seller groups such as automotive dealers, offset by proactive capacity management efforts on our part with charities and wholesalers. Excluding those charities and wholesalers, our non-insurance business grew on a unit basis 20.6% year-over-year. We attribute this growth to our increased marketing and sales efforts, but perhaps most notably, to the auction liquidity we achieve at Copart. We have brought a large pool of buyers and sellers together, and the auction liquidity we deliver to our sellers, we would argue, is the very best in the industry. Our global inventory increased 7.5% year-over-year. U.S. inventory grew at that same 7.5%. International inventory growth, just north of that at 7.8%.
This inventory growth is again driven by the same unit growth trends noted above, both industry growth as well as customer wins. Our gross profit grew from $208.2 million - $259.9 million, or 24.8% increase year-over-year. We experienced a gross margin rate change from 42.9% - 45.2%, with gross margins expanding by 230 basis points. A portion of this is attributable, of course, to that same shift of the customer from a principal-based arrangement to a fee-based arrangement. In addition to that, we achieved efficiencies across the globe, in the form of operational leverage, which helped to further expand gross margins. In the U.S. and globally, we would, again, as always, note rising labor, health insurance, fuel costs, towing costs, et cetera, offset also by generally benign trends in ASPs as well as operating leverage.
On those average selling prices, in particular in the U.S., our ASPs grew at 0.7% year-over-year. Our ASPs continue their growth. That reflects, I believe now, 13 consecutive quarters of ASP growth in the U.S. That ASP lift is a product of more bidders, more international bidders, and therefore more auction liquidity. This is a year-over-year comparison. As well as an increasing mix of newer, less damaged cars. That's a trend we talk about on our call now for years, and it continues to prove true. International bidding and buying activity, again, a reflection of our proactive marketing efforts as well as the effectiveness of our all-digital auction platform, VB3. The outcome is that we generate more auction activity, more bids per unit, and therefore better selling prices for our customers.
Just shy of 50% of the value of our U.S. auctions are attributed or won by international buyers, and the vast majority of our units have their prices affected and lifted by the participation of those same international buyers. Turning to general and administrative expenditures, I'll speak about them excluding stock-based compensation and depreciation. They are up from $33.2 million a year ago to $39.2 million this quarter. It's also up slightly sequentially by about $400,000 relative to the first quarter. In general, G&A expenditures will fluctuate and grow over time. As with other numbers on our P&L and our cash flow statement, we generally encourage folks to take a multiple quarter view in projecting the business. We continue to believe we can achieve operating leverage given the top line growth rates we have experienced in recent years.
As with yard costs, there are certain inflationary pressures here regarding labor rates, healthcare costs, and the like, but we believe we can achieve operating leverage nonetheless. Our GAAP operating income grew from $164.7 million - $209.9 million, or an increase of 27.4%, reflecting 250 basis points of operating margin expansion. Our net interest expense is roughly flat year-over-year at approximately $4.5 million. Other expense/income of $400,000, in this case, largely attributable to currency gains offset by losses from certain non-consolidated equity positions of ours. Our second quarter income tax of $36.4 million reflects a $14.8 million tax benefit on the exercise of employee stock options, which has been reflected as such in the non-GAAP earnings included in our release from yesterday. GAAP net income increased from $131.4 million - $168.7 million for the second quarter this year, or an increase of 28.4% year-over-year.
Finally, on the P&L, our non-GAAP net income increased from $124.9 million - $153.5 million, growth of 22.9% year-over-year. Turning then to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. We finished the quarter with $93.5 million of cash on the balance sheet and $320 million and change of net debt. We adopted a new lease standard, as you likely know already, this year. Last quarter in the first quarter of 2020, I'll show $104 million as an operating lease right-of-use assets with a corresponding $105 million liability on the balance sheet as well. On the cash flow statement, we generated operating cash flow of $144.5 million for the quarter, an increase of $37 million, driven principally by higher earnings year-over-year. Our capital expenditures of $269 million in the quarter, the strong majority of these capital expenditures were for capacity expansion per our practice in recent years.
I'll note here that we continue to invest aggressively in capacity expansion to serve both industry growth as well as our market share wins. As we've discussed at great length in the past, permitting is a complex and collaborative dialogue with the communities in which we do business. The timing of the completion of certain purchases is always subject to lumpiness in our cash flow statement. We will invest millions, and in some cases, tens of millions of dollars at a time for single site completions. We're delighted for ourselves and our customers that we're able to achieve and to execute this past quarter's worth of capital projects. That said, even in this capacity growth period of Copart's history, the quarter obviously is an outsized CapEx quarter for us. We would look to the last few years as more indicative of our general run rate in a growth period.
With that, I'll make a few final comments on our efforts in Germany, and then we can open it up for Q&A regarding our efforts in Germany. Our strategy and approach continue unabated. We are investing very substantially in people, in technology, and in land. We continue to source cars as a principle to build liquidity, and we're getting progressively better at it. However, the real long-term objective remains unchanged as well, which is to earn consignment volumes to serve the insurance industry there, both for the carrier's direct economic benefits in lower claims costs, as well as their benefits in improved policyholder experiences in the cases of total loss. We have active dialogues with decision-makers at major carriers and have sold cars on a consignment basis for the insurance industry in Germany. We look forward to discussing that further with you on future calls as well.
With that, Samantha, I'll ask you to open it up for Q&A.
Thank you. At this time, we will open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star key followed by the one key on your touch-tone phones now. Questions will be taken in the order in which they are received. If at any time you would like to remove yourself from the questioning queue, just press star two. Again, to ask a question, please press star one at this time. Our first question will come from Bob Labick with CJS Securities.
Good morning.
Hey Bob.
Morning Bob.
I just wanted to start. On the last call, you alluded to helping some carriers optimize their claims process. Can you talk more about that, how it's going? Have there been any initial results or is that a long-term game plan? Is that a 2020, 2021? How should we think about that?
Bob, I characterize that as a 40-year journey. That's something we do literally every day. We may have spoken about it in somewhat greater detail on the last earnings calls, but we view it as our principal job is to improve the claims process and economic outcomes for our insurance customers and theirs in turn. There are certainly individual products that we have in the queue, products we have released, products that we are already selling. I wouldn't view that as a discrete change per se in what we do, Bob, just an ongoing, purposeful commitment to that very outcome.
Got it. Okay, thanks. You just spoke about obviously the highest, I guess, CapEx quarter you've had. Was all the land in the U.S.? Is this international as well? Are you still looking to keep a similar pace to the last two years going forward? Can you just give us a little more color on that?
Yeah, the vast majority of the capital expenditures would be in the U.S., with some internationally, but the vast majority in the U.S. I called it out because it is obviously a much higher rate than we have incurred in recent years. We announced our 2020 Initiative in April of 2016, if memory serves. Approximately four years ago, we began this aggressive capacity expansion phase in our history. I would look to the past few years as more indicative of the run rate of our expenditures in this capacity growth phase, more so than this past quarter. It is the nature of the beast, Bob, as you know, having followed this industry for a long time, that CapEx is by its nature lumpy because you close on a property that could have been literally tens of millions of dollars or it is delayed by six months.
The tens of millions of dollars of expenditures await you in a few quarters' time. We don't endeavor to smooth it. We simply want to acquire and develop the land so we have it available for our customers and ourselves as soon as we can. Sometimes it happens all at once.
Got it. Okay, great. It sounds, I guess, crazy to ask this given the, I think, 14% volume growth in the quarter and for several years, the double-digit volume growth. Are you currently constrained on growing faster based on your capacity? Have you reached a kind of equilibrium now that you're just acquiring new capacity for future growth? Can you talk about where you stand, if there have been constraints before, if you've reached what you need to get for current levels?
It's a fair question. I think as Jay noted at the top, we've invested in the land so that we could serve our customers exceptionally well across all markets if and when they're ready to do business with us. That's our commitment to them, which is also, as you may have heard during the discussion there, within certain non-insurance sellers of ours, we've made proactive decisions to free capacity in that respect for these critical insurance customers in particular. I wouldn't say it's been a gating factor, Bob, but it has required us to make an all-hands-on-deck effort to acquire and develop that land.
Got it. Okay super. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Craig Kennison with Baird.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Wanted to ask about industry trends, what you're seeing in terms of claims activity and the total loss rate, and how you see that unfolding in 2020.
Yes. I'll take a bigger step back, Craig, and make a broader observation. I think we are seeing claims activity that's relatively flat year-over-year in terms of the nominal claims. These are the same data points I'm sure that you track already regarding certain carriers who disclose publicly their claims results, as well as certain industry aggregators who do the same. Over most of our 40-year history, I think we've seen claims frequency generally decline very modestly over time as cars get safer and perhaps drivers get better. The one anomalous period for that trend, of course, was 2011 - 2016, when smartphone penetration, smartphone distraction was perhaps at its peak. Otherwise, for most of our 40-year history, accident frequency has generally declined over time.
However, the one-way tailwind in our business, as you know, has been total loss frequency, which has increased very steadily over time. I think individual months and quarters are tough to measure. I think there's always going to be a lot of noise in that number. I think if you take any kind of step back at all, you would see that trend continues to move up. For reasons I think that become reasonably clear once you dig a half step below the surface, which is that our cars are becoming more sophisticated over time, more technologically involved, and therefore all of the sensors and cameras on the perimeter of the car are making it more difficult to repair. Repair costs are rising, which makes repairs less compelling. While at the same time, our auction liquidity is improving, our international buyer base is expanding.
Quite literally, at the same time repairs are worse, salvage is literally better, which is what has driven a total loss frequency increase of sixfold, fivefold, or sixfold over the past 40 years, and why we think it'll continue to rise over the years to come. I expect that in 2020. I know that's a bit of a long-winded answer, but I expect that this year, but frankly, for years and decades to come.
Thanks. Then looking at your European business and the European car park, are there substantial differences in the constitution of that car park such that we'd see a different trend in total loss rate or claims frequency?
In the broader strokes, no. There certainly are local and country-specific idiosyncrasies that can affect exactly how we enter, how we participate. In broad strokes, no. The cars are similar. The underlying drivers that make total loss such a compelling economic proposition here in the U.S. and in the U.K. are by and large true there, too, which is to say high labor costs, repair costs, vehicle complexity, and frankly, again, emerging and growing international demand for those same wrecked cars.
Lastly, how would you frame the conversations you're having today with European insurance carriers versus those conversations maybe a year or two ago, now that you've got sort of assets on the ground and an active platform working in Europe?
Fair question, Craig. I'd characterize them as much more productive. It's one thing to discuss analogs to the U.K. and the U.S. and why the economic proposition can or should be compelling. It's another matter to have yards open, people engaged, trucks towing cars, as well as, by the way, actual sales results at auction, which demonstrate the superior economic outcome. Literally buying cars on the platform they're using and trading them at a profit on the ground in Germany to buyers outside of Germany in many cases is the most compelling argument of all, right? Which is not, hey, Germany can be like the U.S. It's that Germany, on February 19th, 2020, February 20th, is delivering auction results of XYZ. The conversations have advanced in part for that reason.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks Craig.
Thank you. Our next question will come from John Healy with Northcoast Research.
Thank you. Wanted to ask you guys about the comments you made about technology. Clearly you guys have led the industry for a long time on that front. When I think about kind of the last few years, I feel like you guys have made some nice upgrades to the buying and selling applications. I was hoping to understand from a technology standpoint where you guys are pushing the envelope. One area that I've always thought about and we've talked about that potentially could create service benefits would be if titling with the states could become a little bit more seamless and maybe you guys could develop applications there. Just trying to understand on the back end side of things what technology can bring to the industry. That said, if you bring technology into the industry, potentially cars move quicker.
Does that erode some of the economics that you guys have been able to benefit from associated with the storage and the cradling of the vehicle for the extended period of time?
Thanks John. My answer to you would probably be similar to what I said to Bob, which is that is a nonstop investment for us when it comes to technology to improve outcomes, in particular for our sellers. For them, outcomes means, in the ordinary course, shortening cycle times, allowing them to close claims more quickly, selling the cars. We're titling them, retrieving the original titles and processing the salvage titles to the states more quickly, and therefore auctioning them more quickly to a global liquid platform. There are literally dozens of steps in that process, each of which has its own process and technology to-do list for us internally. The answer to your question broadly is yes, that technology is by far our single biggest corporate investment here.
Besides our land, if you were literally to walk through Copart headquarters and meet with group by group, you'd find the technology group is overwhelmingly the largest in numbers and resource expenditures. It has been a huge part of what we do. We talk about it, frankly, more with our sellers than we do on calls like this. It is our single biggest corporate investment.
Got you. I might have missed it, I probably did. Did you guys mention what inventories were at the end of the quarter in the U.S.?
Inventories of 75% year-over-year.
Great. Thank you so much.
Thanks John.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Daniel Imbro with Stephens Inc.
Yep. Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for taking our questions. Jay, a quick clarifier on your opening comments, talking about capacity growth and incremental market share. Are you seeing incremental market share out there today? Are there any large contracts coming up for RFP in the next year? Was that just a comment on kind of overall strategy and recent trends?
We never get into specific clients or talking about whether they're up for tender or up for RFP. We have succeeded historically at having market share wins. The point I was making was twofold. One, that we have the capacity to do that going forward, and the second was that I anticipate that trend will continue. I think the other thing I was going to add on the previous question, there was a comment about whether or not if we sell vehicles quicker, if that would be detrimental from a storage standpoint. For the most part, we benefit when vehicles are sold quicker. Our goal, just so that all the investors understand, our goal is to move those vehicles as quickly as possible for the customer so that the vehicle generates a higher return.
Storage or storing of the vehicle is an insignificant part of the business. I wanted to just add some clarity on that.
That's helpful. Then Jeff, maybe a follow-up. You continue to call out a benefit from this mix shift within non-insurance towards dealer and off-lease away from municipality and charity. How far along in that mix shift are we? Should that continue, or have we largely phased out a lot of the legacy municipality charity to where that should be more steady state going forward? What's the right mix longer term strategically?
Complicated question. We, of course, value our customers across all of these categories. We just also do face somewhat some resource constraints from time to time and have to make decisions accordingly. I would think of that shift as largely complete. That's a level of detail we wouldn't get into what happened in which quarter and how deep into the quarter to perfectly model it year-over-year. I would think of that as largely complete.
That's helpful. Just one last one for me. Historically, if we look at warm winters, 2012, 2017, there does tend to be some negative impact on volume growth in the coming quarters just due to less accident frequency. Are you guys thinking that this winter should have any kind of impact on your results today in the back half of the year? Or are industry dynamics strong enough to where we shouldn't really see that show up in the business? Thanks.
It's a very fair question. With the exception of course, extreme weather events, we tend not to talk about weather because it sometimes feels like it's both difficult to quantify and becomes an explanation that can become an excuse for factors in the business. I do agree with you that it was, by all measures, a benign winter, higher temperatures, lower precipitation, at least across the U.S., and that yes, therefore, that generally means fewer claims at the top of the funnel. Quantifying that precisely, I don't know. Inventory was up 7.5% year-over-year, nonetheless. Whether that was depressed by temperatures or precipitation is a judgment probably better left to others than to me personally.
That's perfect. Thanks guys. Best of luck.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Stephanie Benjamin with SunTrust.
Hi, good afternoon.
Hi, Stephanie.
Jeff, I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about what you're seeing on the, call it, the pricing or revenue per unit side of the equation. I think you called that another quarter of ASP growth. On a year-over-year basis, maybe it's a little bit slower from some historical trends. I think some are kind of calling for some declines in used vehicle pricing this year. I don't know if that's going to materialize or not. Maybe if you could just speak to that side of the equation on the pricing and revenue per unit side and what you're seeing in the market. Thanks.
Thanks Stephanie. I think in that, you're asking really about two different economic phenomenon, one of which is the selling prices for our cars at auction. That itself is a function of both cyclical and secular forces, some of which you mentioned. The cyclical X variables that can affect the selling prices of cars at our auctions, of course, include used car prices, as you noted, currency fluctuations, and the like, among other things. The secular forces, we think, are that total loss frequency rises. As total loss frequency rises, we get more marginal totals, more drivable cars. That would drive ASPs up. The combination of the two over the very long haul, we think will drive ASPs up in any individual quarter or year, month, week, day, et cetera. The projections become perhaps too fine to parse all of those variables.
Generally speaking, we believe the secular tailwinds are ultimately net favorable. The second part of your question on revenue per unit, that's not something per se that we expressly disclose. We, of course, drive revenue. We drive unit volume as much as we can. Revenue grows also with the addition of services we provide to both sellers and buyers.
Great. Then I just had a clarification. I know it was asked twice. I apologize for hearing it, but on Germany, did you say that you were testing some consignment models or testing that consignment model with some carriers in Germany, or did I mishear that twice? Just a clarification.
You heard correctly. We have sold cars on a consignment basis for insurance carriers in Germany. That said, we also continue to purchase cars, so our principal activity is continuing as well as we build the physical infrastructure, people base, and technology, and talent to serve that industry long term.
Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Bret Jordan with Jefferies.
Hey, good morning guys.
Good morning, Bret.
When you think about the inventory growth in the quarter, and you had some pretty big share gains last year, is there any way to look at what was a contribution from new customers versus what was core legacy inventory growth?
I think that's a level of detail we probably wouldn't get into, but the way I'd characterize it is that there was both underlying market growth as well as market share gains in that year-over-year number.
Okay. Great. I guess this, we don't talk a lot about scrap pricing anymore, but do you see any impact, I guess, from the Chinese market demand relative to what's going on with coronavirus? Is there any pending volatility on scrap price there?
I'll answer that in two parts. Scrap price may be. Effect on Copart, I would say is largely de minimis. The Chinese buyers, in part for regulatory reasons, but are a very tiny portion of our overall sales, below 1% when I last checked. They are not a significant buyer of Copart's cars. That said, coronavirus obviously will not necessarily observe specific national borders. If it spreads, there could be an effect downstream. To date, no.
Okay. Just one question on Germany. What's the total acreage there? I guess when you think about the yard size in Germany, I think of it being somewhat smaller than a U.S. yard. I guess is it better to think about it in acres versus locations?
Probably so, though not something we would discuss yet. We are investing in acreage. I think your intuition generally is correct in that our yards would be smaller today, in part because we needed to get going. The lead time here in the U.S., and for that matter in Germany, to develop a 50-acre parcel for vehicle storage is long, and we weren't willing to wait to do that. We have achieved operations in a number of facilities there more quickly by starting with smaller facilities and in some cases, leasing them.
Okay great. Thank you.
Thanks Bret.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research.
Good morning, Jay, Jeff. How are you?
Good morning.
What's up?
Good. Hey, could you tell me, just as a percentage of the vehicles you're selling, insurance versus non-insurance, how has that mix changed? I mean, what is the current percentage now versus where it was maybe last year?
The current percentage is approximately 21%, and I think a year ago it was a little bit north of that. There was some seasonality to it. I suppose not year over year. There's not seasonality. A year ago, it was 22%, I believe, and now it's 21%. That's partially a function of the shift within non-insurance that we just talked about a moment ago.
Right. One could assume that most of the growth there is dealer cars, correct?
the growth is dealer cars.
That is a meaningful source of the growth in our non-insurance.
Do you have the capability, and I probably should know this, but I'm asking the question, with a dealer car, do you have the capability to sell it at their lot, or do you have to take it to one of your facilities to sell it?
The best way to characterize it is that we are exploring multiple ways to service those automotive dealers. I think clearly from their perspective today, our principal value proposition is the buyer base that we offer in comparison to other offerings in the marketplace. For example, we have a global buyer base. We already have the folks looking from all over the world, and that is the value we offer. Now, how we deliver that and whether physically we require custody or not, those are all variables that are relatively simpler to manage, quite candidly, Gary. I think the value proposition side, I think is clear in how we deliver it. We are experimenting with a number of different avenues.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Derek Glenn with Consumer Edge Research.
Thank you for taking the question. I actually had a follow-up on the non-insurance business and specifically your relationship with the independent dealers. I'm curious how the vehicles sourced from them or that are purchased by them at your auctions differ from their own core inventory offering at retail. Are there any key differences in terms of age or quality? I'm just trying to get a better sense for how they're leveraging your platform.
I think the trends would be hard to draw, Derek, very broad sweeping ones. I'd say in general, of course, if a dealer tends to specialize in brand X and receives a trade-in in brand Y, that would be a natural car to process through a Copart or consign to a Copart auction. I think you'd find the answers are all over the map, and automotive dealers sometimes simply want to achieve near-term liquidity and will consign a number of cars through us. You'll see a wide-ranging mix, sometimes damaged cars, often intact cars that are perfectly drivable. Sometimes older cars on their facilities, sometimes newer ones as well. Tough to provide rules of thumb.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Derek.
Thank you. This is our last call for questions. If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad now. Our next question will come from Chris Bottiglieri with Wolfe Research.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Question for you on the European rollout. It sounds like you're proving out the capabilities and the data to the insurers, right? Like with actual data and actual service. Besides for the red tape of a highly regulated industry, what are the other friction points that are preventing insurers from acting more quickly given what's presumably compelling data? Two, once they've made that decision, how long does it take for them to change their disposition model and onboard, and what's the timeline of conversion once they've decided this model is a better model?
I think the single biggest barrier, Chris, is simply inertia, which is that it's an insurance industry that is accustomed to a set of historical practices literally for decades, from their interactions with their policyholders all the way back through claims. The habits are difficult to break. We do believe that when carriers shift meaningful volume in this direction and improve the policyholder experience, that there certainly should be some momentum that ultimately causes it to accelerate from there. Speculating as to exactly what that conversion timeframe is is tough to do. The barrier, I think, is more habits than anything else.
Got you. That's helpful. Then can you help us think through the implications of CapEx on yard op cost? The CapEx has been super robust lately, but how does that translate near term? Is there a certain period we should use to lag it, or how do we basically translate the CapEx to yard op cost in the coming quarters or years for that matter?
I think if you had access to literally every data point inside our company, that would be too noisy a correlation to try to draw. CapEx, I'll just give you some directional indications. CapEx, when we open a new facility, is net helpful because certainly the new site is closer to some of the scenes of the accident or the repair shops where the cars are being retrieved from. We would achieve immediate savings in terms of the retrieval of the vehicles. We may achieve savings because there are yards that are very congested nearby and therefore are incurring extra labor costs and the like to manage the vehicles inside the facility. However, of course, opening new facilities incurs some level of, quote, "fixed costs," including utilities and telecom management, labor, and the like. There are plus and takes.
I would say across the system, the CapEx, we are opening enough new facilities, expanding enough current facilities, and have done so very steadily that the effect in any given quarter won't be that pronounced. That's one reason you don't hear us discuss, we don't explain gross margin variations or cost variations because of facilities newly opened. It's now a big enough set of facilities that the opening of any given set in a quarter does not affect the financials visibly anyway from where you sit.
Got you. That's very helpful. All right. Thank you for the time.
Thank you. Our next question will come from Daniel Imbro with Stephens Inc.
Yep. Thanks, guys. Thanks for taking the follow-up. Jeff, a quick follow-up on the European market commentary. While the car park is similar, I believe alternative part usage is lower, particularly in collision repair in Europe. I guess the question is there an existing collision salvage marketplace in Europe to support traditional salvage volumes? Would the units you sell over in Germany or what you're selling in Germany more the run-and-drive vehicles today?
Your industry observation, I think, is fair, which is that alternative parts utilization in Europe is considerably lower than here in the U.S. That said, there are clearly cars that economically should not be repaired. Even within Europe today, they will find a home one way or the other. There are cars that are 110% damaged, which you could not possibly justify the repair cost to restore it back to its intact. The economic value proposition for the carriers is that we can help them achieve full and fair value for those salvaged vehicles, whether it will ultimately fuel dismantling or simply be scrapped altogether or be rebuilt and redriven again somewhere else. We simply help the carriers to achieve that full, fair, and liquid market value instantaneously as opposed to today's traditional paths of disposition, which don't do that.
I think your industry observation is fair, but nonetheless, there still are many cars that are totaled in Europe today.
Makes total sense. Thanks so much.
Thank you. At this time, I am not showing any further questions in the queue. I would like to turn the floor back over to the speakers for closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you Samantha. Thank you everyone for attending the call. We look forward to reporting Q3 in the next quarter. Thanks so much. Bye-bye.
Thank you guys.
Ladies and gentlemen thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's conference. Have a great rest of your day.