Are the fundamentals of dealership key management changing?

Key management has always been at the heart of dealership security. Whoever has access to the keys in these kinds of businesses also has access to the cars on your lot, and putting an access control system in place is imperative to keep those assets safe. 

Nowadays, dealership owners have access to impressively advanced key management technologies. While the overarching goals of key management remain basically the same, the degree of control that can be achieved has fundamentally changed.

The same goal, much higher standards

The fundamental aim of dealership key management remains the same: to maintain as much control over individual keys as reasonably possible, without excessively infringing upon regular operations. 

What has changed is the level of key control that dealerships can achieve thanks to new technologies. Each individual key can now be subject to several overlapping layers of security, from individualised access control to key tracking. 

Old vs new key management systems

Key management technologies have come a long way in even the past decade or two.

Old systems

Old-fashioned solutions, which have been around for hundreds of years, involve using paper logbooks and cabinets that are locked with a padlock or some other sort of physical key. 

Someone has to be physically present to check that the person who wants to retrieve a key is in fact authorised, and then sign that key out in the logbooks if they are. 

Smart key management technologies

Smart key lockers from providers like KEYper represent a substantial improvement on those older technologies. Each individual key can be subject to its own access controls, with access being granted on an individual basis. 

Each time a key is taken out, that access can be automatically added to a digital logbook. The fact that both access and logging are automated means that you no longer need to have a person present to operate the system.

This means that these systems can cut costs and increase efficiency by reducing the need for a full-time human operator, massively decreasing theft and loss-related key incidents, and providing a range of data-driven insights into dealership key management strategies more generally. 

Human accountability remains the same

There can be a tendency in organisations to operate as if impressive new technologies can replace human responsibility. They can’t; these kinds of technologies are there to make people’s lives a lot easier, and to make it more efficient to operate with a high level of consistency. 

This applies to smart key management solutions as well. You still need to make sure that the people running a dealership are accountable for any security issues, and that they know exactly how to use the upgraded systems they are provided with.

Thanks to modern technologies, dealerships can achieve a much higher level of control over their assets than potentially ever before. In a context of rising car-theft-related crime statistics and tighter profit margins for many dealerships, it’s important to invest in these kinds of solutions to maintain as much control as possible.