Henry Ford shook the automobile industry with the introduction of his Ford Model T back in 1908. By turning the current business model at that time upside down, he created a path forward for every consumer and family to own their own vehicle. Now, just over 100 years later, we’re witnessing a new automotive transformation, powered by the likes of Tesla, CarMax, Carvana and Vroom, strengthened by a global pandemic and solidified by consumer demand: the digitization of car buying.

Online car purchases represent about 11% of all car sales. That’s expected to grow considerably—over 50% in the coming 4-5 years—and along with this new frontier, other aspects of the process are following suit. Vehicle titling, for example, has long been a time-consuming process for state governments and their motor vehicle constituents, in addition to being prone to errors, expensive and susceptible to fraud. That could soon change as states begin to adopt a digital solution that can effectively serve today’s unique challenges.

Prior to the digital age, vehicle records were kept via paper and filing cabinets. The process was intensive, and the information wasn’t available to anyone outside of the physical location where the records were kept. Along came expensive back-up systems, then computers and finally e-titling. While all seemed well, a bigger, more dangerous problem emerged: cyber threats. The rise of malicious attacks and other potential cyber threats made it difficult to manage the data safely. Even still today, the e-titling process remains fragmented, with each state having their own system, leaving the door open for fraud and driving up costs while lowering productivity.  

“Titling is complicated, involving numerous stakeholders, and it’s getting more difficult to manage in a digital world where the average online car sale is purchased from someone living 900+ miles from the dealership and across state lines,” said Shane Bigelow, CEO of CHAMPtitles (“CHAMP”), a Cleveland, Ohio-based technology startup. “For companies buying and selling vehicles throughout the country, this issue is much more prevalent, often leading to even longer delays and more opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of the system.”

CHAMP is revolutionizing the vehicle titling and registration process with a first-of-its-kind Digital Titling, Registration and Lien Management SaaS software. Not only does it modernize DMV title and registration management, but CHAMP’s new Digital Title and Registration Services (DTRS) also offers NSA-level security protections against fraud.  

“Our security-first titling, registration, and lien management platform is secured by a three-pronged approach that includes a segmented and segregated network; encryption of data in transit and at rest, using elliptic curve cryptography; and the utilization of private-public key infrastructure. In short, aggregate government is waking up to the risks of not using today’s best thinking in technology, and we are excited to be part of the solutions they seek,” Bigelow said.  

The state of West Virginia was an early adopter of this innovative titling technology. “We are proud to be the first state to allow this groundbreaking technology to be a reality for all members of our community. We do believe that enabling blockchain based vehicle titling will offer significant benefits for our auto dealers, lenders, insurance companies, all of their service providers, and most importantly, our citizens,” said Everett Frazier, Commissioner of West Virginia’s Division of Motor Vehicles. “Since the launch, the benefits have been abundant for those who have onboarded to our dealer submission service or our electronic lien and title service, with lots more to come thanks to the forward-thinking design of the DTRS solution from CHAMP. Realizing benefits incrementally has really been great for West Virginia and all who are enjoying these improved ways of transacting, not least of which is the DMV.”  

People often do not think of the consequences of poor record keeping, but it can and does cause major financial or legal problems, as well as the potential for data to be corrupted by bad actors. These consequences can be multiplied in the vehicle titling space, where there are so many stakeholders involved in every transaction, each represented by their state’s own unique government procedures and regulations. Paper processes create incredible costs and slow the pace of commerce, while limiting innovation and providing the easiest path for fraud. Digital processes solve these concerns but require extensive knowledge of cyber security protocols to keep information secure.

“Many of the legacy systems still in use today don’t have the ability to effectively and safely process the thousands of transactions per day and store or transfer the millions of files that otherwise become printed pieces of paper,” Bigelow said. “And when the systems go down, no one knows how to fix them because those who understand the outdated technology are no longer in the industry.”  

CHAMP is on a mission to make these problems relics of the past. Its online solution creates legal, verified digital car titles that enable transferability between state governments, insurance carriers, financial institutions, auto dealers and consumers.  

The patented software digitizes title and registration processes for states as well as their constituents in the title and registration process – vehicle dealers, lenders, service providers, salvers, and insurance carriers to name a few. Further, the technology allows the transfer of ownership of titles to occur in minutes instead of the weeks that most states and their constituents endure today. Other companies have offered their versions of online titling and registration but not to the extent of CHAMP’s, and none have successfully built their platforms with DTRS and limited the change management burden for states—and that’s a major differentiator. DTRS offers a proven method for encryption that certifies corrupt-free data, reducing the risk of fraud and cyber threats, while offering the fastest modernization available in the industry today.    

As the world continues to move toward the digital landscape, partners in the title ecosystem are awakening to the security benefits of this digitized titling and registration process. And now that states, banks, vehicle retailers, insurance companies and many others can quantify the savings and benefits, consumers will soon benefit greatly from the adoption of this technology by government.

CHAMP’s end-to-end vehicle titling and registration solution is rapidly becoming the go-to answer for states to modernize their title, registration and lien management capabilities.  

To learn more about CHAMP and its revolutionary encryption titling and registration software, please visit champtitles.com.