At the NADA Show in March, Lyft sought out CDK Global Inc. for a shortcut to connect with dealerships in a bigger way.
Less than five months later, Lyft and CDK are rolling out plans for Lyft to come aboard CDK's Fortellis, an open network development platform that will enable the ride-hailing company's Concierge service to be directly accessed through CDK's dealership management systems.
That will allow dealership service departments to more efficiently provide Lyft rides to their customers, executives from the two companies said. It marks the first time Lyft's ride-share services will be integrated with a DMS, they said. Initially, the access will be exclusive to CDK's DMS and other software products. CDK didn't disclose a timetable for that to begin other than to say this year. Lyft later can invite other dealership software providers to access Concierge via Fortellis.
"Dealerships can reduce customer wait times and liability insurance costs while increasing repair order throughput and improving general customer satisfaction," Ben Sternsmith, area vice president at Lyft Business, said in a statement provided to Automotive News.