As at-your-door mechanic services grow, dealers and automakers start to respond

Providers other than new-vehicle dealerships continue to dominate the market for mobile auto service. Still, as more customers demand that businesses deliver services and products to their home or workplace, dealerships and automakers are taking their first steps to get technicians out of the shop.

Independent mechanics who make house calls aren't new. But companies offering such services on a large scale date to the founding of YourMechanic in 2012. Since then, YourMechanic has been joined by startups such as Seattle-based Wrench and, since July, RepairSmith in California.

Cox Automotive's most recent Service Industry Study, completed last year, suggests that more consumers are interested in mobile service (39 percent) than valet service that picks up a vehicle for maintenance or repair and returns it to the owner's residence or office (36 percent). Yet Cox Automotive Vice President Jim Roche told Fixed Ops Journal that "28 percent of dealers are offering valet services, and just 6 percent are toying with mobile service."

As the number of mobile service companies grows and their offerings expand, Roche adds, these providers pose greater competition to franchised dealerships for maintenance of vehicle fleets.

Several automakers are beginning to explore programs for dealership-based mobile service. Ford Motor Co. launched a pilot program in May that dispatches dealership service vans to perform maintenance and repairs, says Frederiek Toney, president of Ford's Global Customer Service Division.

Toyota Motor North America is exploring a pilot program of mobile service starting next year with an undisclosed number of Toyota and Lexus dealers, says Nathan Kokes, Toyota's advanced technology communications manager. Audi of America is examining a mobile program for electric vehicles, says Joe Rood, the company's director of service operations and training, adding that some Audi dealers already make house calls for minor repairs.

BMW of North America is focusing on providing incentives to a pilot group of 50 to 60 dealerships to assign mobile technicians to help complete recall work.

"It took a minute to get the techs to buy into it, but now that they have, they love doing it," says Bevan Doyle, service manager at Athens BMW in Georgia. The dealership began offering mobile service in March, generally for vehicles within 40 to 50 miles, as part of the pilot program.

"We're doing just about everything that is doable in the field — obviously we don't have a lift, so we can't do driveshafts," Doyle says. "We've finished first in our region for our size for closing recall repairs."

Recall work may be just the first step for BMW. "We are exploring broader mobile service in partnership with some of our dealers, with the potential to establish a companywide program in the coming year," says BMW spokesman Phil Dilanni.

Park Avenue BMW in Rochelle Park, N.J., started offering mobile tire replacement last year and will expand its service by year end to include a variety of mobile repairs, says David Bergamotto, the dealership's service manager.

"Before I designed the tire van, I surveyed people of all ages, asking, 'What if you needed tires or some small repair but you couldn't get to the dealer? If we could do it at your office, would you want that?' " Bergamotto says. "Of course the answer was yes."

Bergamotto says the dealership's mobile service will perform mostly smaller jobs such as trim repair and oil changes. It also will handle recall repairs — including airbags — and vehicle programming tasks that independent mobile services can't perform, he adds.Labor rates for mobile jobs will be the same as standard rates the dealership charges for work in its service bays, Bergamotto says. Mobile customers may not need to be with the vehicle while it's being fixed and can pay online, he says. The mobile service also should reduce the dealership's reliance on loaner vehicles for service customers while their cars and trucks are in the shop, he adds.

Bergamotto says the mobile initiatives are vital for BMW and its dealerships.

"If dealers don't wake up and get out on the road," he says, competitors "are going to take your repair business, just like Safelite did with glass business."

RepairSmith is backed directly by Daimler, which CEO Joel Milne cites as his company's sole investor. Despite that relationship, Milne says his company is not partnering with Mercedes-Benz dealers.

But Milne adds: "Daimler is our backer, and you know there will be more opportunities to work with them down the road."

The company's focus, Milne says, is on providing mobile service for out-of-warranty vehicles typically repaired by independent shops. "Ten to 12 years old is our median," he adds. Milne declined to say how many customers the company has.

RepairSmith's average repair bill, he says, is around $400. That's slightly higher than the average $348 that franchised dealerships charged last year for customer-pay repair jobs, according to Xtime data. But David Foutz, vice president of sales for Cox Automotive's Xtime, Dealertrack and Kelley Blue Book brands, notes that the $348 does not reflect the time required to bring a vehicle to the dealership for repairs.

Milne says RepairSmith makes 85 to 95 percent of repairs on-site. For larger repairs that can't be completed in the field, the Sprinter vans the company uses can tow vehicles to one of about 200 independent repair shops it works with, he adds.

RepairSmith employs its service technicians directly, in contrast to YourMechanic, which provides a platform and support for mechanics who are independent contractors. Although RepairSmith now serves markets only in California, Milne says the company will announce expansion plans by year end.

The mobile provider Wrench operates in 20 markets across 10 states — primarily in the West but also including Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Illinois — says Chief Technology Officer Doug Stevens. The company dispatches 80 to 100 full-time mechanics every day, he adds. Company officials declined to discuss revenue or customer numbers.

Like RepairSmith, Wrench works with independent repair shops for jobs that cannot be completed in the field. "It takes time" to maintain that network, Stevens says, adding: "You have to vet each one to make sure that you know they're performing the kind of service you want."

YourMechanic remains the largest U.S. mobile mechanic provider, with almost 1,000 mechanics serving 11,000 ZIP codes in about 3,000 communities. The company's biggest markets are on the East and West coasts and in the Sun Belt, says Rob Francis, YourMechanic's vice president of consumer growth.

The company says its fleet business has risen nearly 500 percent this year over the same period in 2018, although it did not provide revenue figures. Francis says YourMechanic is "doing some pilot programs" with unidentified automakers on fleet and other services.
YourMechanic also seeks to expand its relations with franchised dealerships, Francis says; the company is working with 10 dealerships, including used-car stores. Initiatives with new-vehicle dealerships include recall repairs and prepaid maintenance plans using work done by YourMechanic.

"It's very expensive and difficult for a dealer to buy the trucks, figure out how to schedule mobile mechanics and service customers" in the field, Francis says. "We give dealers an asset-light way to try that out."

Wrench also is pursuing fleet maintenance work and is open to dealer partnerships, Stevens says.

For a dealership, the economics of mobile work might be more cost-effective than valet service, he notes.

Stevens says, "If you ran the numbers, the cost of sending somebody out twice to pick up and drop off, plus the cost of the equipment and the loaner — that's a big outlay compared to one trip with a mechanic."