The rideshare industry transformed how people utilize and perceive taxi and shuttle services. It became easy and convenient to open an app and request a ride. As consumers’ expectations changed, dealerships looked for ways to accommodate their customers’ preferences. Third-party ridesharing services offered an easy segway into providing a shuttle service. However, as challenges continue to present themselves, more dealerships have decided to move their shuttle services in-house.
Lack of Quality Control
When a dealership depends on a third-party for mobility services, it gives up control of the customer experience, thanks in part to the unknown quality of driver or experience. With a rideshare service, this lack of consistency is glaringly apparent. Unfortunately, this means that dealership customers can have very different experiences with the service. Even though the ride is not directly affiliated with the dealership, each customer still associates their experience with a dealership. Frequent negative experiences can lead to a negative impact on the dealership’s CSI score and discourage customers from returning for service, and Service Advisors spend more time of their day advocating for customers calling into rideshare companies’ customer service lines.
High Pricing
Unless a dealership is doing 8 or fewer rideshare requests per day, an in-house shuttle service may actually be less expensive overall since costs are controlled and consistent from month to month. With the increase in fuel prices since early 2022, the cost of these rideshare services have increased 92% since 2018. In addition, ride-sharing services will adjust pricing to account for demand, called “surge pricing”. Lastly, since ride distances are variable, pricing is also affected by total dive distance and physical locations of the pickup/destination locations. All of these variables can make it difficult for a dealership to effectively manage operational costs.
Unpredictable Availability
Ridesharing services that depend on independent drivers do not guarantee how many drivers are logged into the service and actively driving at any given time. This leads to times when there is a surplus of drivers or a lack of drivers. A dealership cannot risk finding itself in a bind with customers needing the shuttle service and no drivers available. In-house shuttle management resolves this issue by enabling the dealership to schedule the necessary drivers to coordinate with service center volume.
Lack of Brand Consistency
Ridesharing services provide shuttles through independent car owners operating their own vehicles. This represents a branding problem for dealerships. Because there is no way to limit the drivers to only those driving the dealership’s models, it could result in customers riding in a competitor’s vehicle. This is a lack of brand consistency and experience for the customer. Worst case scenario, they are impressed by the competitor’s vehicle performance and consider switching. Alternatively, they ride in one of the dealership’s models, but it isn’t well taken care of. Now the customer has a disappointing experience and assumes all models perform as poorly. Bringing the dealership’s shuttle service in-house ensures complete brand experience consistency.
Take Control of Your Dealership’s Shuttle Service
If you find that your dealership struggles with similar issues, it may be time to consider ditching the third-party ridesharing service and bringing your shuttle operations in-house. When operations are moved in-house, dealerships can set their own quality standards and then enforce them. When you have complete control, you can guarantee a consistently positive experience for each of your customers every time they visit.
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