April 2020

APRIL 2020 AFTERMARKET 11 Above: Mike Mansard www.aftermarketonline.net “That is the biggest question,” said Michael. “When we look at fleets, including car rental fleets, they tend to be multi-brand. If you have a fleet, at first you may want to rely on your dealer networks, but later it becomes transparent that, if you want to service as much as possible, to need to shift to an Uber model, and look to smaller operators. “Dealers make good margins on their own parts, so it is good for them. However, if you stick with dealers, you may find it is not possible to get vehicles in your fleet serviced when you want. I don’t think dealers will have enough reach and capital to service fleets. Multi brand fleets show there is still a place for independents.” Would this necessitate more training on the part of independents? “For sure they would need more training,” agreed Michael, “but alongside new learning, they will also need to have a new role. One can assume that a lot of these businesses can create new revenue streams from new activities. Maybe they could act as the enabler of the concierge service, in the Porsche example. They could become a delivery point in some cases. Could they become some sort of rental agency on behalf of manufacturers? I think there are plenty of new roles. “It is also about activation. A lot of new services will be activated through the air, but there will still be services where you will still need to do manually activate them. Digital enablement will become critical.” Then there are electric vehicles. “One example is Renault, which has its electric fleet,” pointed out Michael. “They launched new maintenance contracts, in which you can subscribe to the car. However many people still want to own the car, in which case you can subscribe to the battery. Once you have the battery, it also includes roadside assistance, including if you run out of energy. They will bring you to any service point.” Over-the-top In our industry, these trends are still forming, so looking beyond our own borders is very useful. On this basis, one last trend cited by Michael may be of interest: “The fleets where I have seen the most disruption have been in the truck industry. I saw a lot of manufacturers, and Tratton, which owns MAN launched an aftermarket fleet solution. They want to especially enable the smaller fleets. At present, more than 50% of the small fleets remain undigitised. They want to provide them with solutions, and driver related services like the Tacograph, electronic logging, fuel efficiency coaching. These have matured over time, and they sell these applications like an App store, sometimes per day, per truck. These are very flexible, very consumer type sales. “We see that car manufacturers are starting to try to do the same thing. They also want to do it with the car rentals in order to create additional revenue streams. Imagine, if we go back to the Wi-Fi example. Imagine if, from the GPS they know you want to go to the ski slopes. They provide you with an off-road driving patch to increase the capability of the car. This is a revolutionary model for the manufacturer. On this basis, fleet managers will need more servicing points, which will drive more revenue. It is actually a positive message when you see the current sales in the car industry. They might be less cars in future, but there will be more services that are car related, and over-the-top service related.” Final thoughts Trends like subscription-based mobility and the sharing economy can be very divisive when being discussed. Those who proselytise with the loudest voices tend to be die-hard converts, who believe fully in the concept they advocate and cannot envisage how others would not want to follow them into the brave new world. Car ownership? Who still wants that? Well, most people actually, and most of your customers are likely to remain car owners for some time to come. The reality, as seen at ground level may offer a starkly contrasting story about the same issues. The discord between what the converts proclaim, and what you see means you might disregard everything they say. Don’t make that mistake. Instead, take a long hard look at what is going on in the market, and adapt your businesses according to what you see. These trends are real, and in some parts of the automotive industry they are major drivers, pushing big changes. We all know eventually everything ends up at your door. When it does, it is best to be ready. Are you a business that is active in the sharing economy? Email the Editor: alex@aftermarket.co.uk

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