Ridecell has a vision to move the world better. This month, we launched our latest product along that endeavor, Ridecell Fleet Ops. Fleet Ops helps carsharing and ridesharing service companies minimize fleet downtime and service costs while maximizing revenue opportunities by keeping vehicles clean, safe and on the road.
I’ve served as the lead representative for Fleet Ops among our beta customers the last six months, and it’s been eye-opening to see the platform’s impact on a company’s bottom line performance.
Servicing today’s carsharing fleet is complicated
Ridecell customers are in the business of running free-floating and scheduled car sharing services. Success is tied directly to the availability of their fleet – vehicles should be located wherever and whenever they are needed. In the traditional rental car model, this is straightforward. Cars are returned to depots where they receive cleaning, fueling and maintenance before the next customer uses it.
However, today’s carsharing fleets are scattered all over the city, and demand can shift throughout the day. Carsharing fleets are feeling pressure to expand their services, but at the same time, keep costs and expenses low. Unfortunately, old systems no longer fit the bill. Trying to use paper or patchworked systems to schedule ongoing service jobs, such as cleaning and refueling, alongside unplanned maintenance like a flat tire or battery recharge, quickly gets complicated and expensive.
Algorithms: Route Optimization for scheduled runs
Some carsharing operators manage the fleet servicing in-house. Others outsource to fleet operations specialists, such as RideKleen, a premier mobile cleaning and fleet management service.
RideKleen immediately saw the benefit of Ridecell Fleet Ops. The company realized they could get to more jobs each day by using the Fleet Ops intelligent algorithms to dispatch specialists and optimize their service routes for cleaning, fueling and rebalancing.
Ridecell designed Fleet Ops to be platform-agnostic and interoperate with any shared mobility service. Aligning Fleet Ops with RideKleen’s operating processes gave fleet specialists new ways to optimize not only their routes, but also their time servicing the vehicles. With Fleet Ops, RideKleen was able to increase productivity by 25% in a matter of weeks.
Smart data: Keeping the Fleet Specialist busy
RideKleen also needed to manage unplanned events. Refueling services were particularly critical, as that could take a vehicle off the road during peak times. The carsharing service company RideKleen serviced needed to innovate how they handled refueling tickets to improve the utilization of the fleet. The company’s traditional manual process was creating hours of additional work to address the refueling ticket volume.
RideKleen used Fleet Ops to assess vehicle fuel levels and identify when vehicles fell below a pre-configured low fuel parameter. RideKleen streamlined fueling jobs into the Fleet Ops dispatch algorithm and produced optimized routes for vehicle refueling tasks. With fleet specialists accomplishing more fueling tasks each day, RideKleen was able to better allocate their workforce and the carsharing company increased vehicle uptimes.
Full transparency with real-time reporting
Like any fleet operator, the carsharing service relied on their ticketing system to track the fleet operations team’s progress and performance. Therefore, transparency was a key requirement for the Fleet Ops system.
Fleet Ops gave RideKleen’s customer access to real-time job completion reports as well as details on routes and vehicles. Customized dynamic reports included current fuel levels for every vehicle, giving the carsharing company the ability to anticipate and predict refueling needs.
The Bottom Line: Where the rubber hits the road
The improvements Ridecell Fleet Ops has delivered for RideKleen and its carsharing customer are measurable and significant. Now, the carsharing service has full visibility into the work that RideKleen completes and RideKleen is able to more accurately meet their Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
The productivity gains across the RideKleen fleet specialist team were impressive from the start of the Fleet Ops testing period. Today, fleet specialists complete 15-20% more jobs on average, and RideKleen has begun to outpace their monthly SLA, a testament to both Ridecell Fleet Ops and the RideKleen team.
For me personally, it’s exciting to see our vision taking hold. The experience of developing Fleet Ops has demonstrated Ridecell’s ability to innovate quickly and address customers’ needs. Optimizing fleet operations is critical as shared mobility companies strive to maximize profitability and build trusted brands that will thrive for a long time. As they innovate how people move, Ridecell helps them move their customers in better ways.
Edgar Varela, Manager, Customer Launch & GTM, Ridecell