Getting your car serviced is probably not your favorite activity, even if it’s only for routine maintenance. Have you ever taken your car in for an unexpected repair, only to discover the servicer didn’t have the necessary part in stock? We’ve all been there.
Going without your car – even for part of the day – can be a hassle. Cars promise freedom to go and do, but taking a car to be serviced disrupts your mobility. It’s inconvenient at best; at worst, it’s a huge hassle, especially if you end up without your vehicle for multiple days.
Launching faster same-day parts delivery.
For the most part, scenarios like these have historically been unavoidable. Servicers and consumers have dealt with the inconveniences because there was no other option. But in a world transformed by e-commerce and instant availability of almost anything, there has to be a better way, right?
The Old Service Model: Hurry Up and Wait
Let’s get something straight: auto service shops do a lot to solve our car troubles. Parts and service professionals want to move cars through the shop quickly. Doing so lets customers get on with their days and allows the shop to service more vehicles. But there are times when a car just has to be kept.
For independent repair shops, overnight stays are often caused by a part that the shop doesn’t have on hand. Due to the cost of inventory, most shops carry as few parts as possible – usually the most common and fastest-moving items. Anything else is ordered from OEM dealers and aftermarket parts stores. When a shop has to order a part, the service provider has to make a decision about how to best use employees’ time. Should they send someone out to pick up the part, or should they hold the car overnight and work on other vehicles in the meantime? It’s an obvious choice for the repair shop’s bottom line: make sure the valuable time of a trained and well-paid mechanic is spent working on cars. That could inconvenience a customer who’s stuck without his or her car for another day, but the costs of stopping work completely are simply too high.
Auto parts stores do their part, too. Most parts stores have their own delivery drivers and vehicles that head out in the morning to make deliveries. But parts stores have to optimize routes. A repair shop could end up on the end of the route – and not get orders as quickly. Then there are hard cut-off times to make sure delivery can be met before the end of the day. When the delivery truck is full before the cut-off time, capacity becomes a problem, since the parts dealer typically won’t have a way to easily add another truck.
It’s a pressure-packed environment where multiple dealers or retailers are literally racing to beat the clock. It’s not uncommon for repair shops to place the same order for a part with multiple vendors, see who delivers fastest, and then return the “late” deliveries. The cost of maintaining a fleet of vehicles that can make a fast delivery for every kind of part and order becomes unmanageable quickly in this hypercompetitive environment.
All of these scenarios create friction and poor experiences for everyone, including the end customer. If the parts and services ecosystem had a better way to get parts where they need to go more quickly, there would be fewer wasted hours spent waiting on car repairs to be completed. Same-day auto parts delivery is the ideal scenario for customers and businesses alike.
The New Model: On-Demand Delivery for Auto Parts
Thanks to today’s crowdsourced delivery models, there’s no need for repair shops to wait more than a few hours for an out-of-stock part. As long as they can get the part ordered, sending out for pick-up is as easy as ordering a pizza.
Time and time again, Roadie’s crowdsourced delivery model has proven to be a reliable, affordable option for shipping car parts of all sizes to wherever they need to go. Our network of more than 150,000 crowdsourced drivers taps into unused space in passenger vehicles that are already on the road. Because our drivers are already heading in the right direction, Roadie can get much-needed parts to auto shops in just a couple of hours.
Local auto parts and service stores can also tap into the latent capacity that Roadie leverages. Instead of maintaining a fleet of fixed delivery assets – all with limited capacity and complex routing needs – Roadie allows you to flex your delivery capacity with customer demand. Whether an order needs to be delivered in the next few hours or next day, we can get it where it needs to go. And since our drivers are already “on the way,” they can make deliveries up to 70 miles, allowing you to expand your same-day delivery radius and serve more shops.
And if you’re a national brand, Roadie’s nationwide coverage allows you to simplify same-day auto parts delivery. Automotive parts retailers partner with Roadie to add flexibility to their existing logistics network. With a dynamic solution that flexes capacity based on demand, we empower companies with nationwide footprints to solve delivery requests that would be expensive and even impossible to accomplish with other delivery services. Instead of the headache and risk that comes with managing a patchwork network of regional couriers, national brands can easily create a competitive advantage for each and every purchase. The wait is over, same-day auto parts delivery has arrived.
Competing with Frictionless Delivery Service
Amazon changed the game for everyone. Buyers across industries now expect frictionless, fast and convenient buying experiences. That’s true from product selection right down to having a reliable, consistent delivery.
There’s an opportunity for auto parts sellers to meet these new expectations. By creating a more efficient delivery network that gets things where they need to go faster, companies selling OEM or after-market parts stand to win big.
By partnering with Roadie, seizing that opportunity is simple. Once you’ve placed an order, our platform finds the best available driver based on the pickup and delivery locations, product, and delivery time. The mechanic or customer receiving the order can follow the progress of the delivery and plan their workflow more efficiently based on a fast, reliable delivery time. No more uncertainty, no more waiting on delivery trucks to begin routes.
For the auto parts distributor, there’s no delivery vehicle to maintain or insurance to buy. Roadie provides a completely scalable, cost-effective, reliable delivery model. For auto parts shops, managing deliveries is automated, simplified and streamlined.
By creating better customer experiences with a more efficient and responsive same-day auto parts delivery service, companies in the parts space can position themselves to outshine others in an increasingly competitive market.
