Natomas company wants to make car maintenance as easy as ordering Uber Eats
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Natomas firm plans home and office oil-change pilot in Sacramento region.
- Company uses proprietary tech to route technicians and ensure stocked supplies.
- Program targets passenger cars as an initial on-site service despite added travel costs.
On a recent Monday morning, two executives at a Natomas company commiserated about the poor experiences they’d had over the weekend, getting the oil changed in their family cars.
“Everybody’s in that waiting room. You’re drinking that old coffee. Then the guy comes in with the high-pressure sale, trying to sell you everything you don’t need,” said Michael Quimby, chief operating officer of Kooner Fleet Management Solutions. “It just wasn’t a very customer-centric experience.”
Quimby and the other executive — company founder Gary Kooner — had the infrastructure to offer car owners an alternative. Their firm offers preventative and roadside maintenance for large delivery and logistics companies. The company has operations in 28 states, and technology they use to manage maintenance for the truck fleets.
They hatched a plan to pilot a direct-to-consumer service, with a goal of saving customers a trip to the garage. They’d offer oil changes and other preventative maintenance at car owners’ homes and offices in a new pilot program, initially confined to the Sacramento region.
They are ready to launch. The program — Kooner Mobile AutoCare — will begin Monday, Feb. 16, according to a spokesperson, and is accessible through the company’s website.
For a company that has until now specialized in servicing large vehicles — from delivery vans to tractor trailers — the program marks an initial foray into the world of passenger cars. But they believe they can offer customers a simple, straightforward process of requesting a visit from a trained technician — “as easy as when they’re ordering Uber Eats,” Quimby said.
Available within 24-48 hours, and weekends
The company’s leaders will have expenses that traditional garages don’t, such as gas and wages for their employees to drive to their customers. They plan to pilot the program in a 60 to 90-minute radius of the Natomas headquarters. But Quimby still believes they can compete. The company has proprietary technology that optimizes technicians’ routes, and helps ensure that they have the supplies they need before leaving for a visit.
Plus, Quimby believes the company can beat the other players on customer service. When the company did a “secret shopper” test on a competitor, they were unimpressed.
“We’re going to be very, very professional about it. They’ll be in uniform. We’re going to be training our technicians on client service skills,” he said.
The company will aim to reach customers within 24 to 48 hours of a request, and its services will be available on weekends, said Ricky Bains, vice president.
They aim to keep prices in the range of $100 to $200 for a basic visit that would include an oil change, safety inspection and fluid checks.
Possible subscription model
In the future, they think employers could offer the services as a benefit to workers, and hire the company to send technicians to company parking garages on a regular basis. There’s also discussion of launching a subscription model.
The company will evaluate the program after 30 days. If it succeeds, it would be another evolution for a company that was founded in 2016 as a breakdown service with one truck. The firm grew over the years, and began providing on-site maintenance for lumber, food service, construction and delivery trucks — a more reliable business than waiting for cars to break down.
They’ll start the program with a couple of technicians. If it is profitable, Quimby said, the company has the resources to expand readily.
“Hopefully it’s wildly successful,” Quimby said. “We can ramp quickly on this.”
