In the mad rush to get his fledgling startup off the ground, Sachin Shenoy found precious little time to look after his motorcycle and get it serviced regularly. He soon realised that this was a problem faced by thousands of others, and decided to do something about it. The result was Let’s Service, one of the many doorstep solutions for motorcycle servicing that are now available in Bengaluru.
“We decided to help people get their vehicles looked after by authorised service centres, and provide an on-demand pickup and drop facility for our users,” says Sachin, who is expanding the service to Mumbai and Pune as well. The company works exclusively with manufacturer service centres, a tie-up which works well for vehicle manufacturers, who often see buyers abandon their service centres for third party ones after the free service window is completed. “The idea is to replicate the experience of going to the service centre, and we work with customers and service executives to get the whole process speeded up,” says Sachin.
The fact that authorised manufacturer service centres often struggle with large volumes is the hurdle Drivojoy, another startup that has its team of skilled mechanics who handle the service duties, seeks to overcome.
“With the large number of two wheelers plying in Bengaluru, even tapping into one percent of that share is a worthwhile endeavour. So when the brainstorming happened for an idea to implement, this was the one we went with,” says Aman Singhal, co-founder and CEO of Drivojoy, adding that the company sends mechanics to the spot and does the service at the doorstep, with a team of runners delivering the required parts to the location if necessary. “It is only for large-scale work that we transport the vehicle to our garage,” he says.
Drivojoy, which assures a turnaround time of 90 minutes for a service, also works with companies that have large delivery fleets, which see high mileage and therefore require more maintenance.
For Rakesh Vaddadi, CEO of gear6.in, another service provider that works with authorised service centres, the reason for starting the company was the fragmentation of the motorcycle segment in India.
“There is a huge disparity in quality of service and the fee charged, and having experienced this firsthand with our own bikes, we decided to address the problem and bring convenience to customers by integrating technology into the process,” says Rakesh.
On an average, these services rack up around 30-40 requests a day, with the demand peaking during weekends. Both Drivojoy and gear6 are currently focussing on the Bengaluru market, with Aman and Rakesh stressing that it is important to get the processes right before expanding. “We are currently targeting Metro cities where working class citizens rarely find time to take proper care of their vehicles. However, with some modifications, this model can be adopted in smaller markets too. The newness of the concept and the operational logistics are the biggest challenges we are facing at the moment,” Rakesh explains.
As far as the utility and the future of the idea go, Aman explains that nobody knows the outcome. “With startups, you never know. We face challenges like onboarding mechanics and showing people the vision we have. Developing the skills required in this line of work is another one of our goals. We believe we are trying to solve a genuine problem, and while there is always trial and error involved, we do our best to fix whatever can be fixed.”
Options galore
Drivojoy provides users with the option of an Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC), as a cost effective method to keep vehicles serviced on a regular schedule. Both gear6 and Let’s Service have the option of booking a service through their mobile app, adding an extra dimension of convenience. Between them, the services also offer options such as discount coupons and referral programmes.
