Mobile maintenance helps build a customer-focused service ecosystem

Mobile maintenance is growing. Mobile maintenance provider Cox Automotive boasts more than 850 mobile service vehicles and employs more than 1,400 mobile fleet technicians. Another mobile maintenance provider, Torque by Ryder, serves markets in 26 states—and counting. Epika Fleet Services acquired C&R Fleet Services in January to support its expanding mobile fleet services business. The list goes on.

OEMs are taking notice of these third-party service providers and building up their own operations to grab some market share. Ford Pro is working overtime.

At Ford’s commercial vehicle-focused division, “the customer is at the center of everything we do,” said Travis Hunt, GM of parts and services transformation at Ford Pro. And with “transformation” in his title, Hunt is among those working to make Ford Pro an all-encompassing ecosystem for commercial customers. Mobile maintenance is one way to make that happen.

“What we're trying to do for our Ford pro customer is remove some of the barriers and pain points that the fleet managers experience when they're dealing with multiple vehicles and multiple drivers,” Hunt told FleetOwner. “One of the things that we knew that we could do was ... offer mobile service.”

Improved customer uptime requires a physical and technological transformation

Ford Pro is widening its service offerings—and that includes physically—by expanding its footprint, and technologically, by leveraging the millions of data points generated by connected Ford fleet vehicles.

Currently, Ford Pro has more than 750 service centers dedicated to commercial vehicles up to Class 7. Among these service centers are Ford Pro Elite Commercial Service facilities that operate extended hours and employ technicians with specialized training. The number of these Elite centers is growing. Finally, Ford Pro’s mobile service fleet includes more than 800 service techs out on the road today.

However, even with a growing physical footprint, a key aspect of improving uptime for commercial customers lies in vehicle data.

“All of Ford’s vehicles are now connected,” Hunt said, referring to MY 2020 and newer Ford vehicles. “How do we take those physical facilities and combine them with the data coming off the vehicle and our own Ford Pro resources to create a better experience for our customers? A great example of this is Ford Live.”

Ford Live is the brand’s “connected uptime system,” Hunt explained, which takes data from the vehicle and service data (from both mobile and brick-and-mortar service centers) to understand what’s going on with the vehicle. Ford Pro specialists can see all of this play out in real-time and can remotely step in with expert advice if needed during the repair, Hunt explained. This monitoring also helps Ford technicians improve repair times as they have more in-depth knowledge of the vehicle and its maintenance needs.

And all of this takes place behind the scenes without customer involvement, Hunt said.

Enhancing the maintenance experience

Adding to the mobile maintenance fleet was necessary for Ford Pro to build better customer service experiences.

Not only were Ford Pro’s customers asking for a mobile maintenance solution, Hunt said, but building the solution within Ford Pro also made sense for other reasons. A physical service location has its limitations; it can only accommodate so many service bays and so many technicians.

Brick-and-mortar locations are also limited in their opening hours: It’s more feasible to employ a third shift mobile maintenance tech in one mobile maintenance van than keep a service center open for 24 hours.

But Hunt said adopting a mobile service fleet doesn’t take away from the service centers—it simply enhances that offering for the customer.

“We know that we have an incredible network of dealerships that have invested tremendously in adding value to their physical facility with the services that they offer,” Hunt said. Adding mobile service to the equation is simply Ford Pro’s way of “evolving that into going outside of the walls and to the customer."

Dinsmore Landscape fleet — Dinsmore Landscape relies on Ford Pro's mobile maintenance when it can't get its vehicle into the shop. Joey Cosentino, Dinsmore Landscape’s director of operations, said it saves time.

Going to the customer is something that fleet leaders, such as those with Dinsmore Landscape, find extremely valuable because of the time it saves.

“They come right to our door, and it’s fast,” Joey Cosentino, Dinsmore Landscape’s director of operations, told FleetOwner. “As an operations manager, I often look at ways to save time and be more efficient.”

Dinsmore Landscape is a family-owned California-based business with 65 vehicles—from F-150s to F-550s. Ford Pro’s mobile maintenance offering is able to service each one.

Cosentino calls mobile maintenance “a time saver.” And according to Hunt, that was another Ford Pro goal. Because mobile service repairs aren’t limited to regular business hours or ensuring there’s an open bay at the service center, it’s able to accomplish repairs more quickly and conveniently—not to mention the immense data available for each vehicle through Ford Live.

Some businesses even elect to have their vehicles maintained during nighttime hours to ensure work is never interrupted, Elizabeth Kraft, Ford Pro senior communications manager, told FleetOwner. These fleet leaders and drivers return to their depot the next morning with a fleet of vehicles that are ready to roll.

While Cosentino admitted that his company typically sends vehicles into the service center for repairs and maintenance, the occasions Dinsmore Landscape uses Ford Pro’s mobile service offerings make a big impact—so much so that he said the ability to provide mobile maintenance will contribute to his decision to purchase fleet vehicles in the future.

For now, “Ford Pro is the only car manufacturer that offers this option,” he said.