Making fixed ops a dealership profit centre

According to JD Power, vehicle pickup accounts for 19% of your total CSI score. But that number itself doesn’t tell the whole story. The pickup experience has an outsized impact on customer perception; one bad transportation experience can completely overshadow excellent service work and a friendly adviser interaction.

Consider a common scenario: A customer brings their vehicle in for service. The service adviser is great. The work is completed perfectly and on time. But then comes the shuttle wait. The van is out making drops at a few other locations across the city. By the time that shuttle finally arrives back at the dealership, any goodwill from the service experience has evaporated. The customer is frustrated, they’ve lost half their day, and they’re already thinking about alternatives for their next service visit. Maybe there’s a dealership closer to home. Or maybe that independent shop down the street isn’t so bad after all.

The problem compounds when factoring in the realities of staffing. If 2 porters call out sick on a busy Saturday, the capacity to move customers drops dramatically. When a porter gets pulled away for a parts run or to help out the sales department, customer wait times increase. These operational constraints don’t just affect customer satisfaction; they also directly impact a dealership’s ability to turn bays and generate revenue.

The contrast with modern rideshare options is striking. In the Google reviews of dealerships that implement services like Uber, 90% to 95% specifically mention the technology platform, with overwhelmingly positive 5-star ratings. Customers are going out of their way to praise something they used to complain about consistently.

Transportation constraints don’t just frustrate customers; they also artificially limit your service department’s revenue potential. With 88% of dealerships reporting hiring struggles, you can’t afford to waste a single hour of available technician time.

The real-world impact of making a change can be dramatic. One dealership averaging around 60 repair orders per month implemented Uber for Business and saw an immediate increase of 10 repair orders per day. Not per month or even per week—per day. The reason? Vehicles stopped sitting in service bays waiting for customers to be picked up or dropped off.

Traditional shuttle-dependent operations create multiple capacity constraints:

Scheduling rigidity: Customers need rides, so they can only book appointments around shuttle availability and routes. This forces service advisers to turn away customers who want time slots outside the shuttle schedule, leaving bays empty during off-peak hours.

Pressure on technicians: Shuttle schedules create artificial deadlines. Technicians feel pressured to rush work to meet shuttle departure times, which can impact the quality of the work.

Inability to accommodate walk-ins: When a customer shows up without an appointment, the immediate question becomes “How will they get home?” Without flexible transportation options, you’re forced to turn away revenue or have customers wait for hours.

Limited same-day service: Customers who need quick-turnaround service often can’t commit if they don’t know when they’ll get a ride home and back.

Central helps eliminate these constraints. Customers can drop off their vehicles, immediately have the service department request them a ride, go about their day, and request a ride back when it’s convenient for them—not whenever the shuttle schedule allows. The flexibility transforms the customer experience and your operational capacity.