- For small businesses, keeping vehicles available and in good safe operating condition is critical.
- High dependency on the vehicles you own for utility and brand awareness is as important.
- With only one or a handful of vehicles, businesses have no redundancy when vehicles are down and have to use costly rental alternatives
- The main trends in transportation are still targeting mostly consumers and large fleet operators. Your micro-fleet remains unserved.
As a small business owner, you keep hearing about advancements in transportation opportunities but have a business to run and usually no time or no financial means to figure out how to take advantage of them.
The main trends are:
Electrification – transition from combustion engine to electric or hybrid engines. EVs (Electric Vehicles) are seeing a much lower maintenance downtime which is good for business, but are still expensive to acquire. They also offer very little in the area of light commercial vehicles like pick-up trucks and Vans for small businesses. Tesla has had several vehicles drive close to 500,000 miles with minor updates to all parts but the battery.
Autonomous vehicles – the promise of vehicles that require no drivers to operate them, sounds incredible. Imagine you own a flower shop or a dry cleaning business and want to provide pickup and delivery service to your customers, and have no need to pay drivers to drive your vans. The efficiency and cost savings are going to be incredible with driverless vehicles.
New ownership models – we all got introduced to the subscription economy. You no longer need to purchase and implement expensive software to run your business, like quick-books or your marketing or security camera systems. You can get what you need for a monthly payment. Same with your mobile phones and other devices. This trend is expanding to the consumer vehicle industry with various players like the main car manufacturers experimenting with subscription based car operations. Here again, small business owners with light commercial vehicles, have been left behind the trend.
As a business owner, keeping your vehicles running can mean the difference between having your crew on a construction site or not. Having to spend days in a repair shop for tire rotation, maintenance or repair. Having to let your customers down since you can’t get their dog for a walk because the van is heading to the shop and a rental will take hours to get going. Unlike large fleet owners, you have no fleet of dozens or hundreds of vehicles to draw on. It’s just you, your crew and a few vans or trucks.
As mentioned, the industry and transportation solutions are evolving. As consumers, we start seeing more vehicles, both fully electric or hybrid, being offered, and with the choice, the prices are starting to come down.
Little though is changing for small fleets. Whether you own one truck or a fleet of ten vehicles, old school vehicles with high cost of acquisition and regular maintenance schedule, are still your only option.
What is the alternative? How will you decide on your next vehicle or fleet decision with so many moving parts and options, each forcing you to pay down thousands of dollars and lock in for the automotive technology of the past 100+ years?
Fundamentally the car dealership is mis-aligned with your objectives. You want cost effective continuous operation for your business and they want to move the inventory on their dealership car lots. Dealers will happily lock you into a five year lease with no way out as new car offerings are made available to you.
So, how is all this change going to impact your business? Try and re-imagine your business with these points in mind and let us know your thoughts.
“About moshn mobility:
moshn mobility is a small-fleet vehicle service and fleet management software with a low upfront cost and service that is tailored to keeping small businesses running.
We are building solutions that are 100% small business minded and developing our vehicle offerings, services and software to the needs of local business owners and their community. Check out our blog and on facebook, instagram and other social media platforms. Contact us at hello@moshn.ai”