HILLSBORO, Ore. — It was the beginning of 2019. At the time, COVID-19 was a seasonal malady affecting a few countries abroad.
Mobile tire services, particularly those for commercial fleets, had been around for years, but serial entrepreneur Derek Naidoo had another idea: Take mobile tire service to another level.
The focus of his business was going to be passenger and light commercial vehicles, especially delivery-service vehicles, the number of which skyrocketed as the virus intensified and spread to North America, as online shopping became the norm.
"My attitude was, well, who's going to service those vehicles, and how can we minimize the downtime of those vehicles?" Naidoo told Tire Business. "Downtime is critical to those vehicles."
So he created GoMobile Tires. Today, the company said it is the largest privately owned mobile-tire servicing franchise in the U.S., with 47 franchises in 23 states. Each Mercedes-Benz Sprinter cargo van — designed by Naidoo himself, a former automotive engineer — services an average of 120 clients per month, including retail fleets and dealer markets.
"The idea is that instead of you going to a tire shop and spending a couple of hours in a Tire Kingdom or Discount Tire — whatever the case be — we could do your tires while we're having this interview," Naidoo said. "Ours could be done in your driveway."
Each van is equipped with automatic oil-changing systems, bulk oil for fleets and mounting and balancing equipment, and techs have the ability to adjust wheel alignment. As of October, vans also carry replacement batteries. Corghi USA Inc. supplies the touchless tire changers.
Now, Naidoo is on a mission to expand the business. His short-term goal is to reach 100 vans by year-end 2025, up from 68 vans now servicing parts of the U.S. and Canada.
He has made a blueprint of the entire process. Eventually, he intends to expand internationally — with his native South Africa likely being the first landing spot outside of North America.
"The idea behind it is to sell off master franchise licenses to different parts of the world, and they can just replicate the same thing in their in their countries," Naidoo said.
GoMobile sells three types of franchise:
- Independent investor: a franchise for someone interested in owning their own business;
- Independent tire shop dealers: a franchise for an existing tire shop owner who wants to extend his or her model to mobile. More than half of the current franchises fall under this type; and
- Fleets: A franchise to service, for example, Amazon.com vehicles. GoMobile has 16 franchisees who are Amazon Delivery Service Partners (DSP). Typically, Amazon DSP owners will purchase a franchise to service between 400 and 500 vans, Naidoo said.
"That gives us a good balance," Naidoo said. "... It opens it up to both the fleet and the retail and the wholesale tire dealers."
He said a large part of the business involves installing tires and wheels sold by online retailers. The retailer sells products as well as the installation service, which GoMobile provides.
The company is especially targeting brick-and-mortar tire dealers for a franchise. He said dealers usually service customers in a seven-mile radius of the shop, due in part because of the competitiveness and number of tire shops in most areas.
A GoMobile franchise can expand their service area to as much as 50 miles. A retail van can make roughly seven calls per eight-hour day, while a fleet van can handle around 40 vehicles per day.
"This an intriguing opportunity for the brick-and-mortars who say they want to do mobile but may not know how to start it," said Devin Barr, vice president at MBT Marketing, who is working with Naidoo to expand the business. "(GoMobile) has the back-end technology and the kind of integration that makes sense for (tire dealers)."
The cost for a typical franchise is $230,000, a sum that includes around $160,000 for a fully equipped van and a $40,000 franchise fee, which provides the franchisee an exclusive territory for a decade.
If a franchisee requests an all-wheel-drive or 4x4 van, it adds a few thousand to the cost.
The remaining $30,000 is an initial advertising fee that gets invested into that particular market for the franchise.
Naidoo suggests franchisees have about three months' worth of operating capital, or another $60,000 or so, until the operation gets established. That, he said is well defined in the franchise disclosure document and the franchise agreement.
Naidoo said he designed the vans to emulate a tire shop environment, making "sure we took some very specifics into account. Ergonomics. Air flow right down to power utilization and consumption."
To date, GoMobile has supplied 26 outfitted vans to Reinalt-Thomas Corp. for use in its Discount Tire/America's Tire mobile-tire installation service, which is available at select Discount Tire locations.
In addition, Naidoo said as of Oct. 1, GoMobile has been integrated into Goodyear's national fleet program, including Goodyear government accounts.
Naidoo said the company has developed an app that helps with scheduling and routing, and includes tire scanning.
"Scheduling is one of the most critical things about this business," he said. "If you don't schedule it right, that means you're gonna do a whole lot of windshield time. ...
"We have to always make sure we get the routing correctly, making sure the franchisee's technicians drive as little between their appointments to optimize efficiency."
The GoMobile franchise network is buying nearly $800,000 a month from major manufacturers/brands such as Bridgestone, Goodyear, Falken, Nexen and Toyo. The company expects to eclipse $1 million in tire purchases a month by the second quarter of 2025.
Naidoo said he believes mobile installation will continue to increase because of two factors: convenience and cost.
Tire pricing, he said, is reasonable: "We price-match Costco on tires."
And with limited ability to perform other services, customers can be sure they won't be sold other services.
"What you purchase is what your purchase," he said.
Naidoo, who has been self-employed for nearly two decades, has identified several regions for growth, including the upper Northwest; California; Georgia, especially Atlanta; and Massachusetts.
And, he said, look for GoMobile franchises to pop up soon in English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. He is also looking at the Netherlands.
"If I told you 10 years ago that you could sit where you are and order any food that you want, and it'll be delivered to your home, you'll have probably laughed at me, right? Naidoo said.
"So it's the same scenario. Five years ago when we started talking to people about mobile tire shops, they laughed at us. It's not that way anymore."