Bridgestone invests in Wrench mobile repair

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bridgestone Americas Inc. is focusing on creating "concierge-style experiences" for retail consumers by partnering with Wrench Inc., a mobile vehicle services and technology company.

Bridgestone recently made a 10% minority investment in Seattle-based Wrench, with plans to offer customers the choice of having their vehicle service needs performed at one of Bridgestone's 2,200-plus company-owned stores or by a Wrench mobile unit at the customer's home or office.

The Wrench mobile service, available in about 40 markets in the U.S., offers an online appointment platform along with vehicle maintenance, repair and inspection services, but not tires. Bridgestone's recently launched Firestone Direct mobile service will handle tire installation and related services in the 10 markets it will be serving by the end of the year.

"We see this as complementary, ultimately focused on providing the right breadth of services," Brian Goldstine, president of mobility solutions, Bridgestone Americas, told Tire Business.

"So we see this as creating a better experience for the consumer, providing them more service options and that we'll be able to bring more people into our service network. We see this as a good thing for our current service network, our company-owned stores, our affiliated service network partners, as well as our own Firestone Direct," he said.

"We want to be able to provide the broad set of vehicle services, care services, that are needed and provide the opportunity for servicing of those when they're needed, where the consumer would like to get them serviced — either at a brick-and-mortar location or a mobile environment either at home or at work — and also be able to pay for them however they would like to, considering new business models such as subscription."

Wrench said it will make its nationwide Lemon Squad pre-purchase vehicle inspection service available on the Firestone website by October, while a pilot program with its Wrench mobile maintenance vehicles supporting Firestone stores will be launched in November in Seattle, Sacramento and Phoenix.

Wrench customers will be able to book advanced vehicle service appointments at their local Firestone Complete Auto Care stores, and existing Bridgestone retail customers will be able to book future mobile service appointments, the companies said.

"Our partnership with Bridgestone will help accelerate the industry's digital transformation. This allows both companies to expand our customer offerings, while growing our technologies and vehicle care expertise together," Wrench CEO Ed Petersen said.

Bridgestone would not disclose the monetary value of its investment, but said the 10% ownership investment is an example of the tire maker's "pursuit of concierge services for personal mobility and fleet customers, which includes the recently launched RESOLV platform for subscription-based vehicle maintenance, and the company's Firestone Direct mobile tire and service business."

Both companies said they are still working out the details of the partnership, including the online platform, marketing and consumer incentives.

Mr. Petersen told Tire Business that he sees the partnership as mutually beneficial.

His company's Lemon Squad, which inspects vehicles for used car buyers, could find things that need repaired or replaced and the customers can then be referred to Wrench mobile service or a Firestone store. Meanwhile, the Firestone store can refer customers to the Wrench mobile service if the customer doesn't want to make a trip to the store or if the store's schedule is full.

Founded in 2016, Wrench started offering its mobile services on the West Coast and then moved along the southern border and into the Midwest and Northeast. It now operates in about 42 metro areas, with plans to expand to 50 markets by year-end and into 100 markets by the end of next year.

The Wrench mobile service vans are manned by about 140 Wrench employees who are ASE-certified and can perform about 85% of the mechanical services offered in a automotive service shop, he said.

The Wrench online platform starts the process by asking the customer to request a service or present an automotive problem. The platform determines the problem, what is required to fix the problem, how much it will cost and then assigns a technician to address the issue and schedules the appointment, Mr. Petersen said.

Wrench also services light-vehicle fleet customers.

"So with the mobile solutions and all the preventative maintenance that goes on with fleet vehicles, we go in and do that after-hours," Mr. Petersen said. "We eliminate any downtime in their fleet vehicles. We come to them, we go in after hours, we hammer out all the preventative maintenance stuff and they are running their business as if their vehicles never had to leave the yard."

The company's Lemon Squad is a nationwide network of independent mechanics who conduct pre-purchase used-car inspections. Mr. Petersen said this business starts the relationship with a customer who may need mobile mechanical service and maintenance in the future.

Mr. Petersen said that when the company launched in 2016, "one of the things we saw was this movement to a virtual dealer-type setting."

He said Wrench partnered with Carvana L.L.C., the online automobile dealership that has changed the way some people purchase vehicles.

"With that change in landscape, you're going to have a change in how you service vehicles and how convenient it is. We set out to design a technology platform that could service any type of need a consumer or a business might have with their vehicles. … We want to remove the hassle of vehicle ownership."

While several mobile vehicle-service companies have cropped up over the past several years, Mr. Petersen said competition hasn't intensified yet.

"There is an abundance of demand in this space. … The space is so big and there is so much demand out there that we don't really see overlap or taking customers from A or B. It really hasn't happened that way. I do think that as we continue to grow, there will be a clear leader."

He said the Bridgestone partnership will elevate his company's positioning in the market.

"It really gives you a big, big push in brand recognition and brand credibility. You have a company like Bridgestone that is standing behind Wrench and it really elevates that process to become that standard.

"We see an ecosystem developing that runs off a very technology-forward platform for both customers — consumers, businesses and fleets — but also on the technician side," Mr. Petersen said.

"Our technicians run their full day from their phones on the Wrench app. They get pricing quotes, assistance on facing what is wrong with the vehicles, what's required, how long will it take, routing schedules, directions on how to get there, how they manage their time — all those sorts of things. Having that true really technology-forward approach to both the service side and the consumer/customer side is really important."

The pandemic and the subsequent boon in home-delivery services has been a tail-wind for mobile vehicle-services that will continue due to customers enjoying the convenience of the concept, he said.

"I don't think it's pandemic-related. I think it's more ultra convenience has really developed. I think it started with Uber, quite frankly, and it's 'Hey I want to hit a button and have someone show up and take me somewhere. I want to know how long you're going to be here and I don't want to have to deal with complicated payments.'…

"That's moved on to everything from, 'I want to watch a movie on demand by hitting a button on Netflix' to 'I want to order my groceries' and everything in between," he said.

"I don't think this is any different. I think there is this culture of convenience that has developed out there where people expect an expert in the field at which they're trying to solve a problem they're having, to be able to show up on their own terms and on their schedule, solve the problem in a tech-forward way and then move on.

"And I don't think that's going away. I think it's accelerating and I think the expectation of that is accelerating. You combine that with the fact that just basic vehicle maintenance and repair is getting harder and harder to do, the dealers are moving farther out, the shops are harder to find and they're moving away from the population centers and it's just more difficult to do.

"So I think there is a growing demand, and not even a demand but an expectation, of on-demand mobile services.

"We think the combination of a mobile service with a very tech-forward platform that is designed explicitly to deliver mobile services is a great win for vehicle owners throughout the U.S.," Mr. Petersen said.

"Customers are definitely interested in being able to have more flexibility in terms of how service is provided to them and I believe the pandemic has only accelerated that desire, that need," Mr. Goldstine said.

"And so being able to give them that opportunity to get that service where they want it, when they want it, ... that's definitely something we've seen an increase in," he said.

"I think as customers start to experience the convenience of having service come to them, I think we will only continue to see that grow as it is in so many other industries. So it was a macro-trend before the pandemic, now we've seen it accelerate during the pandemic, but we continue to believe it will continue post-pandemic," Mr. Goldstine said.