Adaptation of Digital Automotive Services During a Pandemic

The automotive sector is among those significantly affected by the pandemic. This encourages adjustments made by technology players in this sector.

Adjustment of health protocols is a must. In addition, several innovations have also started to be carried out. Several players in the industry share stories with DailySocial about how their business is currently and the adjustments made.

Sell, buy and rent vehicles

Seva, Movic, and OLX Autos share about their service situation and their business views on the automotive technology industry market, particularly for selling, buying and renting vehicles.

OLX Autos, led by Johnny Widodo, previously named Belimobilgue. They remain optimistic that they can survive and serve their customers even in the pandemic situation. So far they claim to have operated in 7 cities with 100 inspection centers and 2000 partners Dealer. Conditions that had weakened in the early months of the pandemic they predicted would soon rise.

"We predict that the used car industry will take 2-3 months to recover in line with the projected demand that gradually increases. The fact that the government has started to open up economic activities is one of the factors that we believe will drive the industry's recovery in the next 2-3 months, ' said Johnny.

In line with this optimism, they expanded their inspection network to Solo on August 15, 2020 yesterday. Solo is the 8th city visited by OLX Autos, complementing the previous cities, namely Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Medan, and Solo.

OLX Autos also launched several innovations aimed at increasing the convenience of its customers while still complying with health protocols. One of them presents the Home Inspection service. This service allows OLX Autos inspectors to come to the house and carry out the inspection process. These inspectors have previously been confirmed to be in sterile conditions.

"There is a shift in customer preferences that will prefer private cars over using public transportation, [..] allowing customers to be able to maintain their health and personal hygiene more carefully," explained Johnny.

Head of Division AstraDigital Kemas Henry Kurniawan shared the conditions of their two services in this category, Seva and Movic. From Henry's confession, both had experienced a significant decline at the beginning. However, changing patterns of community needs create new demands and opportunities.

"I focus onperformance Q2 2020, For Seva online overall the number is down by almost 50% and fans shifting to a used car. Movic and Cariparkir drop almost 70% considering that tourism, business, airport and mall activities are limited. But we discovered new potential for commits with customer us," said Henry.

The new opportunity in question is a change in the pattern of public transportation. The PSBB and fears of contracting the virus on public transport have made the demand for weekly and monthly rentals in Movic increase. Combination work pattern work from home and work from office alternately make this trend increase. Not wanting to miss a moment, Movic welcomes by presenting weekly and monthly packages with a lock-off model. This change finally helped the number of transactions in Movic slowly rise, improving.

"Before Covid-19, the composition of people rent the car is 70-80% used driver. Now, because of Covid-19 reverse, [more popular] lock off. [..] So it turns out there is demand that person rent weekly vehicle, when he comes to work. The reason is to avoid using public transportation," Henry continued.

As for Seva, Henry explained there demand for buying a used car. The trigger is the same, the desire to have a car as an alternative to public transportation during the pandemic and the PSBB policy. For this reason, Seva began exploring the purchase of a used car by providing options that suit your needs budget customer.

"Our job is to accompany customers during this pandemic. For the current Seva, see demand there, we start to focus on used cars. There are several features that we have prepared to make it easier for customers to get used cars. For Movic, because of the concept marketplace rental, we will optimize the function rental. We will focus on making it easy for customers across the city. Coveragewe add. The focus rental, use driver or release the key and airport transfers," added Henry.

Vehicle maintenance

In the automotive industry, digital services are not limited to selling, buying and renting. A is also a special service that targets maintenance, parking, vehicle washing to the house, to the purchase of spare parts. This sector is filled with names such as Mechanic, HepiCar, Carfix, Mobiklin and others.

Just like selling, buying, and renting vehicles, this segment has also been affected by the pandemic. With some business adjustments, a number of services are still running. Hepicar, for example, with all its operational adjustments actually expanded into new areas. This is done while maintaining service commitments.

"Strict service protocols are applied to service operator partners, such as the obligation to use masks and gloves when working, always maintain a safe distance, always wash hands before and after completing services, and actively communicate with consumers regarding restrictions on entering certain areas," CEO said HepiCar Nurhadiyanto.

The Mobiklin car wash service also made some adjustments. Although they claim their business is not significantly affected by the pandemic, innovations in car cleaning and maintenance services are still being carried out.

Mobiklin CEO Adnan Gadi told DailySocial explained, "So far nothing impact significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the development of Mobiklin. Public awareness to maintain cleanliness is increasing. On the other hand, people do not want to do activities outside the home, so services at home (home service) is a solution without abandoning the recommended health protocols."