28.07.2022

Under the hood: how we maintain our fleet

One of the beautiful things about car-sharing is that it removes the stress of having to maintain your own private car. Gone are those worries over what kind of expensive, yet essential job you’re going to be charged for next – we call this one annual ‘MOT anxiety’ – and the dreaded trips to the garage to keep your car roadworthy. When you opt to get around with car-sharing, the maintenance of the fleet is handled by the operator. Whether that’s switching to winter tyres when the temperature plummets, topping up the engine oil or ensuring that the windscreen washer fluid is filled up - it's all taken care of. To ensure our cars are always in tip-top shape for our community, 15 technicians work at SHARE NOW. Here’s how they maintain Europe’s largest car-sharing fleet.

How do we manage repair jobs?

Our technicians go into the office early in the morning and check the orders in our custom Installation And Service App – known in-house as ISA or ISABelle. This is where all the jobs that need to be done on our cars are listed by the local operations teams. Our technicians then plan a route, pack the right tools and car keys, and set off to check on the first car. Jobs are logged in ISA when cars need to be refuelled, cleaned, or repaired. Jobs can be anything from topping up fluids, removing trash from the cars, filling up the petrol tank or repairing whatever doesn't work. For larger repairs, cars are brought in. If it can't be fixed in-house, it will be taken to a repair shop.

What kinds of challenges do we face?

Airports can be problematic. Most drivers are not as familiar with the parking facilities as they would be in their home city and sometimes the local technology is not always up to speed. At many airports, there can be 90 or more SHARE NOW parking spots spread across multiple parking locations, but if a customer parks in the wrong parking garage, our technicians have to move the car. The wide range of car-sharing cars from multiple manufacturers also poses a challenge to our technicians. With models from BMW, MINI, Fiat, smart, Citroën, Peugeot and more, our technicians have to be experts on a wide range of vehicles from a range of different car-makers.

What kinds of things do we find on the road?

All of our technicians have their fair share of stories from the road. For one of our auto technicians in Hamburg, one of the strangest things he saw was when he drove to a SHARE NOW car that had been in the same spot for a while. He met a man there who had all his belongings, blankets, pillows, and food with him in the vehicle. When he asked him what he was doing, the man said he had been living there. But our team also has positive stories to tell. Another auto technician, also in Hamburg, says that plenty of stranded customers who have broken down and need a jump start try to tip him, but their gratitude is enough and makes the job worthwhile.

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Do our technicians enjoy the work?

One of our auto technicians says: “Unlike my previous office job, I enjoy being outside every day. Of course, it's most fun when the sun is shining. But even when it is raining, we're always out in the fresh air and don't sit at a computer for 40 hours a week. I really notice that a lot in my eyes.” The other auto technician, on the other hand, loves being able to set his own route. He says that all the technicians have their own territory, but it's fun to plan ahead and optimise his route before heading out on the road. Sometimes, although it happens very rarely, technicians meet on their routes and share a friendly wave with each other. Our technicians visit 10 to 15 cars a day, and no two days are the same on the road.