Carshare company HyreCar rolled out its mobile app last week, speeding verification time for new drivers and aiming to reduce fraud, Chief Operating Officer Henry Park told Auto Finance News.
Like HyreCar’s website, the app enables users to rent cars or list their cars for rent.
HyreCar’s decision to launch a mobile app is based on the concept of an “on-demand society” that is disrupting the auto industry, Park said. “Look at the industry today with Uber. If [a consumer] requests a car and it doesn’t show up in 5 or 6 minutes, then they look to Lyft or other options. It’s this on-demand society that drove the app.”
HyreCar partnered with technology provider Mitek to develop the app. Integrating Mitek’s identity verification technology is intended to shorten the amount of time it takes for HyreCar to onboard new drivers, the company noted in a press release. The new process is likely to reduce the time required for verification by 30% and reduce ID forgery by 20%, HyreCar says.
HyreCar’s dealer partners are expected to benefit from the influx of new drivers, Park said. “What the app does for the dealer is provides the driver with a better experience, connecting the demand side to the supply side that the dealership provides.”
Park outlined the process of creating the app, which included gathering input from the people involved in the workflow of onboarding new drivers. “We talked to the sales team, product team, engineer group — everyone had a stake in this,” Park said. “It was a lot of work to polish this app,” he added, declining to provide a timeline for development.
Technology enhancements — like the mobile app — have contributed to HyreCar’s ability to scale annual rental days to 550,000 through February, compared with 400,000 in 2018, the company noted in a press release.
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