DriveItAway, a company that connects rideshare drivers with dealerships’ idle stock, is eyeing an increase in rental volume after securing a partnership with call-center company CloudOne, the companies announced today.
Vancouver, Wash.-based CloudOne handles 250,000 calls per month at its automotive-focused call center that facilitates new- and used-vehicle sales. It also provides credit-based lead generation through subsidiary CreditYes.
By leveraging CloudOne’s existing infrastructure and CreditYes’s funnel of subprime leads, DriveItAway expects to boost rental volume and expand its dealerships network. “This partnership gives us new access to thousands of credit-challenged customers and the ability to handle a tremendous amount of volume,” DriveItAway Chief Executive John Possumato said.
CreditYes processes about 40,000 appointments of subprime consumers at dealerships per month. Though, for those consumers who won’t get accepted for funding, Possumato wants to offer them a path to ownership via a rent-to-own process enabled by the DriveItAway app.
Possumato expects to gain about 5% of those 40,000 appointments, or 2,000 more renters, per month. Haddonfield, N.J.-based DriveItAway will use CloudOne’s call centers and automated technology to support the anticipated call volume.
CloudOne will also help connect DriveItAway to more dealerships nationwide, providing a turnkey onboarding process. Possumato said he anticipates onboarding 20 dealership groups this month, with the potential to add “thousands of rooftops” within the next 12 months.
“Just about everybody who doesn’t have a vehicle to drive for rideshare wants to own a vehicle,” Possumato said. “It’s not just that they want to own a vehicle for ridesharing because it’s most economical, but it’s one of the things that they want, and they’ll rideshare so that they have the freedom of having a vehicle as opposed to the other way around.”
He noted that there is an estimated 50,000 new drivers signing up for Uber and Lyft each month, with approximately 40% of those lacking appropriate vehicles to drive. “There’s a lot of demand all over the country,” he said.
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