Given the situation that we are in, once the lockdown ends for good, most of us will be rushing to check the health of our vehicles. That is if we haven’t been paying them attention during the holed-in period. This will require the help of roadside assistance or mechanics. One such company offering its services is ReadyAssist. Founded by Vimal Singh who is also the CEO, Ready Assist is based out of Bengaluru. The company was founded in 2018 with a bunch of seven team members and 20 mechanics. It has now grown to be a giant with more than 50 team members as well as ten times the number of mechanics from 2018. The overall revenue of the company is now Rs 4 crore. If you are a doctor or frontline worker, ReadyAssist will provide free emergency assistance to your vehicle. In the places that it currently is available, ReadyAssist mechanics will reach the stranded customer in just 40 minutes. That’s as much time as it takes to deliver a pizza.
Express Drives asked Vimal a few questions on how he intends to take forward the business and when will we see an expansion. Here are the answers in the excerpt.
ED: How many investors are there in the company?
VS: So far we have raised two rounds of the fund. An angel investment from an individual entrepreneur who has successfully exited from his previous start-up. There is also a seed fund from a group of high-profile investors working in senior leadership positions with large corporates.
ED: How is ReadyAssist unique than other RSA companies?
VS: Unlike many other start-ups in the automobile space, ReadyAssist is a 24/7 on the spot repairs and service provider for both bikes & cars for all kind of problems starting from flat tyre repairs, battery jumpstart, electrical issues, mechanical issues and towing service.
What makes us really unique is our commitment to 100% availability of service at almost every situation, fastest reach time and high-quality service through our strong supply chain of highly skilled mechanics. Adding to this is our experience & expertise gained by operating a fleet of more than 500 mechanics & mobilising more than 10,00,000 vehicles to date.
Apart from the RSA services, we also act as a one-stop solution for all kind of repairs and services of both bikes & cars for B2B clients. We are a preferred service provider of many large B2B businesses like self-driving vehicle rental companies, other automobile service & repair companies and a last-mile support provider for global RSA companies.
ED: Are there specific mechanics for the brands and do they have all the required spare parts and tools in place?
VS: Our mechanics are well trained and experienced in multiple brands of both bikes and cars through our special L&D wing called Mecademy. We also enable our mechanics to undergo a periodic training of specific brands & vehicles. All our mechanics are trained on real-time problem solving, right usage of tools, faster diagnosis techniques, apps usage, communication, customer handling, scenario-based guidance & self-grooming.
Mecademy is the research & academy wing of ReadyAssist which is on a mission to create social impact through skilling & reskilling. We provide advanced level practical based training in automobile repairs & services to candidates of different discipline.
ED: Does ReadyAssist provide these mechanics with the infrastructure and are they under the payroll of RA?
VS: All our mechanics are re-trained, groomed and experimented before onboarding with ReadyAssist. All the essentials tools, minimum mandatory spares to mobilise a vehicle, Work safety gears like gloves, raincoats, masks, and first-aid kit are provided to every mechanic while onboarding. Our mechanics are working with us under an independent skilled labour contract.
ED: These mechanics, apart from being on call for RA, also work outside the fold vehicles?
VS: All our mechanics work exclusively for ReadyAssist on full-time contracts. Also we provide them with a good amount of work which keeps them engaged and also helps them generate maximum possible income.
ED: What are your plans of expansion and has coronavirus dealt a blow to these thoughts?
VS: We are on an aggressive plan to scale and operate at mass. Definitely corona pandemic has delayed some of our launch plans, but it has also helped us to learn the art of operating remotely. We believe, with our strong domain expertise, learning from this pandemic situation, the robust SOPs and our evolving technology platform will help us scale exponentially in the coming months to multiple locations & service categories. Our next cities would be Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Kolkata & Chennai
ED: Do you buy spare parts from the manufacturers themselves?
VS: We procure genuine spares from respective distributors and resellers. We also have strong relationships with a few manufacturers. We have plans to work closely with ACMA and it’s members in bridging the gap of demand and supply of genuine spares enabled through our service network.
ED: Can someone get into a subscription model with you? If yes, what’s the price of RSA for a vehicle like a Santro or Alto
VS: At the moment we are largely an on-demand service provider for direct consumers. However, for business clients (B2B) we provide services under the on-demand & subscription model. We are currently in the planning phase to bring such a subscriptions package to direct consumers as well at a very affordable price and a gamut of benefits.
