Check out our first “Tech Talk” interview with HONK’s Executive Vice President, Rochelle Thielen, where she provides detailed insight into a new and exciting end-to-end mobility solution designed to help online used-car retailers maintain business continuity and meet their ever-changing ‘inventory moving’ demands.

Q: How has HONK expanded in 2020?

A: Despite the current economic conditions experienced this year related to COVID-19, our business continued to grow and expand thanks to our strong digital advantage as a tech company. It’s widely known that HONK manages roadside assistance retention programs for top insurance carriers, fleet management companies, automotive OEMs, and car-as-a-service providers. Since our program has always led with a tech-first platform when COVID flipped the world on its head looking for more “touchless” solutions, HONK was already in a position to provide them on day one. We’ve now turned this into a retention powerhouse for our partners with less human intervention than anyone in the roadside assistance space. COVID just accelerated our ability to expand and grow our platform into rapidly emerging marketplaces.

A great example of how our tech is flexible enough to easily adapt is our rapid expansion into the online used-car retailer marketplace. These companies have absolutely exploded in growth post-COVID. They all require scalable support to get vehicles moved on-demand from one destination to another. Think of these as vehicles the retailers are buying, reconditioning, and then reselling through their various sales channels and locations. The demand is enormous but variable so these companies need a partner that is as dynamic as they are with the ability to scale up and down in real-time. Our marketplace has done this for years so it was a natural fit.

Q: How is HONK helping top online used-car retailers?

A: Well if you think about it – when you are in a marketplace that is scaling at the speed they are, you need to stay focused on acquiring inventory and rapidly gaining market share. The enormous job of transporting inventory through a multitude of services and vendors or even using your own staff is time-consuming, expensive and a logistical nightmare. Especially when you may be retrieving a portion of this inventory from neighborhoods or one-off locations where the standard transport truck just doesn’t make sense. Using your own staff is doable but it’s inefficient, doesn’t flex and it keeps them tied up from focusing on getting these cars out to the digital “sales floor.”

We hand them an integrated platform that is completely digital and allows them to stop spending any time thinking about getting those vehicles moved to the destination. They click a button and the vehicle just shows up where it needs to be. No one is calling around, tracking down, and trying to figure out what made it, where it is or if it was even picked up by a multitude of other sources.

HONK is doing what we’ve always done, moving vehicles rapidly and competitively through our trusted and secure partner network of background-checked, independent service providers, consisting of over 75,000 service vehicles across the country.

Q: What are some of the key benefits online used-car retailer clients have experienced with HONK?

A: They love it! During vehicle pick-up, no person is waiting at the vehicle so it takes a lot of the complexity of working with a stranded motorist out. Instead, our Service Providers are trained on our process to pick these up easily by securely retrieving the key to enter and move the vehicle to prep for transport. Our Providers appreciate that these jobs may have additional flexibility for ‘pick-up/delivery time’ and they are able to do it all directly from the HONK Partner App.

Q: How is HONK’s technology transforming this space?

A: HONK makes access to on-demand transportation faster and easier than the clunky solutions of the past. It’s a game-changer to be able to scale your operations “on a dime” and without the heavy cost of infrastructure investments. This space is growing exponentially making adjustable scaling solutions an absolute necessity. Our clients decide how they want to request transport services for their markets, integrate instant transport right into their own systems, scale-up whole marketplaces in days and train their employees on our intuitive system in about 10 minutes. Then they never think about where another vehicle is in transport again. That’s transformational – don’t you think?

About HONK

HONK, an innovative on-demand mobility and roadside assistance platform, has created a digital, safer, smarter alternative to the multiple hour-long waits and insufficient options of the past, transforming the roadside assistance customer experience from its world-class, curated provider network. As a result, the HONK ecosystem powers the highest roadside assistance customer ratings and the best estimated time of arrivals (ETAs) & actual time of arrivals (ATAs), which are on average 50% faster than the motor clubs.

For more information about HONK’s solutions or to request a demo, please email us at marketing@honkforhelp.com.