On-demand automotive services criss-cross the Triangle.

Whether you need a mechanic, tires, a car wash, or a full tank of gas, there’s a provider of these services that will come right to your doorstep, to your place of work, almost anywhere.

“We go to homes, offices, the roadside, schools – wherever you think, we fix cars,” said Robert Koenekamp, ​​founder and CEO of Proficient Auto, one of many mobile mechanic services operating in the Triangle. .

Convenience is a huge selling point for these auto services, which are designed so that you can avail them online through a PC or mobile phone.

“A lot of the convenience factor goes hand in hand with another consumer behavior, which is the impact of our smartphones on our lives,” said Scot Wingo, executive chairman of Spiffy, a mobile car wash and detailing service. automobile. “What people really love about this convenience business is the ability to pull out their phone and make it, quote-unquote, a remote control for their life.” Wingo is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the publicly traded e-commerce technology company ChannelAdvisor.

Ease was the big attraction for Brooks Raiford when he ordered a new set of tires from Michelin OnSite.

“They came to my office at the appointed time that I chose,” said Raiford, president and CEO of the NC Technology Association. “I was able to pay online, and they came here and collected my keys. And 90 minutes later I had a new set of tires on our car.

Raiford liked to avoid his usual tire shopping routines, which he sees as a hassle.

“Either you have to take time off from work or you have to take part of your weekend to do it,” he said.

On-demand car service companies such as Spiffy, Proficient Auto and Phantom Fueling – which will drive to your car and fill your gas tank – are locally owned and operated. Other services available in the Triangle, such as Michelin OnSite and YourMechanic, another mobile repair service, are the work of national players.

Most are relatively new to the scene. Spiffy launched 12 months ago when YourMechanic entered the Triangle. Giant tire maker Michelin launched Michelin Onsite as a pilot program exclusively in the Triangle in August.

“Auto services are the last to fall in line” when it comes to the rise of the on-demand economy, said Kevin Doyle, who leads the Michelin OnSite initiative.

Whether these services are really necessary is irrelevant.

“You don’t have to have your pizza delivered, but people love it because it’s convenient,” said John Kitto, founder and owner of Phantom Fueling.

Pay for convenience

Some on-demand car services are shamelessly charged at a high price.

Michelin OnSite, not wanting to undermine local Michelin dealers, monitors dealer prices and charges a bit more, Doyle said.

Also, while dealerships typically charge $100 to install a set of tires, Michelin OnSite charges $169.

“Someone who values ​​their time is going to pay for the service,” Doyle said.

Raiford, Michelin’s OnSite customer, said he priced the same tires from the car dealerships where he and his wife bought their cars and that OnSite’s price “was a good 10% lower. “.

“When you add a discount plus the convenience factor, it was a no-brainer,” Raiford said.

Mobile mechanic services Proficient Auto and YourMechanic say they charge significantly less than car dealerships and independent repair shops because they don’t have the overhead associated with a conventional auto shop. Both services provide quotes for work you already know you need – such as new brakes or a new battery – or charge a fee to diagnose the problem.

“We believe convenience at a lower price will always win,” said Art Argawal, co-founder and CEO of YourMechanic. “Uber clearly showed that.” Based in Silicon Valley, YourMechanic has raised tens of millions of dollars from investors and operates in 32 markets.

But the drop in prices that Argawal talks about is not possible for low-cost services such as an oil change.

“Just the fact that we have to send someone to drive you around and do basic work that takes 20 minutes, we’re not really going to save you any money,” Argawal said. “The economy will never win.”

Proficient has a $75 minimum charge for service calls.

“We have customers who will pay us $75 to come in for an oil change — plus the cost of the oil,” said Koenekamp, ​​CEO of Proficient Auto. “But I don’t like doing oil changes. I don’t want a customer to pay so much when they can go somewhere else and do it for less.

Business at Spiffy, which offers car washes starting at $19 for a sedan and $29 for an SUV, has been so good that it expanded service to Charlotte in August. It also plans to enter other markets.

“We have a model that works,” said Spiffy founder and CEO Karl Murphy.

But Spiffy intends to be very deliberate about its expansion.

“There have already been some high-profile shutdowns in the on-demand economy,” Wingo said, referring to the July shutdown of Homejoy, a San Francisco-based on-demand cleaning company that raised nearly $40. million dollars in venture capital before leaving. screw up.

Early Adopters

The roots of Phantom Fueling date back to 2004, when John Kitto was a freshman at Enloe High School working on an entrepreneurship project for a class assignment. He, his dad, and a friend, according to Kitto, “came up with the idea, wouldn’t it be cool if someone was walking by and filling up everyone’s (gas tanks) at night?”

Fast forward to 2013 when Kitto graduated from NC State University with a degree in physics and was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. He decided to “run the numbers” on the mobile fill concept to see if it could work as a business.

The answer was yes, which led to the launch of a beta test this summer which should end on Friday and will be immediately followed by the official launch of the service.

Phantom Fueling sets the price of its gasoline each day at the average price of the previous day for the region, as reported by crowdsourcing site GasBuddy.com.

During its beta test, Phantom does not charge a service fee for delivery. But, from the official launch, Phantom Fuel will offer a pay-as-you-go service for $6.49 per fill-up on top of the price of gas. Additionally, Kitto said, it will also offer a subscription service that will start at $19.95 per month for unlimited top-ups.

Ghost customers do not need to be present when gas is delivered and can schedule refills 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The only thing you need to do is make sure the gas cap is open…make sure we have access to your gas tank and then you’re done,” said Kitto. “You can be gone, you can be asleep, you can be anywhere. We will charge you automatically and you will receive an SMS when this is done. You will also receive an acknowledgment of receipt by email.

After sampling Phantom Fueling during the beta test, Ryan Johnsen, a 30-year-old corporate sales manager at ChannelAdvisor, is a fan of the service and plans to continue using it.

“I feel like my generation is pretty quick to accept things like that — the convenience opportunities,” he said. “We’re early adopters of a lot of these things.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 1:00 p.m.