Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Industry Spotlight Recap—a rundown of key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guests are Todd Hatch, service director at Palm Springs Nissan, and Malcolm Richardson, senior automotive account manager at Uber for Business.
Together, they unpack how direct DMS integrations allow service advisors to book rides in seconds, improving CSI by removing the friction of idle shuttles and late pickups.
Shuttles feel free until you actually add up what they cost
Three vans, three drivers, fuel, maintenance, tires, and a coordinator chasing keys all day was running Palm Springs Nissan about $12,000 a month, and customers still weren't happy.
"We had some 50 loaner cars in service. So trying to keep with four different advisors, trying to keep track of them, and then you know when you tell people don't eat, don't do this in the cars, they ultimately do. So there was a cost factor on trying to keep the cars clean. And then the inevitable fender bender, whether it was a small one or a big one, you had to deal with the customer's insurance. It just really became a problem for us."
The myth that shuttles and loaners are just a cost of doing business is exactly what keeps most service directors from doing the math.
Transportation problems show up in CSI on the small repairs, not the big ones
Most service directors assume the complaints that hurt scores come from major repairs, but that's not what the surveys showed.
"You would think like a major repair, a big engine repair, transmission would be the ones. It was actually the smaller ones, right? The smaller repairs, the ones that should be in and out. Transportation was always an issue because we're in a fast-moving society today, right? People are now, now, now. They have their days booked, right? Like I've got other things going.”
A customer who came in for an oil change and waited 40 minutes for a shuttle isn't going to forget that when the survey hits their inbox.
Telling a customer their ride is on the dealership changes the whole conversation
When a service advisor can offer an Uber on the spot instead of coordinating a shuttle window, it takes an objection off the table before the customer even raises it.
"When you tell people, 'Hey, we're using Uber.' first question is, 'Do I have to pay for it?' And then when you tell them, 'No, it's a courtesy from the dealership.' I'll tell you what, it diffuses a lot of things."
Todd says it's also made it easier for advisors to sell additional work, because the customer isn't mentally half out the door trying to figure out their ride home.
The advisor at the write-up desk doesn't need another tab open
The biggest adoption risk with any new tool in a service drive is adding friction to an already busy workflow. The Uber for Business integration sidesteps that by living inside the platforms advisors already use.
"The service advisor can request a ride directly from that screen while managing the RO, right? And so that ride ties directly to that repair order number. So at the end of the month, as you mentioned the warranty reimbursement from the OEM, your controller can reconcile that, download the report and upload it right into their OEM system." — Malcolm
Every ride maps to a customer and RO, which means the controller has a clean record at month end without anyone chasing receipts.
Presented by:
Uber - Learn how Uber for Business is transforming the service lane by replacing outdated shuttle programs with on-demand mobility that elevates the customer experience. Discover how top dealerships are using centralized transportation dashboards and partner integrations to lower operational costs, improve CSI scores, and keep service bays moving. Learn more at https://businesses.uber.com/CDG
Cutting the loaner fleet freed up space, simplified used car inventory, and helped the bottom line all at once
Going from 50 loaners down to 12 created 38 extra parking spots for customer vehicles and started feeding the used car lot with low-mileage units on a predictable six-month rotation.
"It's working much better for my used-car department even, cuz now they know they're getting these low-mileage cars and I'm not buried in a bunch of them."
Most dealers think about loaner fleet reduction as a service decision, but the downstream effect on used car inventory is just as significant.
Parts delivery is an underused application that most dealers haven't tried yet
Courtesy rides tend to be the entry point, but the dealers getting the most out of the platform have moved into parts delivery and vehicle pickup and drop-off as well.
"If a tech is waiting on a part from a sister location, another rooftop, a warehouse or supplier, right? Dealers can call and order and dispatch through that same platform instead of putting somebody off the floor and sending somebody to get it." — Malcolm
Todd cut one of his two parts drivers and one of his delivery trucks after making the switch, and that savings went straight to the bottom line.
The branded loaner as a rolling billboard argument doesn't hold up anymore
The idea that a customer driving a dealership-wrapped loaner generates meaningful brand exposure is a hard one to let go of, but Todd's take is pretty direct.
"Social media platforms can kill that exposure in a day. I think any dealer that's not into social media now is missing the boat."
An active Instagram or TikTok presence reaches more people in a week than a fleet of wrapped vans does in a year.
Set the guardrails before a single advisor touches the dashboard
The most common mistake is handing over access without controls in place first.
"We set up all the guardrails, the ride limitations, the mileage limits, and all the controls that they want in place, and then we roll it out." — Malcolm
Radius limits, dollar caps, monthly spend warnings, and voucher splits are all configurable, and getting those settings right at the start saves a lot of cleanup later.
Rural dealers aren't automatically locked out, but it takes a conversation
Thinner driver supply in smaller markets is a real concern, and Malcolm doesn't dismiss it, but there's more flexibility in how Uber approaches those gaps than most dealers realize.
"When we hear this from our customers, we take that to our maps team and we say like, ‘Hey, how can we get more supply, more drivers, more couriers out to this way, right? And try to even sometime we can even make things a hotspot." — Malcolm
A dealership generating consistent ride volume is exactly the kind of demand signal that attracts more drivers to an area over time.
The owner noticed the savings in the first month, not the first quarter
It’s true that operational changes take time to show up on a P&L in a meaningful way. But in this case, there were savings incredibly early on.
"My owner noticed it like the first month in. Right? Cuz it was a big chunk of expense that was gone. There's nothing eating into it."
His point: A $5,000 to $6,000 monthly expense reduction that also improves CSI is about as clean a win as it gets.
