RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -

For a while now, there has been Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). And more recently, there has been the development of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).

Now you can add another item to the “as-a-service list;” this time in the fleet space.

On Wednesday, Spiffy, an on-demand car care, technology and services company, introduced Fleet Management-as-a-Service (FMaaS) to help fleet managers maintain their units across the entire vehicle lifecycle.

Propelled by a fund raising of more than $10 million, Spiffy indicated that it is expanding into six new markets with FMaaS and also rolling out FMaaS in existing Spiffy markets of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Los Angeles and Raleigh, N.C.

Those new FMaaS markets include Denver, New York, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, Fla., and Washington, D.C., with more to come in 2019.

“Fleet Management-as-a-Service broadens Spiffy’s goal of zero-friction car care to include national fleets,” Spiffy chief executive officer Scot Wingo said in a news release.

“Offering full-lifecycle maintenance management gives fleet managers a one-vendor solution and, with features that are EV/AV and connected-car friendly, we have designed it to be future-proof,” Wingo continued.

Wingo explained that FMaaS can allow rental car fleets, automotive auctions, midsize fleets and car-sharing services to manage their vehicle in-fleeting, preventative maintenance and de-fleeting with the seamless marriage of digital-enabled fleet services. Fleet managers can utilize a fleet-friendly Spiffy app to schedule, track, rate and pay for vehicle services including pre-delivery inspections, reconditioning (wash/detail), preventative maintenance (oil change, tire rotation) and de-fleeting (de-fueling, label removal), along with a comprehensive set of other services.

Auto Remarketing connected with Wingo on Wednesday inquiring about what happens if a Spiffy technician spots a vehicle issue that might need more servicing. Perhaps the vehicle has something mechanically wrong or could use some moderate body work.

Because “we are a tech/digital heavy company,” Wingo replied with the process for those instances since, “for every fleet location we visit, we know the decision makers at that location.”

If the technician is working and sees a service need, Wingo noted they enter it into their technician app. The technician app sends a service upgrade approval request to the decision makers, including pictures, details and pricing. Wingo noted that the fleet service managers then can either approve or disapprove the suggested upgrade. 

Wingo emphasized what he believes are the “great” components about this process being digital.

“It’s fast and easy and very much like a consumer experience. Nobody said b2b experiences have to stink compared to consumer experiences,” Wingo said.

“It creates a digital paper trail,” he continued. “If someone says, ‘Hey, why did we pay X to get service Y?’ We can say, ‘Manager X authorized this at 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 23, and here’s the pictures of before and after.’”

Spiffy can offer this capability in part because of the financial resources now available.

According to the news release, Spiffy’s latest round of financing was led by new investor Tribeca Venture Partners and included investments from new investors Zunis Investments and Trog Hawley Capital. Additionally, existing investors participated including Bull City Venture Partners and IDEA Fund Partners.

Chip Meakem, co-founder and managing partner at Tribeca said, “We’re excited to invest in Spiffy as they continue to grow. The comprehensive Fleet Management-as-a-Service offering positions Spiffy to ride the wave of change crashing through the automotive industry.

“From rental and commercial fleets to partnerships with innovative ride-sharing companies, like Lyft, and the recent Ford connected car partnership, Spiffy is riding several megatrends,” Meakem continued.

Wingo added in the news release, “Now with over 100 Spiffy vans in 11 cities and more than 150 W-2 employed trained technicians, we’re eager to execute on our next phase of growth.”

Auto Remarketing also asked Wingo why these particular 11 markets are ripe for this kind of service and how the company might broaden its footprint.

“Our goal is to be in 50 large U.S. markets that are the intersection of large population (more than 1 million), large airports (fleet orientation), density of convenience-oriented consumers.  Even though starting with fleet, we’ll ultimately expand to consumer offerings at work (via office parks) and residential services,” Wingo said.

He went on to say, “We know those 50 cities, so the way we chose the 11, is a fleet partner (usually a rental car company with large airport presence) has said, ‘If Spiffy launches in City X, we'll make you our vendor for wash/detail/tires/oil change/etc.’ So it’s a collaborative effort with our fleet customers.’”

With funding available and planned path for growth, Wingo is quite upbeat about what he might be able to say about this part of Spiffy’s operation a year from now.

“In a year, I’d love to be on the phone with you telling you how we’re now at 30 locations and we’re adding 5-10 more services for fleets to our FMaaS offering and software,” Wingo told Auto Remarketing.

To learn more about Spiffy’s FMaaS offering, visit www.getspiffy.com/fleet.