Underpinning bp EV Pro to streamline car subscription
New mobility offers lucrative opportunities for automakers and energy giants like bp, which launched the trial for its "bp EV Pro" ride-hailing subscription service in London in 2021. With a contract length from 4 to 12 weeks, bp provides an electric vehicle (EV), charging service, insurance and maintenance coverage.
Normally, a subscription process would take weeks to complete, because of credit and licence checks, insurance and so on, which are based around traditional leasing contracts. This lengthy procedure makes it unattractive for mobility markets where the demand for shorter, more flexible contract durations is paramount.
Tomorrow's Journey, which is swiftly rising in the mobility industry as a software provider, completes every process for bp EV Pro in under 10 minutes. The JRNY platform, created by Tomorrow's Journey, executes customised mobility business models for fleets by integrating with third-party services and automating the whole process.
Tomorrow's Journey CEO Chris Kirby believes ride-hailing services will grow globally as more people rely on this flexible job opportunity to fill their free time or gaps in their employment. Kirby also knows that innovation comes with challenges, and companies must increase collaboration to gain smooth back-office processes to remove roadblocks. The mobility ecosystem is still evolving, and companies first need to adapt their business model, he says. We asked Chris to tell us more about the initiative.
How did your partnership with bp begin?
“We were recommended and put into the project, and things evolved quickly. Currently, we are in the third phase, which is bigger than the first two put together and it’s happened fast.
bp is acquiring the electric vehicles and bringing them into their fleet. And then subscribing them directly to taxi and ride-hailing drivers, in partnership with some of the ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Bolt.”
Could you tell me a little about the JRNY platform?
“The app is hosted in bp's environment. Essentially, the end customer (the driver) goes through a process on the bp website, but it is our web app they’re using. They make the entire onboarding process payment; then it comes into the back office. The bp operations team uses our back office system to process the customer and do fraud checks, searches, and ID checks. All these steps can be automated. So, we talk to the insurance company and the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency). Also, we get in touch with one of the fraud check companies and process the customer's application quickly. Then, the operations team arranges the delivery and we automatically generate the contract. So, much of the process happens in the back office.”
Does the app enter the customer's financial system?
“Yes, we talk with all our customers about integration. For bp, we've got 11 different integrations. We also talked to bp Salesforce for marketing activity. All of this process is happening in and out of our system. We set the driver up with the insurance company; we generate the documents with the insurance company. We want our system to be the central point. But because of these integrations, we don't need to build our payment gateway or develop document signing functionality.”
Does this service serve any drivers, including those who've been using other ride-hailing services?
“Yes, definitely. So, in the UK, becoming a taxi driver is slightly more complex than in other countries. You have to get your PCO licence and other documents, which are separate from bp. But, if you have your PCO licence and the appropriate setup, you can take one of these vehicles from four weeks and up to 12 weeks. You could do it as a summer job.”
What are the opportunities you see in the market, and how companies can benefit from your service?
“No one is completely doing car subscriptions, and there's no one solution for subscriptions but bp is pretty close. What bp is doing by offering weekly cars to Uber drivers is a form of subscription. When companies are running a fleet or operating a fleet, they're looking at how to give customers better access to vehicles more efficiently and maybe with less commitment. We want to make anybody an innovator in mobility.”
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Image: bp
