RideKleen to Roll out Mobile Maintenance Service

RideKleen has been testing a mobile maintenance service that will allow fleets to schedule oil changes at the vehicle to eliminate the downtime of a vehicle in a service bay. The company, which was acquired by Cox Automotive a year ago, plans to roll out the service later this year.

RideKleen has set up a Ford F-250 to support a technician and has been testing the service at its Pivet Atlanta mobility hub, said Pratik Patel, the company's chief executive and founder.

"Before the acquisition, we were just a mobile car wash business," Patel said. "Today we're a mobile car care provider. Not only do we wash cars, we're also offering logistical services for our fleet partners. We're actively planning a rollout of mobile maintenance services."

Cox acquired RideKleen in October 2018. The mobile car wash provider serves clients such as Manheim, Enterprise Car Share, Getaround, GIG Car Share, and Zipcar.

RideKleen technicians can wash a car with less than 1 gallon of water using high-pressure steam cleaners. A typical mobile washing service can use 30 gallons or more to wash a car with traditional pressure washers.

While the company has focused mostly on serving carsharing and other mobility fleets, in recent months it has been adding government agencies, companies with smaller service fleets such as HVAC, and remarketing providers.

Working at three Manheim locations, RideKleen is now cleaning between 700 and 800 cars per week. RideKleen is set up at Manheim locations in Bordentown, N.J.; Morgantown, Pa.; and Atlanta.

Patel started the company in 2013, after working in the vehicle detailing industry. The company was formerly known as Elite Auto Mobile. Patel initially used Nissan NV 2500 vans but the roofs of the vehicles were often too high to enter parking garages, so he shifted to Nissan Frontier pickups equipped with a bed slide and steamer that could roll onto the street.

The company began to reach critical mass in the marketplace by late 2017, after Patel secured an agreement to clean Getaround vehicles.

"We’re an innovation company disrupting the industry and exciting our customers," Patel said. "We're a technology company building new products and services that solve challenging problems for our partners. We're a conservation company committed to leaving the world around us better than we found it."

Originally posted on Automotive Fleet