Three Reasons Why Vehicle Diversity Matters
You’re ready to grow past one vehicle, build a fleet, and turn this into a significant business, maybe even your main gig.
Your goal is to have as many vehicles on the road, making money, every day, as possible, all year long. I believe diversity is key to this. Here are three reasons why:
Demand Patterns:
This comes into play most when you are in a heavily visited market, either by tourists, or business people, hopefully both.
You’ll want to have some basic daily drivers in any fleet.
But it’s also going to keep your revenue flowing when you have vehicles that families will want such as larger SUVs or minivans.
In a lot of markets you may want to include some sexy cars, convertibles, lower-end luxury, that individuals/couples will splurge on to look good and have fun with.
And you’ll want to have a few units that are going to be top picks for business executives coming into town for business. With these vehicles you’ll want to allow one-day trips during the week, but require longer ones on the weekend. Business professionals will be great guests, and often just come to town for a day or two. You’ll likely be able to price these higher during the week than your other vehicles.
Weather Patterns:
Most markets experience all four seasons and you want to diversify your fleet in such a way that you’ll still have as many units on the road as possible regardless of season.
In the winter, in markets north of a line across the country from about Nashville, AWD, 4WD SUVs and crossovers will be booked more consistently than sedans. These will keep the revenue flowing during the months when snow and ice keep your sedans parked. In my market (Detroit Metro) January and February are my slowest months and while many of my sedans are sitting, my 4WD Jeep Compasses are almost always on the road.
In the spring and summer your convertibles and topless Wranglers will be a big bread winner for you.
Recall Patterns:
We all hate the damn recalls that get our vehicles unlisted, sometimes for months on end while waiting for a remedy from the manufacturer.
A lot of hosts like to build a fleet, or at least part of their fleet, with a collection of the same make/model. I had two Honda Civics and three Jeep Compasses. They were big winners for me. And thankfully, I had no recall issues. But had Jeep announced a recall on their Compasses, three of my biggest earners would have been idled all at the same time.
You need to make sure that recalls only take out one or two units, while the rest of your fleet continues earning enough income to overcome the earnings loss on the idled vehicles.
If you’re scaling up, congratulations! Do your homework, learn the demand and climate patterns in your market, study recall histories, and build a fleet that will stay booked all year long.
Have an amazing 2023!