YourMechanic is Disrupting the Market by Providing Flexible On-Site Auto Maintenance and Repairs at Competitive Rates

In a Nutshell: When car trouble starts, it doesn’t have to bring work and life to a halt. YourMechanic allows car owners to get essential repairs and maintenance work done practically anywhere — on their own schedules. The service is driven by consumers and certified mechanics who want to enjoy the financial benefits and flexibility of mobile auto repair and is now available in more than 3,000 cities in North America. A robust feedback system and automated booking process provide convenience to both parties and keeps overhead low. YourMechanic is a valuable means of saving money, avoiding downtime, and getting optimal value from a car.

It inevitably happens to everyone — you discover that your car is making some worrisome noise or is leaking some kind of mysterious … something. It’s a problem that’s beyond your capability to fix, but you don’t have the time to take your car to the shop. And you can’t afford to sit around waiting on repairs. You have to get to work.

But if your car breaks down, you probably won’t be making it to the office, and you may be paying even more money to have the car towed to a shop. Reliable transportation is often essential to maintaining employment and income, but that noise or leak certainly isn’t going to fix itself.

How do you fit repairs into your schedule and your budget? That’s the question YourMechanic set out to answer by partnering with certified mechanics who offer mobile service.

“We are mobile and very flexible. We can work on your vehicle conducting basic maintenance up to minor repairs at your house or your office,” said Jeff Bosco Biafore, Parts Advisor at YourMechanic.

YourMechanic offers exclusively mobile auto maintenance, and repairs that cover more than 600 services for most auto makes and models in 3,000 cities in North America and counting. And YourMechanic’s transparency adds to the convenience of having a mechanic come to your home or office. Before booking an appointment, clients can see price estimates as well as each mechanic’s certifications, reviews, and ratings from prior customers. And, just as importantly, YourMechanic’s service is affordable.

Without the overhead of maintaining a physical shop, and with the leverage to negotiate prices directly with suppliers, YourMechanic passes the savings on to its customers, getting them back on the road — both literally and financially.

YourMechanic’s booking process is fully automated, and users need only visit its website and enter their vehicle’s make, model, year, and trim. The system will then populate a list of potential problems and services offered. Based on the information entered and the selections made, users will receive a free, no-obligation quote. If users have additional questions or concerns, they can even call YourMechanic and speak with a service representative.

“Our site has everything a customer needs to get a quick transparent quote online, but a lot of customers want to speak to a human being before the appointment,” Biafore said. “We don’t diagnose problems over the phone. That’s pretty tough to do with anything, but we can get it in the ballpark, set the customer up with an inspection, and give them a good idea of what it would cost.”

Customers can use YourMechanic’s web app to make an appointment for a mechanic to visit their home or office. The only requirements are that the vehicle must be in a safe environment where a mechanic can work on it easily, and the property owner or manager must give their consent to perform service.

When making an appointment, users arrange a means for their mechanic to obtain the keys to the car, whether that’s retrieving them from a pre-arranged hiding spot, a neighbor, or from the customer. In the latter case, the mechanic can provide a brief overview of the work the vehicle needs.

Then the mechanic performs the work, and you can get back to work or life, secure in the knowledge that all of YourMechanic’s parts and labor carry a 12 month/12,000 mile guarantee.

All mechanics on the service are independent service providers certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. They are also individually vetted by YourMechanic background, criminal, and personal reference checks.

Some are professional mechanics who work in auto shops or dealerships. Others have non-auto-related professions but maintain their certification and work through YourMechanic to earn extra revenue. And some are professional mechanics who choose to work through the platform so that they can become better acquainted with clients and enjoy more flexible schedules.

Jeff Bosco Biafore, Parts Advisor at YourMechanic, spoke with us about how the service benefits both car owners and mechanics.

“They have the flexibility to write their own schedule with us. They can work on certain days or certain weeks or take a giant vacation. It gives them the flexibility to do other things,” Biafore said. “A lot of guys will jump out of shops and work exclusively with us because of the flexibility. At that point, they become their own mobile shop. They’re running their own business.”

These mobile mechanics enjoy additional benefits from working through YourMechanic, not least of which are financial. Even while charging lower prices, mechanics can earn more because they don’t incur the costs involved in maintaining a shop and keeping parts in stock.

YourMechanic supplies the necessary parts, and the platform connects them to a wide range of clients they may not have otherwise had the opportunity to serve.

“Our platform enables auto technicians to run their own mobile mechanic business, be their own boss and maximize their earning potential,” said Bridgette Tuquero, Senior Director of Operations and Strategy at YourMechanic. “And we have a lot of customer demand from fleets and consumers all over the country, so we’re constantly onboarding talented, entrepreneurial-minded mechanics.”

YourMechanic launched in San Francisco and Silicon Valley in January of 2012. The platform now serves more than 3,000 cities across the United States. In early 2019, it debuted in Canada, bringing its service to drivers and mechanics north of the border.

The platform’s expansion into new locations is simultaneously driven by labor supply and consumer demand. Within the constraints of modern work-life schedules, people need the convenience of mobile mechanics. At the same time, plenty of mechanics want the control offered by mobile service in the gig economy.

“A lot of times, we get phone calls from people who are outside our markets. One of the big goals is to have a fleet of mechanics in every area, so there are no gaps. We’ve targeted recognized areas that don’t have mechanics, and we are actively looking to fill those gaps,” Biafore said.

YourMechanic helps car owners stay on schedule and offers flexibility to licensed mechanics.

If you’re a consumer living in a location that isn’t covered by YourMechanic, they welcome a call or email letting them know you’re interested in the service.

And if you’re a certified mechanic who’s enticed by the prospect of mobile auto service and would be interested in joining YourMechanic’s labor pool, the company welcomes that call, as well. Whether you’re a busy professional trying to avoid downtime at the auto shop or a mechanic who’s looking to increase earnings and expand your clientele, everyone wins.

The mechanic has been to your house, and while you went about your business, he or she fixed that annoying clank or that disturbing drip that’s been plaguing your car. Now, you can avail yourself of YourMechanic’s robust feedback system so the platform and other consumers know how everything shook out.

Consumers can rate the mechanic, the service, and their overall experience, and they can provide additional comments and notes. Likewise, mechanics rate their experience with individual customers and vehicles. This way, future customers and service providers will know precisely what to expect at the time of booking.

But this information isn’t exclusively for consumers and mechanics. YourMechanic reviews the data entered by both parties and looks for areas of improvement — whether those are quick and easy fixes or long-term adjustments.

“On our end, we look at all of that transaction information and assess it,” Biafore said. “If that job is consistent with other jobs that have the same ratings, we need to figure out what’s wrong or what’s right about it, and we move forward from there.”

This feedback system offers additional benefits to consumers when buying or selling vehicles. Rather than collecting service receipts for when the time comes to sell your car or worrying about the vehicle’s service history when buying, YourMechanic can provide records of every repair or maintenance its mechanics have performed.

“If you’ve been good to the car, you did the oil changes and took care of it, you have proof right there on our dashboard,” Biafore said. “You can sell and buy cars with more assurance using our inspection and history reports. That helps folks save money in the car buying process.”

Overall, YourMechanic offers a convenient and cost-effective way to keep your car serviced and running without the hassle and expense of visiting a shop or dealership. Its service and parts guarantee and its feedback system ensure customers get quality service along with the maximum performance and value from their automobiles.