Exclusive: Indian Oil Ventures Into At-Home Car Servicing; Ties Up With Home-Mechanic

The country's largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation or IOC controls almost half the country's petroleum products market. It is now diversifying into a new arena – car servicing. But not just regular workshop servicing, instead at-home or doorstep service. That is courtesy a significant tie-up with Home Mechanic – an existing doorstep service player in the NCR (National Capital Region). Dubbed Home-Mechanic IND, the ‘workshop on wheels' offering will allow consumers to book servicing for their vehicles from home, and a 3-member service team conducts a complete service of the car on-site.

Shyam Bohra, Executive Director at Indian Oil Corporation Limited inaugurating the new mobile service vehicle

The idea is to allow people to get their cars serviced in an average of 2 hours, as opposed to an entire day spent at the workshop. And now – quite importantly, without worrying about exposure to COVID-19. What's more, the routine servicing packages also include things like fog sanitising, waterless car washing, etc.

Shyam Bohra, Executive Director, Indian Oil, Delhi & Haryana State Office told carandbike, “We are committed to serve our customers even more during these challenging times. Your safety is our ultimate priority and keeping this mind, we are pleased to announce car servicing at your doorstep with Home-Mechanic IND” using world class Servo lubricants.”

The immediate plan sees Home-Mechanic IND expanding its presence with 50 service vans in the NCR region by the end of the current fiscal

IOC's business opportunity therefore is two-fold. Not only will Home-Mechanic IND allow the Fortune 500 major to step into a new business, but also provide yet another channel for its Servo range of products. The plan is to begin with one service van at IOC's company-owned fuel retail outlet at Delhi's Panchsheel Enclave. Indian Oil has nearly 30,000 fuel pumps across India, and so the potential to expand the service is huge according to its new partner. “Our association with Indian Oil strengthens our ability to reach out to more customers and provide them hassle free servicing. We aim to expand to Mumbai in the coming month,” says Kunaal R., CEO, Home-Mechanic.

The ‘workshop on wheels' offering will allow consumers to book servicing for their vehicles from home

The immediate plan sees Home-Mechanic IND expanding its presence with 50 service vans (or mech-mobiles as they are calling them) in the NCR region by the end of the current fiscal. This will only include the company-owned and operated fuel stations for starters. The long term plan is to also get into more cities, and have a pan-India footprint, with Mumbai becoming the second city to get the service. Indian Oil has been looking at ways to diversify its fuel retail business into other areas, with such initiatives. It recently also revealed an agenda to increase EV charging points at its fuel pumps.