123-Transporter

The founding story was rooted in a market supply-and-demand gap. Pajek wanted to rent a van for private usage in his hometown in Lower Austria. However, at the time, there was only one provider in the area with a waiting time of over two months for the next available rental. Pajek saw this gap as an opportunity, and that’s how 123-Transporter was born.

Rapid scaling with fleet partners

For 123-Transporter, ‘becoming the Flixbus of van rental’ didn’t only boil down to the adoption of a fleet partner network, but it also meant being dedicated to enhancing the transporter rental service and customer journey. Simply copying a rental scheme, like that of car rentals, would not fit the special needs of the transporter rental business. The use-case makes the difference here. “A car provides mobility – a van is a rolling service”, says Matthias Pajek. The customer- and transporter-centric approach makes for 123-Transporter’s unique characteristics, primarily meaning two things:

1. Damage handling: damages up to a certain amount are free of charge,
2. Availability: transporters should be easily available wherever people move – including to rural areas.

To successfully serve these specific needs, improve customer experience, and free up the team’s resources, a digital solution for locking and unlocking of transporters was needed.

The need for a scalable and reliable tech stack

To lock and unlock the transporter, a key box was attached to the outside of the vehicles. This was accessed by a PIN code that the customer received via phone, from the 123-Transporter team prior to the start of the rental. Every two weeks, in sync with the cleaning cycle, the PIN numbers for the boxes were changed. In the long-term, however, this was neither a safe nor practical process.

In 2021, this headache set the founders off on a search for a reliable digital solution. That’s when they learned about INVERS.

“The fact that INVERS is based in Europe and is a global market leader, added an extra sense of security for us” – Matthias Pajek, CEO

With INVERS’s telematics solution, CloudBoxx, they were able to easily turn their transporters into a connected and sharing-ready fleet, which enabled:

• remote vehicle lock/unlock
• remote vehicle immobilization
• precise vehicle GPS tracking and monitoring (evaluating customer behavior and usage geography hotspots)
• deep data insights (such as: utilization rate, damage detection, etc.)

For 123-Transporter having a connected fleet meant:

• a smoother customer rental experience
• a more efficient internal operations process (elimination of need for PINs send-out, easy storage of employee access permissions/driver’s licenses)
• easier and faster scaling with different transporter brands and models

Damage detection in transporter rentals

The most common use case for transporters is moving furniture and other heavy items, which often leads to vehicle damage. What makes 123-Transporter stand out from its competitors (USP) is that damage up to a certain value is already covered. “That’s simply what the vans are there for – to be used,” says Pajek. Possible scratches and dents on the van should not be a worry for the drivers.

However, for the detection of larger crashes, the software solution from INVERS is very helpful. More than half of all damages involve the exterior mirrors of the vans. Typically, these happen when vehicles are parked. The damage detection feature allows 123-Transporter to address and discuss these incidents with clients, if necessary.

123-Transporter – A shared mobility champion powered by INVERS

Be it contactless rental, usage monitoring to find hotspots, or damage tracking: “Our business model would not have been viable at all without INVERS sharing tech solution”, says CEO Matthias Pajek, summarizing the collaboration between 123-Transporter and INVERS.  

In short: We are happy to be the technological backbone of another shared mobility champion and assist them on their journey to a digitalized VaaS business!