This exclusive partnership by Ford was announced in Sydney, Australia recently and is available to drivers of every car brand. But Ford owners will obviously benefit more from it.
About Carhood
Carhood was started back in the year 2015 as an attempt to end the stranglehold that airports have with their sky high parking fees. What vehicle owners do instead is leave their cars at places near the airport, take a shuttle or a taxi to the correct airport gate, and then allow their car to be rented out to visitors who are coming to that city in which the vehicle owner just departed. This helps them save some money and even make some money!
Car owners receive 25 percent of the rental charges and even if the car is not rented, there is not any parking fee. The owners can also rent other vehicles at their destination through the same service. Ford customers will get a 35 percent cut of the rental fee and will also get an additional 10 percent discount on any rentals they make at the destination.
As part of this deal, Ford is also going to be providing 30 vehicles for Carhood to use for their research and experiment purposes. They are also going to be co-promoting primarily to Ford customers. It is a win-win situation for both, but mostly a win-win for Ford customers who have said that the exorbitant parking fees at airports are a pain.
A Stranger Driving Your Car
But how many people want a stranger driving their car? How many people want their car being operated by someone else? That is the ultimate question.
What Ford brings to the table?
Carhood's co-founder and executive director, Steve Johnson, says that this partnership is just the boost that they were looking for. It is amazing for a global brand such as Ford to join them. They also benefit from the fact that Ford is providing them with vehicles which will help them from a supply and choice of cars point of view.
Where it Began
The whole idea for Carhood came into existence after Johnson ended up paying $250 for parking at the Melbourne airport. The Sydney airport currently earns around $400,000 a day just from parking fees. Who knew? The figure for Melbourne is similar. All the Australian airports together make around $2 million each day by charging exorbitant parking fees from their customers.
Why not take a shuttle to the airport? Or get a friend to give you a ride?
What Carhood is doing is saying no to this and have also managed to turn it into a way for customers to make some money. Their rentals cost 25-40 percent less when compared with traditional car rental services.
The Future
Carhood presently operates in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane but in a not too distant future, it may operate in other parts of the world too. Ford sees this partnership as a part of their push into mobility sector which goes far beyond the regular sale of vehicles and represents what is considered another solid revenue stream in the future.
There is a lot of potential here. The traditional automotive business is worth a little more than 2 trillion dollars while the transportation services and mobility space business is worth more than 5 trillion dollars. Ford is planning on being the most significant player in the mobility business.
Ford is on Fire!
This is just one of the latest ventures which Ford Australia is trying to do to overhaul customer service which started back in 2014 with dealer concierge, capped price servicing for life, auto club membership, and free map updates.