Spruce up your ride!

KOCHI: Often, we hesitate to make the dreaded trip to automobile service centres. The eventuality of waiting in long queues seems too big a price to pay despite the long-delayed sprucing up your vehicle needs. This urged brothers Adheesh Thalekkara, Adhun Thalekkara and their friend Kiran Parameswaran to launch an app which would provide a one-stop solution for your car’s maintenance and service requirements. ‘Wipe24’ connects a user to the nearby service centre where one can get his or her vehicle serviced without any hassles.

“A lot of people may have had to wait for hour or even days to get their vehicles repaired. Considerable time is lost that way. With our app they can avoid it,” says Adheesh the CEO of Wipe24. A user who downloads the app can access the list of service centres in the vicinity.

He or she can then select a service centre, choose a package according to the type of the vehicle and book multiple slots. The slot is confirmed by the respective service centre and the user gets a confirmation message back. “The app currently offers cleaning, car detailing and decarbonisation services. We are in the process of adding more centres,” adds Adheesh.

Adhun takes care of the app’s technical area while Kiran helms marketing. The user is charged a booking fee according to the package selected. “The cost of the service chosen is to be paid at the service centre. Booking charge is deducted to make sure only genuine customers use the app.”

The team has already enlisted around 10 service centres from all districts except Idukki and Wayanad. They are soon planning to add a ‘spot wash’ feature in the app.

“People can avail car wash services at their residence through this feature. We will hire employees who will visit the homes of the customers and give their vehicle a complete wash. The service will be operated by us in major cities while a franchise system will be in place in other towns,” says Adheesh.

While associated service centres have the option of rejecting a user’s request, the founders of the app affirm that Wipe24 would aid in boosting their business. “The app will benefit the centres. Many people are particular that their vehicle looks spick and span. Our primary target is such customers.”