Wheely Relaunches in London to Target £500M Exec Car Hire Market
MOSCOW, January 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Wheely, an on-demand online service for ordering luxury and executive rides with personal chauffeurs, relaunches in London in January 2018. The opportunity is now huge for Wheely to become the exec and VIP-class car service of choice for Londoners, targeting the £500 million exec and VIP-class car hire segment.
Tens of thousands of Wheely clients generated over 1 million rides in 2017. Now Wheely is expanding its operations in London, relaunching two key products - EXEC (E-Class) and VIP (S-Class). The company will strive to provide better price/quality of service than UberExec and VIP, currently the no-alternative premium options in London.
Wheely is already a licensed private hire operator in London. Only 30% of drivers qualify for Wheely as they undergo rigorous testing. Wheely will be investing up to $10 million in advertising and in onboarding drivers in London throughout 2018.
"Wheely is using the newest premium cars (2016 or later, mainly Mercedes-Benz) and is working with experienced drivers who know the city and meet high standards of service and VIP-level etiquette. It puts us in a good position to win over London - the largest exec car hire market in Europe by market size," - says Anton Chirkunov, founder and CEO of Wheely.
Wheely's business model is already proven in Moscow where it provides a full range of services from EXEC (E-Class) to VIP (S-Class), EXEC MPVs and LUXE (Mercedes-Maybach). For the past 5 years, Wheely has experienced a booming 100% YoY growth, retaining its competitive edge in the executive car hire segment. Wheely upholds strict driver and vehicle requirements.
Wheely's key strengths in London:
- only the newest premium cars (2016 or later, mainly Mercedes-Benz);
- licensed drivers, selected through a strict screening procedure, who have a several years' executive driving experience and who passed the geography test;
- unique 24/7 in-app customer support;
- no hidden charges;
- flat rates for rides to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
Market
As of June 2017, there are over 12,000 vehicles in the executive segment (Mercedes E/S/Viano less than 5 years old) out of the overall 87,000 in London. The on-demand exec private hire segment is growing 15% YoY and may hit £500 million by 2030[1].
There are no market players focusing exclusively on high-end vehicles and clients; meanwhile VIP and Exec MPV sectors are underserved. While a very small number of operators allow the booking of black cabs via smartphone, the vast majority of chauffeur companies require booking by telephone. Wheely aims to provide in-app booking to the executive segment.
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1. Estimated by Wheely; numbers based on the following research: https://orfe.princeton.edu/~alaink/SmartDrivingCars/PDFs/Rethinking%20Mobility_GoldmanSachsMay2017.pdf
Additional links
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/private-hire-fleet-information-june-2017.pdf
https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing/licensing-information
About Wheely
Wheely is an on-demand online service for ordering luxury and executive rides with personal chauffeurs based on home-grown technology and a unique driver selection process and quality control. Wheely is a leading executive class player in Moscow, and aims to become the leading player in executive class in the global megacities. It is the only company in the world to have started providing Mercedes-Maybach on demand. Learn more on our website https://wheely.com/en.
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