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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/04\/11\/turo-is-blocking-access-to-third-party-services-and-hosts-are-freaking-out\/<\/a><\/br> Turo, the peer-to-peer car rental company,\u00a0plans to block access to third-party services like CarSync and Fleetwire starting April 30, according to an email that hosts received and TechCrunch viewed.<\/p>\n Turo confirmed the move, which hosts say will cut them off from essential fleet management tools that allow them to share multiple cars on the platform. While there is evidence that Turo intends to build many of these services within its own app, that hasn\u2019t assuaged hosts who rely on these third-party services today.<\/p>\n About 24,000 of Turo\u2019s hosts rent out more than three vehicles on the peer-to-peer car rental platform. They use CarSync and Fleetwire to manage their fleets and toll payments, as well as provide other useful services that have historically been absent from Turo\u2019s app.<\/p>\n Turo\u2019s plans have sparked panic among many hosts, who have turned to\u00a0social media platforms<\/a> and even petitions on Change.org<\/a> to argue the change threatens their businesses.<\/p>\n The blowback comes at a tricky time for Turo, which appears to be on the precipice of becoming a publicly traded company two years after filing confidentially for an IPO<\/a>.<\/p>\n Turo recently updated its\u00a0S-1<\/a> with the Securities and Exchange Commission with its 2022 financials<\/a>. The results show a company that has emerged from the pandemic doldrums with rapid revenue growth and healthy levels of profitability<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Turo still has work to do to shore up its finances. A key target is to increase the supply of vehicles available to guests by converting so-called \u201cconsumer hosts\u201d who rent out one or two vehicles on the platform into \u201csmall business and professional hosts.\u201d Small business hosts share three to nine cars, and professional hosts share 10 or more.<\/p>\n As of December 31, about 85% of Turo\u2019s 160,000 active hosts were consumer hosts. In order to shift those percentages, Turo needs to provide more incentives to hosts and make the process of renting out their vehicles a lot easier.<\/p>\n So why, hosts are asking, would the company choose to remove the tools they use to grow and manage their fleets?<\/p>\n Security appears to be a top concern, according to its S-1 and communications with its hosts. In the email sent to hosts, a Turo representative said the company had been made aware of \u201cpotential security risks\u201d that can be created by third-party services. Turo also lists security as one of the risk factors included in its S-1 filings.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the next few weeks, Turo will be releasing new features centered around enhancing vehicle pricing and management, toll automation and co-hosting,\u201d said the email. Co-hosting allows hosts to bring someone on to help them manage their listings. \u201cThese new features will help you run your business as efficiently as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Turo told TechCrunch the features would be rolling out in the next weeks and months, but didn\u2019t say which features would be made available first.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that Turo is keen to bring more features in-house. What makes Turo hosts nervous is the timing \u2014 one month to try to replicate all that CarSync and Fleetwire do \u2014 and Turo\u2019s track record when it comes to innovating on the platform.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be surprised if a small fraction of [the features] are replaced in the next year,\u201d wrote one Reddit user. \u201cIt took 10 years to get scheduled messages and photos within messages.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, it took 13 years. Turo was founded in 2009 and launched scheduled messages and photos in messages last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hosts also don\u2019t buy that Turo believes there\u2019s a security risk. CarSync, a platform that hosts seem to value highly, told TechCrunch it hadn\u2019t experienced a breach.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t come as a surprise because we knew they were building similar features, but we didn\u2019t think those features were ready or launched yet,\u201d Nikola Mihajlovic, CarSync\u2019s co-founder and chief technology officer, told TechCrunch. \u201cSo that was surprising, given the timeline. None of the hosts have seen anything new yet.\u201d<\/p>\n CarSync hosts 40,000 vehicles from Turo hosts on its platform, according to Mihajlovic. That\u2019s about 12.5% of total Turo vehicles. Sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Turo had been trying to acquire CarSync, but a deal could not be reached.<\/p>\n Anthony Navarro, a host who rents out a fleet of eight Teslas in the Denver area, told TechCrunch that Turo has never had great tools for managing a fleet, and he\u2019s worried that it\u2019ll get much harder to get a return on his vehicle investment without CarSync.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what I have seen, people are looking at other platforms and even trying to do private rentals,\u201d said Navarro when asked if he thought hosts would leave Turo for one of its competitors, like Getaround<\/a>. \u201cBut Turo is still the largest platform and so I think that people will either try to make it work or they will try to exit the business.\u201d<\/p>\n Navarro said large fleets might be able to adapt, but people like him with a medium-sized fleet who do Turo on the side will start contemplating if they want to stay in this business at all.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it is a hard time to exit because of how much the used Tesla market has dropped and what I still owe. But after the summer, I might re-evaluate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A letter to Turo signed by Tesla Turo United, a collective of Turo power and all-star hosts who own Teslas, shared similar sentiments, saying that CarSync offers more reliable and varied automated messages than Turo\u2019s messaging system.<\/p>\n The letter, which TechCrunch viewed, also says CarSync completely automates Supercharger reimbursements, a tool that\u2019s not \u201cmerely a helpful tool for us, it is basically a necessity.<\/em>\u201d Without that tool, they have to manually copy and paste Supercharger costs from the Tesla app, which the letter describes as \u201ca soul-draining, time-wasting process.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCarSync\u2019s magic is that it integrates with both Tesla and Turo, enabling CarSync to draw the Supercharger expenses from Tesla, format an invoice, and with the press of only one button, we can send the invoice and receipts to our guests after their trip,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cAs Power & All-Star Hosts dealing with hundreds of trips, we don\u2019t have the time and bandwidth to operate our businesses without automation of these Supercharger expenses. Along the same lines, CarSync makes it super simple to automate collection of toll reimbursements and related receipts.\u201d<\/p>\n CarSync has also recently integrated with Lula to offer an insurance product that insures vehicles \u201cwhen not on a guest trip,\u201d which has been helpful for hosts\u2019 auto loans. Turo has not shared plans to provide its own insurance platform for hosts.<\/p>\n CarSync said it was disappointed by Turo\u2019s decision, \u201cespecially given that Turo is a peer-to-peer sharing network, this goes against the openness and collaboration that is in the spirit of P2P,\u201d said Mihajlovic, who noted that Airbnb works to promote external partners through its developer program<\/a>.<\/p>\n CarSync was founded in 2019 specifically with the car-sharing business in mind, and now plans to pivot and focus on helping companies that rent cars to Uber drivers manage their fleets.<\/p>\n \u201cStill, given that we have built a brand and have a loyal user base, we are also thinking of a product to continue the CarSync brand and provide fleet management functionalities to smaller fleets,\u201d said Mihajlovic. \u201cIt definitely hurts given that our \u2018free\u2019 business model was starting to work and we were scaling like crazy, however lessons are learned and we\u2019re moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleetwire, another popular third-party service, offers hosts a way to list all of their Turo vehicles on a user-friendly website<\/a> that directs renters back to Turo. TechCrunch was unable to reach Fleetwire for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nTuro is blocking access to third-party services and hosts are freaking out<\/br>
\n2023-04-11 21:42:35<\/br><\/p>\nTuro\u2019s real risk<\/h2>\n