Merchants Fleet has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Ridecell, a provider of fleet orchestration solutions. Merchants Fleet has selected Ridecell and their Ridecell 360 fleet solutions to optimize the management of its short-term fleet, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and employee productivity to support its continued growth in the short-term leasing sector, according to a recent release.

Merchants and Ridecell began working together less than a year ago, and within that time, Ridecell was able to integrate multiple systems fully, making Merchants' employees more productive while driving client satisfaction. 

Merchants' short-term leasing division supports diverse clients, including corporate fleets, last-mile delivery companies, seasonal businesses, and mobile service providers. Primarily composed of light-duty vehicles such as vans, trucks, and passenger vans, Merchants' short-term lease offerings are designed to meet the ebb and flow of seasonal last-mile and short-haul delivery vehicle demands, with rentals typically ranging from a few weeks up to a year. Merchants' exponential growth in this sector brought the challenge of rapidly scaling operations to meet evolving client demands.

As demand for short-term leasing surged, Merchants recognized the opportunity to enhance operational efficiency. While functional, the existing tools and processes—spread across multiple systems such as CRMs, lease management software, transportation systems, and spreadsheets—were becoming increasingly inefficient and time-consuming to maintain.

This realization drove the Merchants team to explore innovative solutions to streamline workflows and enable faster, more agile response times to ensure an optimal client experience and best-in-class operations. The challenge was expanding the team or implementing a solution that offered the visibility and automation needed for rapid, accurate business decisions.

Merchants found the answer with Ridecell 360, which streamlined operations, integrated multiple internal and vendor systems, and significantly improved scalability and efficiency.

"At Merchants, our goal has always been to lead the fleet management industry through innovation and superior service," said Brad Burgess, co-CEO of Merchants Fleet. "By partnering with Ridecell, we're able to streamline our operations and scale our short-term fleet like never before. The Ridecell platform allows us to bring together data from multiple systems, enabling better decision-making, for instance, for vehicle remarketing choices. When a vehicle is offboarded, the system automatically tags it for resale or redeployment back into the fleet based on pre-configured rules, a process that was previously managed manually through spreadsheets. This level of automation not only reduces manual labor but also allows Merchants Fleet to quickly adapt to changing market conditions."

The Ridecell automation platform enables significant improvements in efficiency by leveraging business rules that enhance scalability and streamline operations, which allows Merchants to focus on delivering exceptional value and experiences to clients. With the platform's ability to process large volumes of fleet data, Merchants can automate and optimize asset management through real-time diagnostics data, which ensures vehicles are running at peak performance.

Ridecell also supports transportation logistics by providing a linear workflow that tracks the status of every vehicle in the fleet—from deployment to maintenance—ensuring seamless coordination. By automating these processes, Merchants can reduce operational complexities and improve responsiveness to deliver a best-in-class client experience and better meet the dynamic needs of their clients.

The deployment of Ridecell technology is primarily focused on operational efficiency, cost reduction, asset utilization improvement, and employee productivity. This positively impacts key financial metrics such as return on tangible equity (ROTE) and cost-income ratio.

"Merchants Fleet is at the forefront of the mobility revolution, and we are thrilled to support their vision with our fleet orchestration technology," said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of Ridecell. "Our platform is designed to integrate with existing systems and provide a unified view of fleet operations, helping Merchants optimize their processes and scale their fleet without the growing pains that typically come with expansion. Together, we're setting a new standard for digital transformation in the vehicle leasing industry to meet the evolving needs of fleet customers."

Looking ahead, Merchants Fleet and Ridecell are focusing on visionary advancements like on-demand vehicle rentals at stations, predictive maintenance powered by telematics and AI, live tracking for transportation functions, and dynamic supply and demand management. These innovations aim to seamlessly integrate short- and long-term fleet management, meeting evolving client needs while enhancing efficiency and operational visibility.

As Merchants Fleet continues to innovate, this partnership with Ridecell positions them to accommodate future growth and maintain their leadership in the fleet management industry. With the ability to manage a larger fleet more efficiently, Merchants is poised to meet the needs of its customers with even greater speed and reliability.