Phrame, the tech company featured in Zennie62 on YouTube / Zennie62Media coverage of the 2018 TechCrunch August Capital Summer Party, and who’s product acts as a secure lockbox for keys that can only be accessed via smartphone app permission, including key storage for fleets, auto OEMs, logistics providers, and consumers, has announced a new partnership with AutoForce.
Phrame Inc. and Auto Force have successfully completed their first pilot in testing Phrame’s smart license plate frame for key management on Auto Force’s car dealerships.
Auto Force is a Silicon Valley-based car dealership, online auction platform, and peer-to-peer rental management company that enables individual auto owners to rent their cars and sell their cars directly to local car dealerships.
Auto Force offers users a hybrid model of car sales and rental options. The business has grown to multiple locations in the past year and currently has over a hundred vehicles under management — thus key management as usual in dealerships became an outdated model for the innovator.
“On any given day, dozens of cars may be test driven and rented by multiple customers,” said Ben Lin, founder of Auto Force. “We want to serve customers quickly and reduce friction for our staff, and so with Phrame we know exactly where we left the key, where the vehicles are parked on the lot, and the cars’ conditions.”
Phrame’s pilot with Auto Force tested Phrame’s security, location tracking and app reporting capabilities. By keeping car keys inside of Phrame’s smart license plate frame, Auto Force staff was able to reduce lag time to less than 15 seconds per customer interaction — prior protocol often resulted in lost keys and left customers waiting for over two minutes on the lot while staff tried to find the keys and ran back and forth between the office key locker and the parking lot.
With Phrame’s fleet tracking capabilities, Auto Force was able to track the car’s locations, keys and the last staff member to take the cars out on test drives. As Auto Force also offers carsharing via peer-to-peer car-sharing platforms such as Turo, Lin is encouraged by Phrame’s security and accident reporting, which he believes can give his car owning customers peace of mind as they can monitor their cars’ conditions and get real time incident notifications.
“Our pilot with Auto Force is a first step in bringing our vision into reality of providing convenience and confidence to consumers not only in the car dealerships but also in the automotive industry. Phrame serves as the concierge for car owners and car dealerships, providing them visibility of their vehicles and giving them a robust offering of services that can be ordered directly from the Phrame app. We are starting in the Silicon Valley, and let our customers guide us to better evaluate the various ways we can transform the automotive industry. ” said Charlene Consolacion, Phrame’s CEO.
Phrame is running pilots with multiple OEMs, and on-demand service and delivery providers in August, 2018. The company’s namesake smart license plate “Phrame” serves as a secured lockbox for car key to provide vehicle remote access for businesses and consumers, enabling a variety of unattended services – regardless of vehicle’s year and model.