Ever needed a car repair job on the fly and you just can’t get it into the shop?

Calgary-based Wi-Tech, founded by Benjamin Oguntimehin, takes familiar car repair technology and brings it direct to the owner with an innovative connection called WiDrive.

The idea came about as he was working with a car repair shop on a separate project and he’d heard from customers that it would be far more convenient if people didn’t have to drive to a shop to get a service. 

Oguntimehin also talked with mechanics and technicians who also expressed some displeasure with pay and hours. In talking with one technician – Nathan, who now works as WiDrive’s lead technician – Oguntimehin learned that up to 85 per cent of customer car issues could be fixed in the driveway of their home.

It first started as a mobile service, but then evolved into a platform that connected drivers with repair issues with mechanics willing to come fix them.

“Now, it’s much more of a platform where you declare I have an issue,” he said.

“Then we’ve got several technicians who are operating the city, respond to that signal, they come to the location and then carry out the job.”

The downloadable app, available on the App Store and Google Play, allows people to connect with mechanics to either diagnose and fix an issue or to take care of an issue the owner has identified.  Prices are provided upfront so there are no surprises and no upcharges for the owner.

Once the work is done and the car owner is satisfied, payment is released to the mechanic. WiDrive takes a small percentage from each transaction. One of the keys for mechanics is they get a larger share of the money instead of only a percentage of the hourly rate at a dealership, Oguntimehin said.

Repair data the real superpower: Oguntimehin

When they first jumped into WiDrive, Oguntimehin said that when you first start a company you believe that everyone needs your product.

“Everyone has a car; everyone needs to get somewhere. We’ll solve all the problems for everyone,” he said.

“Then you get into business and then you see, ‘hey, I can’t get a single person to use this product.’

That’s where their participation in the Alberta Catalyzer – Velocity program has helped. Oguntimehin said it really helped them focus on who their early adopters would – and should – be.

Today, they have more than 1,000 people that have downloaded the app and they’ve done 500-plus repairs around Calgary.

“When we entered the Catalyzer program, they really helped us see that our focus on the key, ideal customer personas,” Oguntimehin said.

“The key people using the application and being able to, I would guess, market to them, and really draw them in, tell them who you are. Tell them our message, making sure that our message resonates with them.”

He said those are the folks who will influence the next stage of people who want to use the service.

Oguntimehin said that scaling up and delivering the service to new cities across Alberta and Canada is a goal.

“But I feel like the real superpower of the company is how much information that we are collecting when it comes to the repairs,” he said.

From there, using an AI component, he envisions a time when it’s going to take a customer’s identified issue and recommend certain things to a mechanic that would be able to help them shorten the time it takes to do the appointment.

That’s just one way the data becomes useful.

It was important to Oguntimehin to create a platform that was convenient for drivers, but also allowed technicians to regain their joy of working with cars.

“What we’re trying to do is reignite that excitement that they first felt when they first set I want to be a technician,” he said.

“We’re delivering a platform for them to exercise their own skill sets on their own terms.”