MDO Car Share (Mobility Development Operations) is a leader in community-based car sharing, managing a diverse network of regional programs across the United States. From transit-led programs in Upstate New York to equitable community-led initiatives in Los Angeles, Detroit, and St. Louis, MDO provides critical transportation access through electric vehicle (EV) fleets.
💡 Industry Standard: MDO has set the standard for affordable carsharing in the United States — with most programs priced at just $5–7 per hour, while maintaining high service quality across multiple states and time zones.
To maintain high service levels across multiple states and time zones, MDO partnered with Lanterne to centralize fleet management, automate maintenance, and ensure their EVs are always charged and ready for members.
The Challenge: Fragmented Operations & EV Complexity
Managing a single car-sharing fleet is difficult, and managing distinct regional brands, each with its own local team and unique geography, multiplies operational complexity. MDO faced several key challenges:
- Platform Fragmentation: Data was siloed across various platforms providers, making it difficult to maintain a unified, real-time view of fleet health.
- EV Battery Monitoring: Manual monitoring of battery levels across hundreds of vehicles was time-consuming and prone to error, creating operational friction and impacting reliability. Real-time monitoring was particularly difficult without a single fleet dashboard.
- Manual Tasking: Coordinating cleaning, registration renewals, and mechanical repairs across dozens of local staff members via project management tools was inefficient, because these workflows were disconnected from vehicle data.
The Lanterne Solution: Unified Visibility and Operations
Lanterne integrated directly with MDO’s telematics and booking platforms to create a single source of truth for fleet health. By turning real-time telematics data into actionable tasks, Lanterne provided MDO with higher-quality, real-time data to inform their decision-making and enhance their fleet care.
1. Automated Battery Management
For an EV-heavy fleet, charging is the heartbeat of the operation. Lanterne implemented smart charging notifications, active trip monitoring, and critical asset protection to keep every vehicle ready and prevent discharge.
2. Market-Specific Automatic Task Assignment
MDO operates across various large, geographically diverse markets. Lanterne’s auto-assignment engine ensures the right tasks reach the right people instantly — routing regional tasks to local teams and metropolitan tasks to area leads.
3. Intelligent Scheduling
Lanterne maintains vehicle uptime by automating routine maintenance — triggering usage-based cleaning on specific time intervals or mileage thresholds, and tracking registration renewals and insurance documents on-platform.
4. Geofencing & Security
To protect assets, MDO utilizes Lanterne’s geographic range alerts. When a vehicle travels beyond a predefined boundary from its home station, an “Out of Home Area” task is triggered, allowing the team to monitor potential unauthorized use or plan for retrieval.
The Results: Enhanced Operational Performance
Lanterne’s superior vehicle monitoring has transformed MDO’s ability to care for its fleet and maintain high service standards. By utilizing Lanterne’s mobile-first platform, field teams have real-time data at their fingertips, allowing them to catch issues earlier and implement interventions quickly.
Creighton Randall, CEO at MDO Car Share, explained:
“Lanterne has had a truly positive impact on MDO’s operations. By integrating with our telematics and reservation systems, it allows us to identify issues earlier and respond more quickly.”
“I’m particularly excited for the year ahead — it is critical for small and mid-sized operators in particular to feel like they have a partner with the flexibility to develop new tools quickly as the software world changes at a bewildering pace. Lanterne has been that partner for us.”
Creighton Randall, CEO at MDO Car Share
