City-Drop entrusts its customer calls to Emma, an AI voice agent, day and night

City-Drop, a European specialist in self-service commercial vehicle rentals, has launched an AI voice agent developed with Volubile to handle a portion of its 10,000 monthly calls, at any time of day. As reported by En-Contact magazine, more than a quarter of requests are now handled by the AI, with some resolved end-to-end without human intervention.

City-Drop, a 100% digital mobility solution

City-Drop offers free-floating commercial vehicles across Europe: online booking, geolocation, vehicle unlocking, and return are all managed via the app, whether the trip is in France or abroad. The company offers 16,000 possible routes across the continent, with deals starting at 1 euro for repositioning vehicles.

Founded in 2014 by Frédéric Dubois and his partners Christophe Gerbeaud and Felix Nguyen, the company initially developed a one-way service before launching round-trip rentals three years ago. Out of 4,500 monthly trips, only 6% now require an external driver: the rest are handled directly by the users.

An AI conversational agent available around the clock

City-Drop receives up to 10,000 calls per month. Of this volume, the AI voice agent developed by Volubile now handles more than 25%, with 20% resolved entirely without being transferred to an advisor—a figure the co-founder describes as significant.

The scope assigned to the AI remains precisely defined: prospect calls are still handled 100% by staff. At City-Drop, a potential customer must be converted, and this sales mission remains a human task.

Why City-Drop chose Volubile

The initial contact began with an email from Stéphanie Delestre, co-founder of Volubile, a little over a year ago. After testing, City-Drop was assigned a dedicated account manager tasked with adapting call handling to the vehicle rental business. Frédéric Dubois highlights a partnership marked by fluidity and responsiveness, including on sensitive topics like GDPR, handled with the agility of a human-sized team.

Mobility: a natural testing ground for voice AI

Commercial vehicle rentals, car dealerships, debt collection: the mobility sector is seeing a surge in use cases for AI conversational agents, which feature a different technical architecture than a simple callbot. City-Drop joins other industry players that have made the same choice, such as DriiveMe, another Volubile reference in mobility and vehicle logistics.

The City-Drop case also illustrates a broader trend: companies facing call spikes are choosing to deploy an AI voice agent without waiting for a quiet period to test the tool, much like the deployment carried out by Homair during its peak season.

Interview with Frédéric Dubois originally published by En-Contact magazine, conducted by Manuel Jacquinet. Find read the full interview on the En-Contact website.