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Car rental
rather than negotiating on the car rental base rates only.” GPS is generally supplied free with larger vehicles and most smartphones have it, so it should not be necessary to pay for it. Similarly, any company with fleet cars is likely to have valid insurance for car rental – another cost saved.
BANKING SAVINGS
One major bank has negotiated strict conditions surrounding ancillaries to considerable effect. “We have 90 per cent of delivery and collection included, a £400 damage waiver and a £15 fuel waiver: we can return the car with £15-worth of fuel missing and not get charged – but employees don’t know that,” says the company’s travel and fleet manager. This covers the possibility of someone filling up the car with fuel several miles from the drop-off point.
The bank spends £500,000 a year
on car rentals that are, on average, two days long. It has contracts with National and Europcar. It is interesting to note that the £400 waiver on damage has added just 5 pence a day to the cost of the contract but removes the need for bookers to worry about a missing wheel trim and the ensuing admin. CWT’s report advises that 10-20 per cent of total car rental costs are ancillaries, and most of these (apart from airport charges and sales tax), are negotiable.
FUEL FOR THOUGHT Rental fleets are generally still populated by petrol or diesel engine cars. “As the cost of fuel continues to rise, diesel is rapidly becoming a more attractive option, so having the choice of which fuel-type a hire vehicle uses is a big bonus,” says Europcar UK managing director Ken McCall. “Europcar offers a ‘diesel guarantee’ for its corporate customers, enabling them to choose a diesel vehicle in any car group they select. We are also spearheading a number of initiatives to give business users access to alternative fuel vehicles, such as electric and hybrid.” Enterprise Rent-a-Car has trialled electric vehicles. “We used them
to pick up customers, to give them exposure and see what their perceptions were,” says Enterprise director Rob Ingram. “Electric cars are not as competitive as similar sized cars and were not giving the savings clients wanted.” However, Ingram can see electric
cars being used in car share schemes once prices come down, because they lend themselves to short journeys. These programmes allow companies to rent cars by the hour, and technology plays a major role in delivering detailed MI to both supplier and customer. At the beginning of this year, Avis
Budget Group announced a deal to buy car-sharing firm Zipcar for US$500 million. Avis CEO Ronald Nelson said at the time: “By combining
“Having the choice of which fuel-type a hire vehicle uses is a big bonus”
with Zipcar, we will significantly increase our growth potential, both in the US and internationally.” Simon Brown, senior manager
of travel services for accountancy giant Deloitte, says: “We have communicated to the business the option of the Zipcar model, though we have no preferred supplier.”
BOOKING OPTIONS In the case of Enterprise Car Share, the driver goes online to book a car for the required period – say, between 2pm and 4pm – and receives an email to confirm the reservation. Technology in the car also receives a message to say that a registered customer is due to pick up the vehicle at 2pm. Each user has personal sign-in details contained in a smartcard, and when the traveller uses it to access the car and take the keys out of the glove box, a chip in the car recognises the user code, which allows the key to work. “We know how often people book, how long for and how often they are not showing up,” says Enterprise’s Ingram. “We can see what time they
CASE STUDY
GREY AREA
RUTLAND COUNTY COUNCIL has around 400 employees, many of whom need to travel regularly. Originally, the council had two pool cars to service those needs, but employees often used their own vehicles and claimed mileage reimbursement. This ‘grey’ fleet poses a duty-of-care risk for any organisation because of lack of control. Rutland now subscribes to Enterprise Car
Share, giving drivers access to eight vehicles, to replace the pool cars and grey fleet. Employees book the car online, and maintenance, servicing and cleaning is managed by Enterprise, whose ‘telematics’ in-car system monitors and reports in detail on car use, travel patterns and cost. Two teams piloted the system, and the feedback was used to iron out problems with vehicle availability. “It was important to get feedback each day from staff using the cars,” says Dave Brown, the council’s operational director for places. Council employees are encouraged to use the Enterprise cars as first choice for short journeys and, with several employees using the same car in one day, the programme has been deemed a success. “We’re still evaluating the programme, but so
far it’s worked out very well – our grey fleet costs have been cut by around a third,” says Brown.
got into the car and how far they went. The technology inside the car calculates that and it is automatically fed into our system.” Hertz On Demand works on a similar basis, with booking available through smartphone or tablet, using Hertz’s free app. Heathrow airport has taken on a Hertz On Demand fleet of low-emission Ford Fiestas for use by selected employees on a car-share basis, allowing the airport operator to reduce its pool fleet by 25 per cent. And Europcar has a partnership with Daimler AG’s car-sharing scheme Car2go, which offers two-seat
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