Car rental
CAR
RENTAL RFPS
REQUESTS FOR PROPOSAL (RFPS) are time-consuming and labour intensive, and, therefore, expensive for both protagonist and bidder, so prepare the document carefully.
• Know what you want, articulate it clearly and narrow down potential suppliers to a manageable number.
• Know your profile: for example, for a company that has average rentals of two days, savings on collection and delivery charges for a two-day rental will be greater than on a ten-day hire.
• Consider surveying your travellers and bookers, so that you understand their car rental needs.
• Write an RFP with business objectives and travel policy in mind to align buyers with those requirements.
smartcars by the minute, hour or day in 18 cities, and recently opened its first UK outlet in London. It is worth noting that even when a company has negotiated a contract with one or two suppliers, mandating use can have disadvantages. Deloitte in the UK spends around £100,000 a year on car hire, and takes advantage of a global deal managed by the US- based parent firm. “Booking is done via a link loaded on the intranet, pre-populated with our discount code. However, we don’t mandate the use of this, as there are often lower rates available with local operators,” says Simon Brown.
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AUTOMATION INFORMATION MI should be integrated into a booking tool, so that a travel buyer can see how many employees are going on a business trip, when they book the car, how many are driving, number of miles planned to cover, purpose of journey, whether it is a client visit or a trip to another office, and how costs compare to rail travel. Enterprise clients can personalise the booking tool. “Clients can add questions such as: ‘Could employees have used videoconferencing instead of driving to a meeting?’ and useful reminders like: ‘Please remember to return the car with a full tank,’” says
Enterprise director Ingram. “Company travel policy can also be posted on the site – our business-to-business booking tool is very flexible.” Hertz and Europcar have both introduced systems to save drivers time. Hertz has installed Express Rent kiosks at Heathrow, which allow travellers to use the booths to interact in real-time with a Hertz representative through live video link, pay for their rental – even without a booking – and receive an instant PDF receipt.
“Why pay for it upfront when you can put it on a centrally billed statement?”
Europcar is piloting its Key Ready service at London’s King’s Cross station. On booking, customers receive a secure PIN by email, which gives them access to a locker holding the vehicle key, removing the need to go to the rental counter. And coming to the UK soon is the first VAT-compliant, dedicated car rental card from Airplus. “It will break down statements to give greater visibility – what cars have been used, where they were picked up and dropped off, mileage, driver’s
• Define your questions closely to ensure you get the answers you want, and all in the same format, so that you can compare like-with-like.
• Duty of care is a crucial element of any part of a business travel programme: for example, involve your firm’s key health and safety people.
• Organise all RFP elements into categories and give them weighting, depending on company objectives – this makes it easier for you to calculate bidders’ scores and provide them with feedback at the end of the RFP process. It can also assist when negotiating better terms within the supplier contract.
• Put your spend into the RFP, so that companies know what size of account they are pitching for.
• Define the business – straightforward car rental only, car rental-plus-car share, maximum limit on collision damage waiver and so on.
• Ask potential providers how regularly they invest in technology, and what new products/services are due in the coming months.
name, refuelling charge, whether the driver upgraded to luxury... It will all be clearly visible on a centrally billed lodge card,” says head of strategic projects for Airplus Roger Eccleston. “Why pay for it upfront, when
you can put it on a centrally billed statement and all the information can flow electronically into the ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, with no further manual data input?” he asks. Why indeed. ■
MARCH/APRIL 2013
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