Car rental
partly because they are more able to do so now. Evolving ground transportation management models are bringing fresh savings opportunities to the marketplace. The number of UK organisations actually booking car rental is on the rise, which might reflect the phasing out of grey fleet in response to duty of care issues. “Any at-work journey brings a shared, or vicarious, liability with regards to the safety of both the company’s employee and others who may be affected by their actions,” warns Europcar UK group managing director, Ken McCall. “Naturally, this extends to the safety of any vehicle driven, regardless of ownership.” McCall says he is not surprised that
T
many companies are reviewing policies and increasingly banning employees from driving their own cars, particularly for longer journeys where the cost of rental can actually be more competitive than the cost of mileage reimbursement on a privately owned car. One such travel buyer is Greg Dungan
from the London Probation Trust (LPT). Last year he tore up his organisation’s antiquated grey fleet policy and, working with Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, devised a new strategy. Before the change, Dungan was dealing with as many as 2,500 drivers visiting 90 sites in London and another 100 across England and Wales. With little scope for car sharing, staff had no choice but to use their own cars, and claimed 60p per mile for the privilege. “When people were on a 400-mile round
trip it was costing us a fortune,” he admits. But rather than a blanket ban on grey fleet drivers, Dungan calculated that most value would be derived by mandating rental on journeys of more than 60 miles. Based on an average of 60 drivers and 70 bookings a month, the new policy has saved the LPT £5,000 per month over the last year. Dungan says he had to work hard to
overcome the staff’s initial reluctance to comply. “It was a big culture change,” he says. “Everyone was used to charging 60p per mile, so there was a fair amount of anxiety and push back.” He also admits to overlooking one issue, and that is that employees don’t treat the
ravel buyers and managers at both ends of the corporate spectrum are stepping up engagement with car rental firms,
car hire vehicles in the same way as they would their own. “Our staff seem to like crashing the cars,” he says, slightly tongue in cheek. “We just didn’t factor it in, and it has cost us a fair amount of money.” Dungan advises buyers to communicate around this message when embracing the car rental model. The LPT online booking tool is easy to
use, only requiring the user to register online or through Dungan’s department. When the employee comes to book, only options permitted by the travel policy are made available. It helps control spend and means travellers are using the most environmentally friendly options. This type of innovation is helping
companies get the best value for their money, plus data generated from booking
“ Car sharing schemes are cost effective, drive effi ciencies through
improved utilisation and allow users to manage their bookings
”
tools allows managers to better analyse where and why money is spent. Today, car hire companies are offering software tools to help businesses manage employee demand for travel in order to reduce cost, cut emissions and increase productivity. Companies need to ask: Do you need to
make this trip at all? Could you use video- conferencing instead? How big a car do you actually need? Adrian Bewley, director of business rental
for Enterprise Rent-A-Car in the UK and Ireland, says many of the primary issues have become behavioural rather than solely cost-focused. Car sharing schemes are also gaining popularity in certain types of organisation. Louisa Bell, commercial director of Avis UK, says such schemes offer another flexible alternative for corporations. “Car sharing has been very successful in
the consumer space and we are seeing significant interest from corporations now as well,” Bell explains. “The service is seen as a flexible way to manage a fleet and it also removes maintenance and servicing costs,” she adds.
Avis’ ZipCar product, for example, gives business travellers access to cars all over London, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. Users can make reservations online or via an app and unlock the car using their smartphone. Insurance, congestion charges and a certain amount of fuel are all included in the price. Car sharing schemes are smarter travel options as they are more cost effective, drive efficiencies through improved utilisation (with fewer cars for a larger number of drivers) and allow employees to manage their own bookings. Hertz manages car sharing schemes for
customers across the world, but perhaps its most successful UK example is at Heathrow Airport. “We supply a business car share programme for the airport’s employees, which provides them with a dedicated fleet of low-emission vehicles for pool car use, with bookings managed online, over the phone, or by using a smart phone app. It has helped Heathrow drive down fleet costs by reducing admin- istration and improving vehicle utilisation,” says Neil Cunningham, Hertz general manager for the UK and Europe. The breadth and variety of ground
transportation initiatives now available in the marketplace is giving travel managers a flexibility that has until now not existed. The GTMC predicts its members car rental bookings will continue to grow as the economy recovers. This could be the right time, therefore, to revisit your strategy.
DEVELOPMENTS AHEAD
• Avis is now offering mobile wifi for business travellers. The technology allows travellers to stay connected both inside and outside the vehicle, helping them stay online and avoid expensive roaming charges. • The Enterprise online booking tool now integrates with the corporate travel policy and ensures employees can only rent pre-agreed vehicle sizes and types, requiring two-tier authorisation for exceptions. • Europcar is pushing its
Europcar.biz product to help travel buyers analyse the data generated by their ground transportation programme. The online rental management system gives them access to data in real time. • Hertz has deployed ExpressRent video kiosks at UK branches, which allow travellers to talk to a live rental representative so they can complete their transaction without having to wait in a queue.
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 53
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