report | car rental
The average stay for non-corporate tourists is about three days, so they may ask agencies for packages with or without automobile rentals
how car sharing works independently for those traveling three to five days in a metropolitan area, but haven’t coordinated with clients — yet. Mark Fletcher, executive vice president of
Mann Travels — a consortium of nine North and South Carolina offices — sees the potential. Fletcher deals with corporate travelers who sometimes have extended work projects away from home, and when introduced to Enterprise’s Rideshare he was enthusiastic. “Yes, we [the agencies] would get involved with
this product easily,” says Fletcher, noting advisors could use this service for visiting professionals. “Having a product like this makes the whole process seamless.” University of Berkeley Professor Susan
Shaheen, who also serves as director of innovative mobility research at Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center, says she’s been studying car sharing and hailing services for the last 20 years and believes it’s an easy fit for the rental industry. “Te car rental industry has grown into car sharing,” she says. It makes
sense, says Sharon Faulkner,
executive director of the American Car Rental Association (ACRA), an organization that represents 98% of the car rental industry, with most of its clients traveling to Florida, Las Vegas, California, and New York. She adds, the average stay for non-corporate tourists is about three days, and they may ask agencies for packages with or without automobile rentals. Once in Boston, New York or DC, they often use local transit and then a car-sharing option for a day out of the city. Shaheen and vice president of Enterprise
CarShare and Rideshare Ryan Johnson both participated in last year’s SXSW (South by South West) Eco panel on City Transit 411: Urban Mobility and Urban Myth, where they spoke of the evolution of rented mobility which travelers might rent “for a week, a day or an hour.” Shaheen says of Avis and Enterprises car-
sharing options: “Uber, Gett and Lyft are really impacting taxis but not the car rental industry — the rental agencies are pretty savvy.” Very soon every agent will know just how savvy — and learn how to weave profits into the service. n
62 | ASTAnetwork | fall 2015 CASESTUDIES
DAN BESCHLOSS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRY RELATIONS, VALERIE WILSON TRAVEL, NYC
Company expectations for the year ahead include continued consolidation and increased business travel, which is projected to increase over the next few years, according to Beschloss. “Car companies will have a global reach and
their own presence in all major international corporate markets.” While Enterprise Holdings came out as the
most profitable rental firm in 2014, for Valerie Wilson Travel (VWT), Hertz Rental is their preferred operator. “I can only speak from our system invoices, but Hertz still comes out as our number one,” he says. Valerie Wilson Travel has its home base in New
York City but also has 15 other offices across the country. It deals mostly with boutique travel for corporate-based clients, which means a high-end car or limousine and maybe, a driver, plus chilled water (or better) in the back. Has Beschloss considered car sharing? Not yet
— if ever. He says: “We don’t get involved in what the client might do themselves” — though he thinks it’s a great idea. “It opens up that part of the industry and makes it available to people who might not otherwise afford a vehicle.” For now, VWT is sticking to what it knows
— and it knows Hertz, which can make the company anywhere between 5-10% commission, depending upon the services required.
valeriewilsontravel.com
MARK FLETCHER EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MANN TRAVELS, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
Mann Travels sold between $3-4m last year in annual car rental sales and Fletcher foresees this trend continuing. Car sharing won’t impact his business — he has likened it to online travel agencies (OTAs), which haven’t hurt Mann’s nine Carolina locations or many other agencies. “Yes, the industry has changed with OTAs, but
those who’ve stuck with it have come out on top,” he says, adding that people are increasingly realizing they need to speak to an expert. Mann steers clients towards Enterprise
Holdings, which is their preferred vender, working well with them and, according to Fletcher, “selling quite a few cars.” Enterprise, he says, focuses on customer service and is aggressive in the business; he also believes that Enterprise Rideshare is something Mann will use for corporate clients. “We could get involved with this product
easily,” he says, believing it would work well for five or six corporate clients visiting a work location together. Zipcar isn’t something Mann Travel would
utilize yet, but it is a valuable asset for someone visiting a large city and looking to get out without trains, buses, subways or taxis. “You don’t want a car the entire time you’re
there,” says Fletcher. “You want it for a day or two. Zipcar would work, but right now the customer would have to schedule and rent the vehicle independently.”
manntravels.com
IMAGE: GETTY
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