Rent-A-Wreck Licensee Upgrades from Starter-Interrupt Devices Mel Morris, a Rent-A-Wreck licensee in Canton, Mich., recently installed a GPS tracking system from Enfotrace in his fleet. He upgraded from starter-interrupt devices, which rely on a code to be inputted once a bill is paid. Without the code, the car shuts off at a pre-programmed time after a grace period. The system could not manually shut down the cars, and without GPS, did not locate them. Therefore Morris had to track down overdue renters or wait until the car got impounded. When an overdue customer called, Rent-A-Wreck would go out and program the car to activate the starter, for a fee, or wait until the customer came in with payment. Now, with the Enfotrace system, Morris says he can be more proactive by locating (“pinging”) any vehicle on a map instantly. The car can be shut off and turned back on remotely at any time. Generally, though, he doesn’t worry about his fleet until vehicles are past due. Morris expects the return on investment will far outweigh the costs. “Before we had any system, I lost quite a few cars,” Morris says. “I’ve had cars to this day that I don’t know what happened to them. These systems pay for themselves, no doubt about it,” he says.
Dealership Rental Agency Gets Peace of Mind Peggy Cowsert runs the rental division of Toyota of Stuart in Stuart, Fla. Though locating stolen vehicles is anyone’s concern, Cowsert implemented the Enfotrace system for other reasons. First, simply knowing the location of an overdue vehicle gives her a leg up when calling the overdue renter. Two, close to 50 percent of her customers are more than 65 years old — if she has not heard from an elderly customer, locating the vehicle is one step to ensuring the customer’s well being. Cowsert can also use the system’s location and boundary notification features to help protect her rentals from being used for criminal activity, and can work with police if a problem occurs. “The [tracking] system is an extra precaution for the few times we need it,” says Cowsert regarding the system. “And the price makes it worthwhile for that peace of mind.”
Road Star Car Rental Minimizes Miles Driven, Loss of Use Road Star Car Rental of Toronto has 80 percent of its fleet installed with Enfotrace units. Road Star offers unlimited miles in the province of Ontario, though that privilege is void when a customer travels outside the province, says Haiven Duong, general manager. Customers sign the agreement acknowledging that they will pay a per-kilometer charge for miles incurred outside of Ontario. Duong checks the program’s “Device Final Location” report each morning to identify rule breakers, who are presented with a satellite photo of the car out of the province limits. “Usually their jaw drops and they pay the charge,” says Duong. Duong says the system also mitigates loss of use. Duong pinged the car of one wayward customer and found it was in a police impound yard. Duong picked up the car the same day and put it back on rent immediately. “If I had not used the tracking system, that car would have been sitting in the pound for five or more days,” says Duong. “I saved a bunch of money and we charged the customer for the trouble.”
Anne Taylor has been in the GPS market for more than 13 years. She can be reached at 1-800-815-3639 ext. 754, or ataylor@enfotrace.com.