Is this Car Rental’s Darkest Hour?
With talk of a Hertz bankruptcy and federal bailouts still pending, where are the green shoots of a recovery for car rental, and who is best poised to take advantage?
Chris Brown, executive editor of Business Fleet, Auto Rental News, and Fleet Forward, offers his perspective on fleets, auto rental, and the new mobility ecosystem. Along with related publications and online newsletters, Chris produces the International Car Rental Show and the Fleet Forward Conference. Chris is relied on as an industry resource in matters by major media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio.
With talk of a Hertz bankruptcy and federal bailouts still pending, where are the green shoots of a recovery for car rental, and who is best poised to take advantage?
On the road to recovery, car rental operators can look to signposts in both demand and supply. Regarding wholesale fleet values, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Right now, a card on the dash saying “this vehicle has been hygienically cleaned” means a lot more than a five-star user rating. Looking past the pandemic, this brief cessation of non-essential travel might produce even greater change.
When one licensee’s parking lot needed sealing, an employee came to him and said, “Can we do it ourselves instead of paying a sealing company $20,000?”
The pandemic will end, and business will roar back. But for now, operators are asking: “When do I close my office? Why are we open right now? How long can I pay 40 people?”
As proliferation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) increases, skilled labor, equipment, and training costs will increase as well. Fleet operators can’t mitigate these financial burdens by cutting corners on ADAS recalibration and repairs.
Exiting a year of record revenues, the new year brings challenges from market disruptors, incumbent players new to the U.S. market, and new mobility models.
The major Brazilian car rental companies are on a buying spree, while long-term rentals to commercial customers are keeping the independents afloat. The biggest story, however, is that rental companies are now the biggest suppliers of cars to ride-hailing drivers in the country.
Walking into a representative’s or senator’s office to cogently deliver a message that will inspire change is an exhilarating, exhausting, and daunting task. Here’s an inside look on how these meetings go down.
Lyft’s car rental service offers renters some great perks, though it doesn’t yet have the big-volume problems that airport car rental companies experience.
Avis’s expansion of its TNC rentals program depends on its ability to manage vehicle mileage and telemetry, made possible by a connected car.
One of the final consolidations in U.S. car rental, the acquisition has ramifications in both the leisure and corporate markets, as well as for other brands.
In this analysis of recent mobility news, we apply the “efficiencies, cost, savings, fewer tech hurdles” rule to see which new mobility models might be deployed sooner than we think.
If your business creed is to solve problems, you might serve a customer well enough that they may not need you anymore.
From a geeky industry insider standpoint, the fact that Lyft is renting fleet to consumers on a daily rate is a big deal. But questions abound regarding the business model and profitability.
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