As a seasonal business with intermittent cash flow, car rental operations must find ways to balance out their finances throughout the year to ensure a profit.

That calls for a detailed real-time look at revenue and operating costs, preferably broken out per vehicle.

Attendees at the International Car Rental Show can learn more about the micro-level finances of rental car businesses in a session on April 16 at 9:30 a.m. at Paris Las Vegas. Carlos Bazan, head of operations for the Americas for Green Motion International and U-Save International, and Jon Dill, operations director for NextCar/Priceless/Ren-A-Wreck, will lead the session.

Among key takeaway points for attendees:

• Learn how to buy rental cars, when to buy them, how much to buy them for, and understand lifespans for each fleet vehicle.

• Learn when a vehicle needs to be sold, the right sale price, and how much money to put back into cash flow and company profit.

• Drill down to see how much an operation is making per car, the cost per car, and the best fleet structure. 

• With seasonality of rental fleets, what kind of expenses and people will an operation need? Is fleet size right for the market? 

• How to avoid overextending a fleet and make sure you are not buying too few or too many cars in each month.

The International Car Rental Show will be held April 14-16 at Paris Las Vegas and bring together the owners, operators, executives, and managers of various rental car operations for three days of networking, education, and vendor business connections. REGISTRATION HERE