On-Demand Rental App to Launch in Virginia
Certified Auto Rentals, an on-demand car rental company and app, is set to launch in Richmond, Va., later this year.
Certified Auto Rentals, an on-demand car rental company, is set to launch in Richmond, Va., later this year, according to a report by Richmond BizSense. Users will be able to access vehicles through a mobile app.
Coretta Kingston came up with the idea six years after getting into the rental car industry as an independent contractor.
“All I knew was we had to change the business model to adapt to the market,” Kingston told Richmond BizSense. “I began to realize that the on-demand trend is beginning to pick up a lot of traffic in dense population areas. It’s almost like the scales came off my eyes.”
Set to go live later this year, the CARs app will allow users to find available vehicles on their Android phones and rent a car by the hour, says the report. The app also can lock and unlock the car.
Other mobile platforms will follow the Android platform, according to the report.
Currently, the company has a 2015 Hyundai Accent with a parking space in downtown Richmond. Kingston is adding three more cars to the fleet and working with the city to lease more designated parking spaces, according to the report.
Initially, CARs will charge $15 an hour per vehicle with the first 75 miles included (and 30 cents a mile thereafter), says the report.
Click here for the full Richmond BizSense report.
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