Dollar/Thrifty Auto Group Canada Inc. has been testing the VerX Direct service for the past few months in one of their highest theft locations, at a large metropolitan airport. The VerX system not only caught a number of “not-valid’ licenses before the rental contracts were prepared, the test location did not experience any thefts in July and August of this year. Joseph Adamo, president of Dollar Thrifty in Canada stated that, “the use of the VerX service has had an impact on reducing theft. Word will get out that we are now checking licenses and the car theft rings that target rental companies will avoid our locations. The VerX Direct service provides new technology that is certainly worthy of consideration by the entire industry in Canada,” added Adamo.
Another rental car company outlet in Calgary reported that two of its cars, valued at over $20,000 per vehicle were stolen in the last two weeks of August. When the rental car company realized there had been a theft, a check of the renters’ drivers’ licenses quickly revealed that the licenses were fake - a common occurrence, according to industry members.
“Regrettably this is a bit like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped – it could have been prevented with a quick, simple and inexpensive check of the renter’s license before they released the car”, said Bill McNeice, president of ACCRO – the car rental association in Canada. ACCRO has been promoting the license verification service to its members for the past few months and those companies using the service are seeing immediate savings.
VerX Direct offers real time (<3 seconds), Canada-wide verification for a few dollars per check – it could save rental companies many thousands of dollars, according to the company.
“Our goal is to enable companies to effectively minimize vehicle-related risks through simple, cost-effective, real-time verification of driver’s licenses,” says VerX Direct President George Sutej. “As trends in liability legislation shift the responsibility for due diligence onto companies and their owners, we envision VerX Direct delivering both short-term ROI and long-term value to our customers. VerX Direct’s advanced Web-based software requires no additional hardware or software, and it integrates easily with any enterprise solution,” according to Sutej.
Several other Canadian car rental companies are already using VerX Direct services, and the results have been extremely positive in reducing of theft:
“We have dodged a bullet seven times in just three weeks by verifying our renter’s driver’s license at time of rental through VerX,” says James Schwehr, owner of Affinity Car & Truck Rental. “If these renters had been in an accident, the insurance company may not have covered the claim. If they were pulled over by the authorities for any reason, my vehicle would have been impounded, which happened to us before we started using VerX.”
Last year before he started using VerX, Schwehr lost a 2007 Toyota Camry, which the insurance company did not cover because legally the client had consent when they drove off the rental lot. “With VerX Direct, that customer would have been turned away at the counter and I would be $28,000 richer,” says Schwehr.
