The Business Travel Magazine Feb/Mar 2019

CAR HIRE
Car hire used to be so simple – a
business traveller would simply
make their way to the rental firm’s
airport desk, sign a few forms and then
receive the key to their vehicle, which
would be waiting in a nearby parking lot.
While this experience still exists across the
world, the car rental sector is becoming a lot
more complex in the range of services now
on offer to the corporate market, with
technology inevitably playing a big role.
Traditional car rental still represents the
bulk of their business but the likes of Avis,
Hertz, Enterprise and Sixt have been quick to
move into other areas of ground transport
including car clubs, chauffeur-drive services
and even car-sharing pools.
We are also seeing them starting to work
with ride-hailing firms by renting part of their
“excess fleet” to ride-hailing operators – for
example, Lyft works with both Hertz and Avis
Budget on its Express Drive programme in
the US for drivers who don’t own a car.
Some rental firms are even moving away
from describing themselves as car hire
companies – Europcar last year renamed itself
as the Europcar Mobility Group to reflect its
role as a “global provider of mobility
solutions”. The industry is also full of talk
about offering “mobility as a service” (MaaS).
Sixt, meanwhile, bills itself as the “largest
integrated mobility provider” and offers
traditional car hire, leasing, chauffeur
services, ride-sharing and on-demand
services. And late last year it invested in
Berlin start-up Chargery, a mobile charging
facility for electric cars.
Flexi time
There seems to be growing demand for this
more flexible approach to car hire, according
to Dean Rose, Head of New Business and
National Accounts at Nexus Vehicle Rental .
“Clients are moving away from single-source
modes of mobility and incorporating different
forms of transport such as car hire, trains
and ride-hailing apps like Uber to get to
where they need to be,” he says.
“In the UK, the demand for flexibility has
been accelerated by the ongoing economic
uncertainty we face over Brexit. Businesses
are holding back on decisions to invest in
assets and new vehicles, and many are
turning to car rental as a short and mediumterm
solution to their mobility needs.”
This increased variety and flexibility of car
hire options is also giving buyers the chance
to better address some of their key priorities
– such as cost, duty of care and increasing
the sustainability of their travel programmes.
Sez Beecher, Corporate Land Product
Executive for FCM and Flight Centre Travel
Group, says: “We are seeing our clients begin
to take advantage of the increase in
Our policy now says
that travellers cannot
pick up a rental car at the
airport if they have been on a
flight of six hours or more”
alternative methods of transport. This is
largely due to the recent focus in the evergrowing
chauffeur transfers sector within the
corporate travel industry as service levels,
technology and integration begin to catch up
with the current car rental offering.
“This coupled with the fact that many client
travel policies are beginning to look deeper
into traveller welfare means that many
corporate clients are considering it safer for
their employees to use transfers over selfdrive
options, particularly after long or
overnight flights,” adds Beecher.
One UK-based buyer agrees: “Our policy
now says that travellers cannot pick up a
rental car at the airport if they have been on
a flight of six hours or more. Instead they
should take a transfer to their hotel and pick
up the vehicle the following day. This process
is now much easier to do as many car hire
firms offer chauffeur-drive and other more
flexible collection options than in the past.”
Integrating these different types of services
is becoming a key part of car hire firms’
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