Vehicle rental businesses have picked up the trend due to the comfort and convenience it provides to customers. However, the market is highly competitive, and to dominate the business, rental vehicle owners have to manage their business efficiently.
But managing a large fleet of rental vehicles and complex business processes is not an easy task. The business operators have to deal with myriads of activities such as track booking, managing inventory, performing vehicle maintenance, tracking vehicle insurance, etc.
The legacy system to manage the vehicle rental business is inefficient and time-consuming, which means higher operating costs and rental charges.
Vehicle rental software or car rental software is the best way to overcome the management challenges in the vehicle rental business. It supports automation features that help businesses to increase efficiency and overall productivity. By automating business activities, rental vehicle operators can raise their service standards and increase revenue. In fact, from start-to-finish vehicle rental operators can automate the entire workflow.
This article highlights the significance of vehicle rental software in automating rental vehicle business processes and enhancing efficiency.
Why Should Vehicle Rental Businesses Leverage Vehicle Rental Software?
There are multiple benefits of using an online vehicle rental system. A noted few are as follows;
- Automatic reservation management: On a daily basis, hundreds of customers book rental vehicles. To make sure that these customers have access to their desired rental vehicles, an efficient reservation management system is necessary. Rental vehicle software makes the vehicle reservation process simple and transparent. It automates all the reservation tasks, right from showing the availability of vehicles, to generating quotations and sending confirmation messages. In case of cancellation or no-shows, the software automatically deducts the fees from the customer’s account.
- Use AI bots: To make the rental process more autonomous many software vendors have introduced bots in their systems. These bots are helpful in automating various vehicle rental activities such as vehicle booking, answering queries, push loyalty programs, etc. AI bots eliminate lots of operational inefficiency from vehicle rental software.
- Vehicle maintenance: Vehicle rental companies have to maintain their vehicle fleets regularly to offer a seamless customer experience. It is a tedious task to monitor the repair work for all vehicles and ensure that each vehicle is functioning well. However, with the help of vehicle rental software, the maintenance work can be simplified. Staff can automate tasks such as scheduling maintenance, tracking warranty dates, getting notifications for regular services, etc. Modern-day vehicle rental software even supports predictive analytics, which can predict the maintenance work in advance. Due to this, vehicle rental operators can fix the issues before any major breakdown occurs and save maintenance costs significantly.
- Automation of vehicle inspection: Vehicle inspection before handing over and after taking charge of the customers is mandatory. However, the legacy system for inspection is labor-intensive and often creates disputes. The solution to this problem lies with the next-generation vehicle rental software. The next-generation vehicle rental software has AI capabilities that accurately assess the vehicle damage and generates bills with utmost transparency. AI/ML inspections fused with computer vision technology reduce the inspection efforts and prevent any wrong claims. Usage of QR codes further simplifies the whole process.
Can a Vehicle Rental Software Help in Automating the Fleet Rental Business?
Yes, it can. The following few workflows are automated easily with the software.
- Billing and Invoicing: The vehicle rental software enables business owners to smartly handle the billing and invoicing process. The entire process of generating bills, and collecting payments, are done automatically. For instance, in the case of recurring billing, the software uses the customer’s previously-stored financial data and processes the bill. Another useful feature is split billing. If the invoice needs to be shared between two or more entities, then they can use this feature. Since all the transactions are recorded in one place, there is a minimum chance for errors.
- Fast and flexible payment: The vehicle rental software supports multiple payment gateways and enables payments through mobile devices. The vehicle rental software has fast-paced the payment process.
- Vendor management: Some customers prefer booking rental vehicles directly from OTA (Online Travel Agency) and third-party platforms. By integrating vehicle rental software with these platforms, the vehicle rental operator can widen their business spectrum. Vehicle rental software can be useful in managing large numbers of vendors and building strong relationships with them. The vehicle rental software can be used for vendor invoice approval, updating vendor information, or registering new vendors.
- Inventory management: Vehicle rental software provides accurate information about the vehicle inventory similar to other top inventory management software, regardless of the business location. It informs staff about the number of vehicles rented and those sitting in the parking lot. It allows rental vehicle operators to view the entire vehicle fleet by location. It even gives details about the vehicle’s return date, and if there is a delay, then it sends notifications to customers. Further, business owners can make vehicle inventory management efficient by embedding vehicle rental software with telematics, GPS, and onboard diagnostics. They all collect valuable information such as vehicle location, fuel consumption, mileage, temperature, speed, etc.
How Can Vehicle Rental Tools Help In Scheduling Tasks?
Two major challenges involved in running a vehicle rental business are verifying the drivers and to manage their tasks. These two can be done seamlessly with the help of vehicle rental software.
- Manage employees’ tasks: Vehicle rental software solutions can be used wisely to schedule tasks for all employees. With the help of software, the manager can have a complete overview of various activities undertaken by each employee.
Based on this, he can schedule tasks for the employees. For instance, if some customer experienced a breakdown and a replacement is needed to be delivered to a specific location. The software can send information to the manager, and based on employees’ availability, the job is allocated. The software could be an advantage for vehicle rental companies in managing the large number of employees operating at multiple locations.
- Driver’s verification: One of the common challenges faced by rental operators is verifying drivers’ licenses manually. It is time-consuming and prone to errors. But by automating these processes through vehicle rental software, the operators can save their time. The system automatically scans the driver’s license against the database for verification and flags up if any abnormality is noticed.
How can Vehicle Rental Software Enhance Customer Service?
When it comes to customer support, service, and satisfaction, the best way for rental vehicle business owners is to use a vehicle rental system.
- Customer Feedback: Customer feedback is imperative for business growth. Business owners can use vehicle rental software to collect customer feedback automatically. The software sends feedback forms to customers as soon as they return the vehicles.
- Multilingual support: Having vehicle rental software with multilingual support is a significant advantage to the rental business. In the vehicle rental business, tourists cover a large section of the customer base. If vehicle rental operators allow customers to interact with their native language, it can increase the business prospects. Besides that, many vehicle rentals operate in other countries, and communicating them in their language is a credit. Imagine sending invoices to customers in their own language or sending confirmation messages about vehicle booking.
- Customer engagement: Retaining loyal customers is a crucial strategy for business sustainability. The vehicle rental software could turn into a valuable tool in retaining loyal customers. The software possesses customers’ information such as email addresses, contact numbers, social media accounts, etc. It also holds the history of their previous interaction with businesses. Business owners can use this information to target customers and boost sales. For instance, they can offer special discounts for customers booking vehicles repeatedly in a month. They can even automate the marketing campaign or enroll customers in various loyalty programs.
Other Benefits of Vehicle Rental System
- Make better decisions: Vehicle rental software stores real-time information about the rental vehicles on the dashboard, such as reserved vehicles, vehicles in use, and vehicles under repair. If this information is gathered manually, it could take ages to present it in a visual format. But vehicle rental software aggregates all the data from different sources and presents it in a meaningful way. This information gives a better idea of business performance and helps managers to make better business decisions.
- Document management: The vehicle rental business involves a lot of documentation, right from collecting customers’ ID proof to vehicle insurance and recording the vehicle inspection. Vehicle rental software acts as a repository to store various vehicle rental documents and automates the documentation process. Customers and vehicle rental staff can upload all the necessary documents straightaway into the vehicle rental software. They can even share contract documents with customers for e-signature and complete all formalities in a couple of minutes. It helps to avoid complicated paperwork and streamline the rental vehicle business.
Conclusion
The vehicle rental business has facilitated customers with exceptional transport facilities and filled the void in the transportation sector. But the increasing demand for rental vehicle services and customers’ expectations for quick services has put tremendous pressure on the vehicle rental owners to improve their business operations. Vehicle rental software offers automation features that optimize business productivity and augments its efficiency. The global car rental business is predicted to touch $214.04 billion by 2027. Those in this business should make a wise decision by investing in the right system. Vehicle rental software can help businesses to scale up quickly and take control of all the business activities from a single interface.