How to Optimize Your Fleet Management with a Car Rental Software

How many cars do you have in your fleet? 5? 15? 50? If you have just 5 cars, then you may be able to manually keep track of all the bookings, the locations of the cars, and the maintenance schedule. When you have 15 cars, it can get very difficult to monitor all the vehicles in your fleet and keep track of all the drivers’ schedules. Whether you have 5 or 50 cars in your fleet, a car rental software can help you effectively optimize your fleet management.

Not just that, this software application can enhance your fleet performance and reduce downtime. Let’s look more into detail about how a car rental software can help optimize your fleet management.

Reservation management

The software has an availability calendar that gives you a detailed view of the availability status of the drivers and all the cars in your fleet. You can get details of the exact location of the car and check when it will be free for use. The software also gives you details on whether a particular car is on road, idling, parked, or down for maintenance.

Read Also: How to Manage Fleet Downtime with Fleet Management

All the information regarding vehicle utilization will make it easy for you to manage car reservations based on customer’s needs and preferences. The automated reservation management system saves lots of work hours and reduces errors such as parallel booking and overbooking. You can also use the software to generate an agreement summary to share with the customer.

Track all the cars in your fleet in real-time

The car rental software allows GPS tracking of all the cars in your fleet. So, you will have accurate details of the exact location of the car at any point in time. The tracking feature enables location profitability. When you get a reservation request from a customer, you can check the location tracking details to find out which is the closest vehicle.

It will save miles as well as fuel usage. Also, the customer can get the vehicle quickly, which will add stars to your car rental service. This location tracking feature also enhances convenience for the customers. After they’ve booked a car, they will know approximately when they can expect it for pickup.

Check the condition of the car before and after renting

A mobile camera app can be used to check the condition of the car before pick up and after drop. The visual data will let you virtually inspect the vehicle for any damages. In case, there are any problems with the car, then these photos can help you identify how and when the problem started.
Set up a preventive maintenance program

One of the biggest benefits of using a car rental software to optimize your fleet management is the preventive maintenance feature. When you start using the application, you need to update details of the vehicle make and service history. The app will then automatically send maintenance notifications after 5k or 10k kilometers or fuel usage.

You can also update the calendar with the manufacturer-recommended service schedule. So, you don’t miss out on the services and keep your vehicle in good running condition. The software also helps you set up a form that drivers can use to update vehicle condition details. For example, if they feel that the engine is getting hot very soon or see the stitches coming out of the upholstery, they can update the form.

The fleet manager can cross verify the details given by the drivers and arrange for a service at the earliest. Preventive maintenance helps reduce vehicle downtime, which will be profitable for your business.

Build a geofence

Create a virtual geofence using the software application. The geofence can be based on the areas where you provide a car rental service. It can be the city, district, or state. If the vehicle goes out of the virtual fence, then you will receive an alert. The geofence helps prevent unauthorized vehicle use and also ensures the safety of the customer.

Manage Finances

Managing finances is one of the most vital tasks of any business. The car rental software helps you manage your accounts payable and receivable. You can calculate commission whether you offer standard or flexible rates and also check for additional payments.

Read Also: Top 10 Benefits of Mobile Apps in Fleet Management

The software keeps track of expenses due to repair, service, purchase of spare parts, driver salary, fines, toll payments, etc. It also helps you raise invoices and trace pending payments from customers. If you have standard payments such as EMIs and insurance, then the software can be programmed to give you notifications.

How-to-Optimize-your-Fleet-Management-with-Car-Rental-Software (2)

As all the invoices and bills are dated and tracked, there will be no room for error in the finance management. You will also be able to identify areas of unnecessary expenses and cut down on them.

Manage Your Car Rental Website

In this digital era, a website is mandatory for any business. You can link the software with your website to manage web-based booking. The software also helps you share details regarding subscriptions, offers and promos on your website. Conduct marketing campaigns and offer quotes to customers using the software on your website.

Manage subscription plans

If you offer subscription-based car rental services, then this software will be very useful for you. It helps you keep track of the subscription availed by the customers. When the subscription time is coming to a close, it will send automatic notifications and reminders.

You can even setup an option to automatically renew the subscription. The software also makes it easy for customers to upgrade or downgrade the plan based on their requirements. The payment cycle will also be maintained based on subscription plans.

Monitor driver behaviour

Driver behaviour is one of the key parameters that customers use to evaluate your car rental services. Secondly, good driving keeps your vehicle in top condition. Rash driving and over-speeding can lead to accidents, which is detrimental to your business, both in terms of customer relationship and profit margin.

The software tracks distance travelled and speed of the vehicle, which will let you know if the driver was over speeding. Also, the number of repairs due to accidents or unnecessary replacements will let you know if the driving was careless. Using all this data, you can evaluate driver behaviour.

You can also integrate a feedback form on your website or app where customers can share their feedback regarding the driver and driving performance. The software also helps track driver attendance and punctuality.

Get Reports

The dashboard of the software application gives you a snapshot of the vital details of all the cars in your fleet. You can check details of the overall vehicle health, number of trips, distance travelled, locations, fuel usage as well as pickup and drop points.

Analyzing this data will help you identify the top-performing and low performing vehicles in your fleet. Also, it will let you know where the unnecessary expenses are coming in. By collating all this data, you will be able to evaluate the performance of your fleet.

Read Also: Advanced Fleet Management: What Is It?

The reports also come handy when you need to present data about the car rental service to the stakeholders or potential investors.

Conclusion

A car rental software solution helps automate repetitive tasks related to day-to-day operations and fleet management. The reports generated by the software will give you a clear and unbiased view of the performance of every car in your fleet.

Manually handling all these tasks is not only time consuming, but also prone to errors. Reduce the time required to manually oversee fleet management with automated software, so you can focus on building your business.

Benefits of Using Car Rental Software for Taxi Operators

Do you own a car rental company? If yes, you must be aware as to how challenging it is to run the business. Right from filling out each rental order that you receive on a daily basis to collecting the payment you have to manage everything so as not to allow multiple bookings for the same car and ensure that the best service is available to all your customers. 

Many car rental services continue to make use of outdated tools such as telephones, e-mails, Word, and Excel macros, among others, both for communication purposes and managing their business. These tools have been very helpful in the past, but they are very slow and are less effective compared to the modern solutions that are available in the market today. 

Read Also: Desert Driving – Complete Guide

A car rental software solution that has been developed keeping in mind the needs of modern-day customers is more efficient and is, therefore, beneficial in many ways. Before looking at the benefits of using car rental software they offer, it is important that you have a clear understanding of the main features that car rental solutions come with.

Car Rental Software – Features

The rental order management module allows you to track the availability of cars in your fleet and set rental periods using the calendar option and extend them automatically as per requirement.

The collaboration feature enables your employees to communicate from one platform for handling rental orders.

The inventory management module helps you to monitor the availability of your assets, their movement, and spare parts needed for maintenance.

The Quotation feature allows you to create quotes as well as invoices in just a few clicks.

CRM and External Communication capability of the software helps you to easily interact not only with customers but also with other rental companies.

The Notification feature is very helpful in intimating your customers about the status of their order and reminding them as to when the rental period is scheduled to expire.

Cloud-based software allows access to information on the go and it is not limited to just a single device.

Centralized Data Storage facility ensures that all the information remains in one place and eliminates the need to use several different storage media.

Benefits of Using Car Rental Software

Now that you know the key features of a good car rental solution, it may not be very difficult for you to guess as to how beneficial it could be when implemented for your business.

Benefits-of-Using-Car-Rental-Software-for-Taxi-Operators - Copy3

As you can see, it helps you save time, communicate more easily and efficiently, and more than anything monitors the cars you rent out to your customers. However, some of the main benefits of using car rental software are listed below for your ready reference and to help you make an informed decision.

Quotes and invoices can be generated faster

Car rental software helps you to quickly generate quotes as well as invoices. Preparing a quote or an invoice manually is a challenging task as you will have to make several calculations. Using a template created in Excel or Word will make it a little convenient but will not be able to eliminate the monotony associated with the task.

Read Also: Top 5 School Transport Services in UAE 

A car rental management solution, on the other hand, will make both quote and invoice generation easier and faster. You just have to key in a few data into the system. The software program will capture the required information from the database you have created for your business.

In the bargain, you will be able to save a lot of time and you can send the quote or invoice to your customer directly from the same platform.

Car availability can be determined quickly

Whenever you receive a rental order, it is a challenging task to find out as to which car is available for servicing the order. If you are not able to act fast, you may lose the order.

A failure in fulfilling a customer’s order can adversely affect your business in the long run. The right rental software solution enables tracking of cars available in your asset inventory database.

Further, you will also be able to view the timeline of the cars in your fleet. This means that you do not have to settle for any guesswork.

Facilitates all communications from one platform

Typically, the employees of a car rental service spend a lot of time communicating with customers during the rental period. They make telephone calls and send emails or short messages. However, the problem is that the required information may not be readily available to respond quickly.

Benefits-of-Using-Car-Rental-Software-for-Taxi-Operators - Copy4

The advantage of using can rental software is that it automatically schedules assignments to employees and task updates can be carried out immediately as they would be able to see the details in front of them in the system. This makes it easy for them to quickly service their customers.

Detection of damage or loss of items is easy

Often you may notice damages caused to the rented car or the loss of a device when customers return the vehicle to you. Rental software is designed to capture and record such information. This makes it easy for you to claim damages from the person who rented your car.

Well-designed car rental programs can even generate a bill automatically. This module can be used for managing the preventive maintenance function as well. The rental solution will notify you when it is time to carry out a maintenance job such as changing engine oil, tires, and fuel and air filter, etc.

Access to information on the go

If you are operating a car rental business in the traditional manner, you will be dependent on the efficiency of your employees.

Cloud-based car rental software solutions help you access information on the go and this contributes a great deal towards the improvement of operational efficiencies and employee productivity. The flexibility and access to data in real-time go a long way in making your service highly efficient and competitive.

Cost savings

The improvement in operational efficiencies and employee productivity leads to cost savings. There is no cost involved in the implementation of car rental software. Further, it provides you with accessibility to performance data almost immediately.

These aspects contribute to reducing your operational costs. The fleet management module which tracks scheduled vehicle maintenance contributes to reducing vehicle breakdowns and increases vehicle utilization.

Read Also: How Can Fleet Management Help Your School?

Moreover, well-designed car rental solutions come with simple and easy to use screens and staff members can be trained quickly to adapt to the system. This means that you don’t have to allocate large amounts for staff training purposes.

Security

The best car rental software solutions available in the market ensure the utmost security to both customer data and your company’s financial data. Most of them implement a two-factor authentication system to ensure a high level of security.

Choosing the right solution is important

Now that you have some information about the benefits of using car rental software for your taxi operation business, you must be wondering as to what aspects you should look into to choose the right solution.

Benefits-of-Using-Car-Rental-Software-for-Taxi-Operators - Copy2

First of all, you must ensure that the vehicle rental software you are planning to buy is compatible with the ERP system you are currently using. Further, it should be flexible so that you can make the modifications required to cater to your specific needs. Finally, the software should ensure a high level of security.

Final Thoughts

You should do thorough research and buy the car rental software that allows you to provide the best-renting experience to your customers. Ultimately, it is customer satisfaction that drives your business and helps you stay ahead of your competitors. This is because satisfied customers will recommend your car rental business to others.

How to Drive in More Profit With A Car Rental Solution

Car rental is a booming business in the current market situation, lot of people find it cheaper and convenient to rent a car rather than invest in one. Currently, the revenue of the car rental business is about US$59,518M.

How-to-Drive-in-more-profit-with-A-Car-Rental-Solution-1

It is estimated that this business will increase to $124.56 by 2022. If you already have a car rental business or plan to establish one, we suggest you invest in a good car rental solution that helps in cost savings and optimised fleet performance.

What is Car Rental Solution?

It is a software program that will give you a unified view of all the performance of all the cars in your fleet. This software helps you track all the cars in real-time. It allows easy check-in and check-out of the vehicle.

Read Also: Benefits Of Online Car Rental Software

The modules of the car rental software help you manage reservations, check payments, track maintenance, and manage reports. Let’s take a look at the various features of a car rental solution and how they can help you drive in more profit.

Track All the Cars in Your Fleet

The software gives you real-time updates on the location of your car. You can check if the vehicle is idling, parked, or moving. Knowing the exact location of the vehicle will make it easy for you to assign the closest free vehicle to the next customer on line.

How-to-Drive-in-more-profit-with-A-Car-Rental-Solution-51

The real-time tracking also helps you check if the vehicle has gone out of the grid. You can set a geofence using the software. It will give you an alert when the vehicle goes out of the virtual fence. This alert will help you identify if there is any unauthorized vehicle usage. Tracking features also let you monitor rash driving and over speeding.

So, how does the tracking feature help you improve the bottom line? Real-time tracking lets you know the exact location of the vehicle. So, you can dispatch a vehicle at the fastest possible time, which reduces customer wait time and improves your revenue.

Secondly, tracking driver behaviour will help you ensure the safety of your customers. Happy and safe customers are sure to become returning customers.

Setup a Preventive Maintenance Plan

The car rental software maintains a record of the monthly, half-yearly, and yearly service and maintenance. Along with the time and type of service, the software also tracks the expenses involved in maintenance.

Read Also: 7 Advantages of Car Rental Software for Business

You can view details of expenses related to the purchase of spare parts, fines, replacement parts, and more. The maintenance module also lets you know if the vehicle is available for customer use.

By tracking the maintenance, the software ensures that the car meets all the statutory compliances. Also, the preventive maintenance program helps keep your vehicle in top condition and ready for use.

How-to-Drive-in-more-profit-with-A-Car-Rental-Solution-22

Monitoring maintenance helps reduce vehicle downtime, so your car is on the road for the maximum time. This, in turn, translates to better profits and reduced service and repair expenses.

Have all the Data Handy

You don’t need to worry about managing all the paperwork related to organizing and planning your fleet movement. The software takes care of it for you. The calendar option gives you a clear view of the free and in-use vehicles. The tracker will also let you know approximately when you can expect the vehicles in use to become free.

All these organisational data will help you manage your fleet. You will find it easy to schedule vehicles based on availability. This feature reduces the burden on your staff allowing them to focus on ways to improve your fleet performance.

The car rental software also records the vehicle condition using a synced mobile app camera. So, at any point in time, you will have visual proof of the vehicle condition.

How-to-Drive-in-more-profit-with-A-Car-Rental-Solution-4

The software keeps a record of the rent history. So, you will be able to find out who rented the vehicle, at what time, where the vehicle travelled and when it was returned. All this information will be useful in case there are any problems related to the vehicle or the customer who used it.

Build Customer Relationship

The most important feature of car rental software is its interactive feature. The multilanguage compatibility feature makes it very user friendly. You can also use the application to create email templates to send official mails to the drivers or the customers.

Read Also: How Hard did COVID-19 Hit the Logistics Industry?

You can also create invoices and send bills via the software. This feature makes it convenient for you to tally your expenses and payments. If you offer subscription plans for your customers, then this software can help keep track of the subscriptions. The application can be designed to send automated emails when it’s time to renew the subscription.

Conclusion

A car rental software application helps in fleet management and maintenance. The software helps track all the vehicles in real-time and effectively manages the daily operations of fleet management. Also, you can do your billing and invoice via the platform.

The software helps streamline your accounting process, track driver activity, and automate marketing campaigns. The right car rental solution can reduce manual efforts and improve your profit margin. Contact us to know more about how our car rental solution can help optimize your fleet performance and profit.