How to Save Money in the Car Rental Business

The automobile business has been forever changed with the rise in popularity of Uber in 2009. What started out as an expensive black car service for Garrett Camp (The founder and current CEO of Uber) and Travis Kalanick (Co-founder of Uber), has since revolutionised the industry to such an extent that the change has come to be known as Uberisation.

Now, we have peer to peer sharing companies such as Uber, Lyft, Ola Cabs and more that are dominant in the taxi service industry across a large number of nations worldwide. With the huge amount of success that the above mentioned companies have had, there are a ton of businesses that are attempting to emulate this success.

The purpose of all businesses is to maximise their profit while reducing the spend of the business. So how do you save money in the car rental business?

Acquire a White Label Software

Starting a peer to peer sharing company such as Uber, Lyft, or Ola Cabs require you to have a website or an app (android, iOS, or both). There is no way to bypass this requirement.

The way to save the most amount of money in the car rental business is to acquire a white label software. You do have to spend a certain amount of money to buy the **car rental software**, however, in the overall scheme, this is undoubtedly the best choice.

While creating an app from scratch by hiring a team of expert and experienced app developers is, without a doubt, the safest and the best method of acquiring a car rental software; doing so requires you to spend the largest amount of resources, time and money.

By acquiring a white label car rental software, you have the basic requirement to start a car rental business as soon as you pay the fees. Additionally, white label softwares are experienced creators and these softwares have easily upgradeable APIs that can integrate newer and unique features to the app.

Also read, Essential Tips for Renting a Car Overseas

Be obsessed with Numbers

There is a common mentality in the new age successful business. This mentality is to have detailed numbers for every aspect of their business. Make sure that you are paying attention to all different benchmarks that are possible. Whether it be your (P&L S (profit and loss statements), revenue per user, average length of rental period, or even reservation data and earnings. The correct mentality to be able to recognize different aspects of your business that you can save money on is to have data about everything.

You should be able to pinpoint the exact state of your business this time last month, this time last year or even this time at the start of your business.

Also read, Are Car Rental Companies Turning A Corner Or Driving To Disaster?

Know your customers and your fleet

The common pitfall that most new car rental businesses is their strict adherence to the matters of the deal rather than what the customers want. Will your customers still be happy with a vehicle that is in good condition and yet is 5 years old with 40,000 – 50,000 km under its belt? The only way to find out is to actually drive it yourself.

If you take a hands on approach to managing your business, you are easily able to recognize and save money. The best employees place the interest of the business owner at the first place and attempt to minimize as much loss as possible. However, this is not the case for most businesses and only by participating in every aspect of your business, are you able to save as much money as possible.

Make sure that you are keeping the cost of your fleet in check or your business will fail for sure. Have a plan for the next few months and make sure that you are researching into the current market demands and planning accordingly. Take a look at the constantly evolving rental market, travel industry, and the aftermarket.

Whenever you acquire a new vehicle, you should always have a disposal plan for the vehicle. You should already have an estimated life cycle for the vehicle planned out as well as the optimum way to minimize loss for your business.

So, there you have it. The best ways to save money in the car rental business. There is a huge opportunity for a self owned car rental businesses and adhering with the above mentioned list will be sure to save your a ton of cash for your next endeavours.