Car Firms Speed Up Pickup, Return Services

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Car Firms Speed Up Pickup, Return Services</B>

By Lynn Woods

Acknowledging the importance of what one car rental executive called "the most powerful loyalty builder in the industry," the major car rental companies are continuing to expand and refine their express pickup and return services.

The smaller players are investing in new express services: Last summer, Alamo Rent A Car launched an automated service called Quicksilver, which will be rolled out at its major airport and downtown locations by early 1997. And Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car both expect to introduce express services for business travelers in the near future.

When J.D. Power and Associates, the research firm based in Agoura Hills, Calif., issued its first study of the car rental industry last February, respondents listed the speed and efficiency of car rental pickup and return as the most important factor in evaluating the different rental companies. In addition, 55 percent of the travel professionals surveyed in Runzheimer's 1996 Annual Car Rental Negotiations Review listed speed of rental as a factor in selecting a vendor, and 52 percent listed speed of return.

With so many other things being equal, car rental companies look toward their express services as a way they can perhaps gain an edge over their competitors. But this also means that effective delivery of the service is key to their success.

"These programs are dissatisfiers," said Neil Abrams, president of Neil Abrams Associates, a car rental consultancy in Purchase, N.Y. "If I'm an express customer, I expect the service to work. I give no kudos for it working the way it's supposed to, but when it doesn't work, I'm dissatisfied."

Meeting customers' expectations has become more critical as demand for these services grows. "When we launched #1 Club Gold in 1989, a number of companies made a hierarchical decision to limit its availability to their employees," said John Johnson, vice president of sales at The Hertz Corp. "But now that we've expanded it throughout the U.S., it's more universal. Corporate travel managers want this service for all their travelers."

Here's a rundown of what car rental companies are doing to improve their express services:

<li>Of Hertz's 247 Gold locations in the United States, 38 offer canopied service, where renters board a shuttle bus at the airport terminal and are taken directly to their car under a canopied facility. At non-canopied locations, Gold members pick up their rental agreement at a specially designated area at the counter.

Hertz offers Gold service at 29 locations in Canada and 367 locations elsewhere around the world. Outside the United States, canopied service is offered only at London's Heathrow Airport.

Johnson said Hertz is seeking to expand its canopied service where space allows. The company recently tripled the number of Gold canopied spaces at Newark International Airport after moving into a larger facility. In the past year and a half, it has greatly increased the number of canopied spaces at Phoenix, Miami and Orlando airports.

Other improvements include the introduction of electronic manifest devices on Hertz shuttle buses, which increase the speed and accuracy of Gold rental transactions. Introduced last year, the wireless technology is being used at 26 airports. Hertz also is expanding its membership base overseas, signing up people in Japan and Latin America.

<li> Avis, which received the highest satisfaction rating in the J.D. Power study, is looking at ways to improve and perfect its Preferred Renter service, currently at 381 locations worldwide. Avis executive vice president James Collins wouldn't provide details beyond saying that technology was a critical aspect and that the service could be "smoother."

<li>As part of Budget Rent A Car's drive to make Express service more consistent, president William Plamondon said the company is improving its signage at airports. Staffing also has become more consistent from location to location, Plamondon said. Express service is available at Heathrow Airport and is being expanded overseas.

<li> National Car Rental has about 100 locations for its Emerald Aisle express service. It's not available outside the States, although with the acquisition of Tilden, National's Canadian partner, the firm plans to introduce the service north of the border in the near future.

Emerald Aisle is unique in that renters are presented with a choice of cars at the lot. Several years ago, when inexpensive rates from the auto manufacturers allowed National and the other car rental companies the luxury of overfleeting, this concept worked fine, if not too well: Emerald Aisle members became accustomed to getting an automatic upgrade from a midsize to a fullsize car. But now that fleets are much tighter, the choice of cars is much more limited, causing complaints from corporate travelers.

"In some markets, demand is up," said National spokesman David Schoeneck. "But there will always be a choice."

Hanna Murphy, manager of corporate travel and fleet agreements at Siemens in Sunnyvale, Calif., said she was pleased with the service despite the more limited choice. "We have educated travelers to understand the issue," she said. "Choosing the car you like is a massive advantage."

Another corporate travel manager said that employees who used Emerald Aisle had complained about long waits at the gate. Unlike the other services, which require renters to simply show identification as they leave the lot (having already picked up their pre-printed contract at the car or counter), Emerald Aisle uses a more time-consuming procedure in which the contract is printed out at the gate.

Schoeneck said National is dealing with the problem in two ways, depending on location: adding a second Emerald Aisle gate or using rovers with hand-held computers to process contracts in the lot, which enables renters to exit through a less congested gate.

<li>In introducing Quicksilver, Alamo is gradually phasing out its Express Plus. Both services use a machine that's activated with a credit card, but Quicksilver is much faster and more flexible: A contract is printed up in 28 seconds, as opposed to a minute or more, and the interactive touch screen allows users to make upgrades or choose a different refueling option-features not available on Express Plus.

Rigo Garcia, director of minor league operations at the New York Yankees, who frequently rents Alamo cars at the Tampa, Fla., airport, said he's pleased with the new service. "I'm usually in the car inside a minute," he said. "Before, it took three to five minutes."

In the near future, Quicksilver will enable renters to pick their car type, including size, color and mileage preference, said an Alamo spokesperson. It also will be available in French, German and Spanish.

<li> Like Dollar, Thrifty has introduced roving hand-held units, which help expedite the return process for renters, in its lots at a number of major airport locations within the past year. "We were concerned these types of devices were just bells and whistles, but now that we've seen pretty positive results on return times, we're pushing in this area," said Thrifty spokesman Chris Payne.

Payne said some type of express service will be unveiled soon. "We're compelled to offer an express service in order to remain competitive," he said. "We're looking at both a program for very frequent renters and a counter bypass service.