Europcar Pitches Car Rental To U.S.-Based Travelers
<B>Europcar Pitches Car Rental To U.S.-Based Travelers</B>
By Lynn Woods
Europcar International, the number-two car rental firm on the European continent, has stepped up its marketing efforts in the United States and is in the process of rolling out a North American sales force, following the opening of a call center in Atlanta last March.
"Very often, clients are not taking the best advantage of car rental in Europe," said Roger Evans, former international sales manager for Europcar who arrived in Atlanta last August to fill the newly created position of director of sales North America. Companies could be spending more money by taking taxis rather than rental cars or, if they are renting a car, "they could be paying two to three times the price when they go to Europe using a domestic U.S. car rental company," Evans said. "The domestic car rental company's sales rep usually is focused on the domestic market. They neglect the 5 percent of international business a corporation may be doing and don't look at the true cost."
Evans is targeting two types of clients: U.S.-owned subsidiaries of European companies and U.S. companies doing business in Europe. Europcar clients in the United States, which include Bayer and BP Amoco, fall into both categories. Part of Evans' task is to ensure that "the U.S. segment of our existing customers in Europe understands why the European division uses Europcar. It's important to pass that benefit on to the U.S. division, so when people go to Europe they'll use us." With fewer than 20 percent of multinational companies, by his estimate, having truly consolidated their car rental business, Evans has his work cut out for him--and a golden opportunity.
One of the drivers of Europcar's sales pitch to the United States is all the transatlantic M&A activity during the past few years. More U.S.-based employees are traveling to Europe as the result of European acquisitions of U.S. companies, of which the most striking example is DaimlerChrysler, one of Europcar's top clients. That merger, Evans said, "has been an advantage for Europcar. There are a lot more people traveling from Detroit to Stuttgart."
But the new U.S. initiative also reflects the evolution of the Europcar brand itself. Originally aligned with National Car Rental and its partners in Canada and Japan for 18 years, Europcar, which is based outside of Paris, formed an agreement with Dollar Rent a Car after National ended the relationship in 1998 as part of its efforts to establish its own brand and network overseas. Since Europcar caters heavily to the business market and Dollar is mainly leisure, the two companies weren't the best fit and the agreement was terminated a year ago.
"Europcar has made great strides in being present here in its own right," Evans said. "Our brand stands up on its own. We don't want to rely on a partner." It currently has a very loose agreement with Budget Group, in which Budget accepts reservations for Europcar in Europe. So far, Europcar has hired four regional sales managers in the United States, with four more scheduled to come onboard by the end of March.
Europcar is the number-two player in Europe, after Avis Europe. Its largest market is Germany, where it has 469 locations and 28 percent of the market. In the past year, Europcar's efforts have been boosted by the support of parent Volkswagen, which bought out the 50 percent ownership share of Accor, a French hotel and travel company, at the beginning of last year.
The second largest market is France, where Europcar was born 49 years ago as the rental car company for Renault. In the United Kingdom, where the car rental market is very fragmented, thanks in part to the dominance of regional players and leasing firms, Europcar is less of a force. It competes with four or five other large car rental companies for a piece of the business market.
Europcar, which is located in 110 countries, is in-terminal at all major European airports. It offers an express-lane service, called Ready, at 126 locations. Travelers can print out the Ready card enrollment form from Europcar's Web site and fax it to the company with a signature to receive a card. The Europcar Web site also offers real-time booking, and Europcar is exploring direct links. It is developing an interface with the self-booking system of Siemens, for example.
Europcar's fleet features a large number of Volkswagen models. The high price of fuel and cultural preference for smaller cars means that "in Europe, the Volkswagen Golf is preferable to a Ford Taurus," Evans said. But the fleet also varies by country, with full-size cars, such as Mercedes or BMWs, popular in Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and smaller vehicles predominating in France and Spain.
One of Europcar's selling strategies is to push its diesel-fuel vehicles, which comprise more than 40 percent of the fleet in both Germany and France. Diesel cars cost more to rent but enable renters to save significantly on fuel.