Avis Improves Buyer Access To Data, Reports; Provides New GPS Tool
Avis Rent A Car has enhanced its electronic monitoring capabilities for its contracted corporate customers, giving travel managers better access to data and an ability to create customized reports, the company is announcing today at the National Business Travel Association 2006 International Convention and Exposition in Chicago. At the same time, Avis is making available a new navigation technology for its fleet throughout much of North America.
The Parsippany, N.J.-based car rental supplier is making the features available through its online tool, Avis Interactive, which was introduced in 2000. Robert Lambert, senior vice president of corporate sales at parent company Avis Budget Car Rental, said it was designed because customers said they wanted to be able to set their own parameters and have more monitoring ability with the tool.
"As information needs changed, they wanted a new and improved, robust system," Lambert said. "In a nutshell, that's what we did."
The enhancements will allow customers instant access to information on out-of policy bookings and data on car types, credit cards used and booking sources associated with car rental. Because it is Internet-based, data are accessible at any time. Rental activity can be tracked globally and in a choice of currencies.
The upgrade also includes a scheduling feature that sends customized reports to a travel manager's e-mail as frequently as desired. Buyers either can choose from a selection of pre-made reports or a company-specific dashboard with such data as total rental transaction and expense, percentage of intermediate rentals and percentage of prestige service rentals. Travel managers can query up to three years of rolling data for the reports, and they can be exported either to Excel spreadsheets or PDF form.
The upgrades give Avis an unparalleled data and reporting capability in the rental car industry, Lambert said. Avis Interactive itself was in a similar position when it was introduced six years ago, he said. "It really was the first of its kind in the car rental business," he said. "Avis has always been known as a leader in technology."
Lambert said there are no immediate plans to extend the capabilities to sister company Budget Rent A Car, which owes a much lower percentage of its revenue to business travel than Avis.
Both Avis and Budget are beginning to offer a new global positioning system navigation tool at 125 major markets throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The tools are available at $9.95 per day or $49.95 per week and can be used in any Avis or Budget vehicle.
The Where2 navigator, built by GPS industry leader Garmin International, gives street-specific, turn-by-turn voice directions to any destination in the pre-loaded maps of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The maps include almost 6 million points of interest, such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations. The navigator also monitors traffic jams, construction tie-ups and weather delays through Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network in 50 U.S. cities and suggests routes to help business travelers reach appointments on schedule.
Garmin also included Bluetooth hands-free calling capability in the navigator. If drivers have a compatible Bluetooth phone, they can use it with the navigator to place hands-free calls and retrieve numbers from both their phone's lists and the navigator's database of points of interest.