Car Delivery To Corporate Sites Gains Popularity
<B> Car Delivery To Corporate Sites Gains Popularity</B>
By Lynn Woods
With the publicly held car rental firms increasingly seeking to differentiate themselves on service rather than price, a few are promoting the delivery of cars to corporate facilities as a customized service they can offer high-volume customers.
"It's a trend," said Neil Abrams, president of Neil Abrams Associates, a car rental consultancy in Purchase, N.Y. "This is something that will lock in the customer and be more cost-effective."
Onsite delivery is the latest take on the more traditional onsite programs that offer rental cars that are kept at the corporate location but maintained and managed by the car rental firm. Often requiring an onsite employee of the car company, these services are reserved only for the biggest and most profitable accounts.
"Maintaining an onsite arrangement is expensive," said Tony Fuller, spokesman for Avis Rent a Car, which offers onsite fleets to fewer than 20 customers. "In those situations where the corporation wants the ease of a car at headquarters, we've been trying to sell the less expensive delivery system."
Jim Wood, vice president of sales at National Car Rental, noted that the delivery option also can be costly, in part because National employees who are delivering the cars must be transported back and forth to the car rental facility. "We do offer this service, but there's typically a fee for it," he said.
Level One, a telecommunications company based in Sacramento, pays no extra fee to have cars delivered to its corporate headquarters and at other points in the Bay Area by its two preferred vendors, Avis and Thrifty Car Rental. "We looked into leasing, but the leasing companies couldn't match the level of service we're now getting," said travel manager Bill Amaral.
Approximately 200 employees use the rental cars at Level One, which gets about 100 deliveries a month. Thanks to Thrifty's Meet 'n Greet service, Level One employees arriving at Sacramento airport are greeted by a Thrifty staff person who delivers a printed map with directions to their hotel along with the car.
Thrifty in particular is pursuing this niche business aggressively and currently delivers cars to selected corporate accounts in Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso and Houston, Texas, and Tulsa, Okla. In Dallas, Thrifty sales manager Roger Rickard said the firm will consider delivery to accounts with volume of $40,000 to $50,000 over a four-month period. In Tulsa, the volume requirements are about $30,000 a year.
Abrams said that for a delivery service to be successful, travel managers must work out the details systematically with their vendors. "These deals have to be individually and independently negotiated," he said, and travel managers should carefully evaluate their needs to be sure they justify the extra effort and possible extra cost.
According to Amaral, Level One spends about $350,000 a year on car rentals, 70 percent of it in Sacramento. The delivery service not only is quick and easy, but "it's cheaper than clocking mileage on our own personal vehicles," and therefore saves the corporation money while at the same timebuilding volume for Thrifty.
Level One travelers e-mail their car reservations by 4 p.m. the previous day and receive a confirmation within two hours. A 24-hour guard at the parking lot oversees the pick up and delivery of vehicles, handing out rental contracts to employees and making sure they fill in the mileage and checkout time upon their return. The paperwork is picked up every Monday by the travel department and matched to invoices, which are delivered weekly by the car rental company.
Level One hired the guard a year ago, after Amaral came aboard. Before, employees were responsible for signing cars in and out themselves, resulting in numerous no-shows and cars sitting idle while the company paid for them. The company now bills travelers for no-shows.
Reynolds Metals Co. in Richmond, Va., also has a delivery arrangement for its 17,000 employees, who spend a total $1.5 million on car rentals a year. With its headquarters building located 20 miles from the nearest airport, Reynolds finds the service is used by only 50 or so employees, mainly to attend out-of-town meetings, visit nearby company plants or drive the two and a half hours to Washington's Dulles airport.
Reynolds corporate travel manager Michael Spooner said the company does not pay a drop charge for cars driven to or from Washington Dulles.
Cars are delivered late in the afternoon for the next day's rentals, and the keys and rental contract are deposited with a guard during normal working hours. Upon return, it's up to the employee to call the car rental company to pick the car up.
Spooner said that although there are occasional no-shows, the honor system basically works. Employees are required to reserve at least 24 hours in advance, although occasionally they can obtain a car at the last minute.