Thrifty Launches U.K. Corporate Program

Thrifty Car Rental is still small fry in the United Kingdom, but size is not preventing it from making a play for the corporate market. It used London's Business Travel exhibition earlier this month to launch a dedicated corporate program called Silver Bullet.

The cornerstones of Silver Bullet are a volume-related rate structure and detailed management information. Rates are linked not only to a volume commitment but to the profile of the business, including average rental length, number of one- and two-day rentals and number of one-way journeys.

Management information summaries display revenue and number of reservations in the month and year to date, average rental value, average rental length and a breakdown of rental categories.

Thrifty also is pledging to invoice efficiently. "We will rebate customers if certain agreed performance criteria are not met,'' said U.K. sales and marketing director Andrew Burton. "Most rental companies are very good at getting cars to the customer on time, but they are not so good at tasks like invoicing.''

About 15 percent of Thrifty's $50 million U.K. business comes from national accounts and another 40 percent from local corporate clients. But the world's sixth largest car rental operator is expanding quickly in the United Kingdom: It has opened 15 locations in the past year to take it to a total of 60, and it plans to hit 100 by the year 2000.