Enabling contactless rentals.. (Part 1)
As COVID restrictions are lifted and vacation-starved families across US and Europe head for their summer travel, demand for rental vehicles has sky rocketed. So has the cost of renting cars. Prices have increased anywhere between 40–250% in parts of Europe according Bloomberg .
Price increases are driven by multiple factors including fleet size reduction by rental companies during the pandemic and chip shortages affecting availability of new cars in time for the summer peak.
However rental companies are also putting in place initiatives to offer a contactless rental experience for their customers to manage unprecedented levels of demand compared to last year.
What is “Contactless” Rental?
The traditional car rental experience resembles that of a flight journey — making a booking on a website, carrying a print of the booking with ID /driving license, waiting in a queue at the rental station, filling out a bunch of forms, inspecting the vehicle with a valet to document the vehicle condition, key handover and then driving away. Repeat the process while returning the car, and not to forget make payments by swiping a card for fuel, excess, mileage etc. This generally is an excruciating experience and lasts 30 mins to an hour at check-out and check-in, depending on how busy the rental location is.
On the contrary, “Contactless rentals” is intended to be a 100% digital, safe and fast solution to book, pickup and return rental vehicles. The term “contactless” has become ubiquitous since the start of the pandemic aiming to minimize human contact. Unless all steps of the customer rental journey are digitized, there will still remain elements of friction in the process.
- Booking / Online Reservations
- Driver documents scanning (e.g. ID and driving license)
- Digital Agreement signing (e-sign)
- Vehicle location and access
- Digital vehicle inspection at checkout
- Digital gate-pass for exit
- During the renting journey
- Returning the car and Check-in inspection
Walking the talk
Various rental companies from large ones like Avis, Europcar, Enterprise to relatively smaller firms like Greenmotion and UFO Drive have implemented different versions of a digital journey for renters.
By the way, complete digital journeys are not entirely new, they’ve been in place for nearly a decade pioneered at scale by Zipcar and the likes enabling free-floating carshare from college campuses to large metros in Europe and the US. Here are some initiatives and technologies enabling a truly digital and “contactless” journey
- Booking
All medium and large rental agencies enable web/app based booking including vehicle selection, adding additional extras (equipment, services, navigation/data etc.). Either homegrown rental ERP systems with mobile and web customer interfaces or third party solutions like Navotar or Rentworks power the booking process. Bookings can also be done via marketplaces such as Kayak or Orbitz or Expedia.
This is probably the most digitized part of the customer journey although one will be surprised at the number of small and medium rental operators in developed markets that don’t have an integrated web interface for customers to book in a seamless manner.
Customers usually get the option to either pay now for the trip or pay later (probably at a higher price).
2. Driver details upload and verification
Prior to starting the journey, drivers are expected to upload at the minimum, their ID and driving license document along with a live photo. Documents are verified automatically using AI and mismatches and fraud checks are carried out to ensure its a legitimate renter.
Digital KYC has gained exponential usage in the mobility space since the proliferation of micromobility services.
Document centric ID Proofing as referred to by Gartner (“Market Guide for Identity Proofing and Affirmation”) lists some of the leading vendors in this space who provide document based ID verification as a service to rental companies — including Jumio and Acuant.
Biometric and Data privacy laws pose a legal landmine to rental firms depending on applicable state and federals laws. Some of the laws impacting US rental companies are highlighted in this article here.
3. Digital agreement execution
Digital signing of rental agreements sent either via email or viewable in-app is becoming a standard post COVID. What traditionally got done at the rental station is now completed before the customer gets to the vehicle.
4. Locating the vehicle and gaining access
This is the part where we lose the friendly valet & vehicle inspector and the process becomes truly devoid of human contact.
This could be as low-tech as sending a text message to the customer with vehicle and location details so they can go straight to the vehicle and get in by entering a passcode on the keypad.
Europcar has launched its Key’nGo feature for customers to pick up a physical key from a locker without having to get in line and go straight to the car.
Fleet software providers such as Geotab enables “keyless” vehicle access solution for its fleet customers who have cars with physical keys.
Sixt FastLane on the other hand is an app based process for gaining access to the car and driving away. No physical keys here.
Audi’s Silver Car app for example provides the user with the chat based interface to get access to the car and unlock via the app.
To be continued…
We continue to explore “Contactless Vehicle Rentals” in an upcoming blog including digital vehicle inspections and digital enablement in the rest of a car renting process.
ClearQuote simplifies vehicle inspection by automating damage assessment using smartphone images or videos for rental / shared fleets.
