Paul Hollick, chair at the Association of Fleet Professionals, on alternative business transport options for fleets dealing with daily rental shortages.

AFP chair Paul Hollick

Car daily rental is one of those products that is deeply self-descriptive. You rent a car, a day at a time. Simple.

The beauty of the concept is that if you want to keep the car for 24 hours or a year, you’ve historically been able to do just that. While not the cheapest way to acquire a vehicle, it was relatively cost-effective and the trade-off was supreme flexibility in fleet applications where that factor was valued above everything else.

Now, however, it seems that daily rental in that traditional sense is just about dead. Like many other products in the post-pandemic world, demand is exceeding supply by an extreme degree.

Across the AFP, we hear that one- to two- day hires – the kind that once upon a time tided fleets over when a vehicle was taking longer to repair than originally envisaged or provided transport to an employee with a short-term transport need – are almost never available. Unless you are talking in terms of weeks, daily rental companies are probably not going to be able to help and in many cases, once fleets have gotten hold of a daily rental car, they are simply keeping it because finding another is so difficult, which kind of defeats the object and is expensive.

This is, like a lot of post-pandemic problems, not really anyone’s fault. Daily rental companies are having issues buying cars in much the same way as everyone else. And, like everyone else, they are fighting hard to keep their existing vehicles working in a roadworthy condition as the miles pile up and another year passes. The situation is unlikely to change quickly.

So, what are the alternatives for fleets that need short-term vehicle provision? In instances where it is possible, grey fleet is an obvious choice and, as long as robust policies and systems are in place, can serve as a good solution. However, it’s very important to realise that the cars that employees own are ageing at the same speed as the overall vehicle parc and, as such, are potentially in a worsening condition day-by-day. It is crucial that vehicles are regularly checked to ensure that they meet maintenance and general safety standards, especially at a time when employee personal finances may be under pressure and corners being cut.

For larger organisations, pool fleets are an idea from the past that appears to be re-emerging. At some point, probably a couple of decades ago, they fell out of favour because having assets sitting in a car park looked like a waste and daily rental companies stepped into the breach. Now, we hear of more fleets buying cars that are intended to be used on a flexible basis, rather than being allocated to specific drivers. This isn’t a cheap solution but it is one that is probably going to fulfil your needs most successfully at short notice, as long as the vehicle is at the right location.

Looking further beyond, some businesses are looking at products that fall under the general umbrella of mobility solutions. Some of these – such as car clubs and ride-hailing apps – certainly have their uses where they are available and there are signs that they are becoming more popular with fleets. However, they do have obvious operational limitations, such as only really being available in specific localities.

Further down the line in mobility, some AFP members are finding that the best way to cover for unavailable cars is to use other forms of transport, with rail generally being the most favoured option. Again, this is a good solution for certain employees making certain journeys at certain times but doesn’t tend to work when, for example, the person making the journey lives more than a handful of miles from their nearest station.

This seems, to us, very much the story of the current restrictions in daily rental. There are alternative business transport options available, all of which have a potential place when it comes to identifying a solution – but for the majority of employees who need the unrivalled flexibility of a daily rental car and employers who appreciate their cost-effectiveness, there are no direct substitutes. Really, what we need is car daily rental to become just that, once again.