When you own a fleet of rental vehicles, you want to maximize your profits, as you do from any investment. However, if all your cars are doing is sitting in one place and depreciating day after day, you’ll want to change things up. With demand being so low at your current branch, you need to figure out how to move your fleet to a new location/branch, where there are plenty of renters. While these are vehicles capable of moving on their own, we are dealing with a whole fleet of them so, it’s a good idea to look at the available options first.
You can:
- Work with an auto transport company to move the vehicles to a busier location.
- Hire freelance drivers.
- Have your employees move them.
- Offer low prices for specific city-to-city rentals, thus letting the renters move your vehicles for you.
The scenario mentioned above is not the only reason why you might need to relocate your fleet. Of course, you always want to have as much availability as possible at those high-demand locations. But, you might also be adding new inventory to some branches or retiring some vehicles at others. Whatever your reason is, establishing a relationship with a vehicle transport service will be a big help.
The scale of your relocation will highly affect which of these options you should choose. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each.
Hiring Freelance Drivers
Many people work for car rental companies as freelancers, driving and dropping them off at other locations. By working with specific drivers regularly, you can create your network for your future relocations. The pro of choosing this solution is that it’s generally inexpensive to hire freelance drivers. The con is the possible complicated organizational aspect of it. If you don’t have enough “plan B’s” and have to always rely on a specific, limited number of drivers, they might not always be available when you need them.
Having Your Employees Move Them
For this method to be an option, to begin with, your employees have the appropriate licensure. You should probably choose a different way if you’re relocating too many vehicles or there’s too long a distance to be traveled. Some pros are that as your employees, these are people that you already trust. Because they are familiar with some of the challenges of managing a car rental company, they will probably make a better effort to get it done on time, drive carefully, and be attentive towards your vehicles. The con is that to have your employees complete this task outside of their job responsibilities; someone has to fill in to get their actual job responsibilities done.
Renters Moving the Vehicles
This option implies setting rock bottom prices on the needed city-to-city rentals, which will motivate the renters to move the vehicles to your preferred branch. If you need help coordinating this type of relocation, there are such service providers that you can use. The pro is that you aren’t putting extra mileage on your vehicles because these renters were going you travel that distance anyway. The con is that, unlike with your employees, you can’t trust these drivers very much. A renter you work with through one of those relocation services can have falsified records. The availability of renters is also uncertain.
Working With an Auto Transport Company Whether it is classic car shipping or motorcycle shipping services that you need, auto-shipping companies have experience providing them. It is what they do, meaning there are a lot of pros to working with such a company for your rental vehicle transportation. There are many transport options you can choose from (even enclosed car transport is available to you). You can be sure that the trucker is reliable and qualified. And, you don’t need to worry about the scale of your relocation, as the company can use trailers instead of moving the vehicles one by one. A possible con can be the price. So use a car shipping calculator to get an idea of the costs and look into discounts for bulk relocation (you can contact us to discuss it in detail).