Running a vehicle rental business is hard work – navigating the demands of a more digitally connected customer base while battling with supply chain, fleet management and administrative tasks can be a laborious battle. However, new, novel digital platforms can make an enormously positive impact on how you run your company and manage your fleet.

Inefficiency within the rental business can mean disaster for your company’s health, and unhappy customers. We believe that legacy software is one of the primary reasons, and that the solution is found in our new digital economy.

Old software, booking, tracking and management systems within the vehicle rental market are rife, and errors abound. From time consuming spreadsheets to long winded payment reconciliation, not to mention car and fleet maintenance, scheduling and management, often means managers and decision makers within firms are spinning multiple administrative plates. This leads to inefficiency, which leads to poor business decisions and ultimately no customers.

A digital solution – a platform that brings all your disparate business inputs and outputs into one place, that can then be easily and rapidly administered too – is how Coastr was born, and we believe that the most typical and frequent inefficiencies in our sector can be eliminated with a targeted, digital-first approach.

Here at Coastr, we have perfected what we feel is the perfect car and vehicle rental operator digital solution – an all-in-one platform that can automate fleet management and onboarding, automate fleet scheduling and secure your vehicles with remote and immediate immobilisation, whilst also protecting and securing data flows, reporting and payments.

Here are 5 ways you can engage with novel digital platforms like Coastr to improve your vehicle rental company’s productivity, reduce errors and give yourself more time to focus on growth and customers.

Digital Empowerment and reducing redundant tasks

• Administration, spreadsheet management, reconciliation – our platform automates the vast majority of simple administrative and data flow tasks.
• Coastr is cloud based, meaning our platform is accessible from anywhere, by anyone, creating a paperless, centralised point of authority and decision making where data makes all the difference.
• This reduces manual error, gives your team back time to focus on other tasks, and empowers your firm by making previously time-consuming tasks automated, and reducing redundant workloads.

Scheduling and Fleet Management

• Coastr values above all else the ability of our platform to get fleet operators back in front of customers and manage their journeys.
• Through Coastr, you can easily and effectively automate scheduling and fleet management, from maintenance through to vehicle on boarding, from one platform, which immediately gets pushed to customers at the front end so they have a real time idea of availability.
• We predict this saves 4 administrative man hours a day in small and medium rental operations, which is vital time given back to you to focus on growth.

Expedite Bookings

• Using a digital solution can expedite your operation bookings by up to 3 times as fast. Digital solutions such as Coastr’s don’t pull you away from customers or make the process less human – we just give you the tools to make booking easy, transparent and trusted, with safety features such as biometric customer verification, so you can focus on excellent customer service, up-selling and queries.

Onboarding new vehicles

• Coastr is the only digital vehicle rental platform that automatically assigns vehicles into your fleet.
• Through integrated global third-party data aggregators, all new vehicle information can be uploaded into your dashboard in an instant: our platform pulls all the requisite information on the vehicle, saving you administration time and money.
• Rapid customer contact is the name of the game for rental companies, and through our digital platform you can give your customers, and your team, assurance that your new vehicles will be rapidly onboarded and available.

Time-saving automation

• Automation is the key differentiator when it comes to how to get more ROI from your fleet. Using a platform like Coastr utilises AI to automatically update and adjust fleet availability and schedules to meet demand, instantly.
• This means bookings are made in minutes (in 5 steps, to be exact), adjustments and edits can be made from a single dashboard, billing is automated, and everything is secure in the cloud.

In App we Trust

• No digital solution is complete without an app. Coastr’s Partner App is designed for your entire fleet – managers, drivers and maintainers – to quickly and easily access fleet information and records, including:

1. Options to photograph and store damage history before and after rentals with an easy-to-use damage recording system,
2. The ability to accept digital signatures and avoid disputes through a mobile accessible record,
3. Whitelabel App service – use our platform, but import your branding and logo into the platform, creating a more personalised service, for free,
4. Coastr for Partners App means you can arrange vehicle pick-ups and drop offs and with keyless entry your customers and team can get vehicles to places easier.

• An app above all else saves you time – administering to customers, reams of paperwork – and manpower, especially when it comes to using an app as a central solution to vehicle movements, drop offs and pick-ups.

The bottom line

No rental company is the same, but the efficiencies of incorporating digital solutions into your rental operation are proven to work for any rental firm, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Coastr is effective because it’s customisable, full spectrum and targeted – it doesn’t take away from your customer service side, and gives your maintenance and back of house team the tools to work more effectively.

But most of all, it gives business owners a central point of data authority, where they can view every facet of their business, from car telematics to insurance deals, from one place.

Coastr offer free trials of our innovative digital vehicle rental fleet management solution – after all, we want you to see how our tech can help perfect your back of house operations so you can focus on the important work of providing a rapid, mobile and effective service to your customers.

Our car hire software saves you time, saves you money, improves fleet management and reduces your administrative workload – click here to get a free trial!