A Tuesday in February. Fourteen cars stand on the lot. Nobody notices, because the team is busy with the cars that are out: a check-in with damage, a customer who wants their deposit back, a van that has to be ready early tomorrow morning. Anyone who wants to increase fleet utilisation in car rental starts right here: with the cars nobody asks about.
In most rental companies, rented days are the biggest lever, and they work differently from a price or an extra. A price set too low, you adjust next week. A forgotten extra, you sell on the next rental. A rental day can't be stored. The van that stood still on Tuesday, you simply rent out again on Wednesday, but that Tuesday's revenue is gone for good: you can rent a vehicle only once a day.
This is the third part of the series More revenue from the same fleet. In part 1 we laid out the five levers of your revenue. This part is about the second one: the number of rented days.
The average hides the cars that stand still
Utilisation is rented days divided by available days. How to calculate it and what an idle vehicle costs, you can read in what an idle fleet really costs. We won't repeat that here.
One warning, though: a utilisation rate across the whole fleet and the whole year tells you almost nothing. Say, as a hypothetical example, that your cars are rented 80% of the time and your vans 45%. On average you end up somewhere around 66%. A reasonable number, behind which a whole category disappears that stands still more than half the time.
That is why you look at three levels:
- per vehicle, so you see which cars do the work and which ones ride along;
- per category, so a full category doesn't mask an empty one;
- per week, so you see when it gets quiet, not just that it was quiet.
Only at that level do you see where the empty days are. And only then can you do something about them.
Look ahead, not back
Most rental companies know their utilisation after the fact: at the end of the month, in the revenue figures. By then there is nothing left to do. Every empty day of last month is lost for good.
The number that does steer is the utilisation of the next four to eight weeks. How many of the available days in week 7 are already booked? And how does that compare with the same week last year, at the same moment?
A worked example, explicitly hypothetical: if the February half-term for your vans is now 30% booked, while last year you were already at 45% at this point, you know six weeks ahead that a gap is coming. That is enough time to act. Two days ahead, it isn't.
Looking ahead doesn't take a crystal ball. It takes reservations, availability and history in one place, so you don't have to lay three lists side by side.
Fill the gaps at the right moment
When you see a gap coming, the reflex is often: lower the price. For everyone, all year. In part 2 we worked out why that is expensive: a discount for everyone also costs you money on every booking you already had.
The principle is simpler and cheaper: fill the gap where it is, and only there. A promotion is a targeted tool for a specific problem:
- a promotional rate for a quiet period or a category that stands still, for instance vans on weekdays in February;
- a discount code for a customer group you want to reach in that period;
- an early-booking discount for a period that is behind last year;
- a last-minute discount for cars that are still free in a few days.
The difference from a lower price for everyone: customers who were going to book anyway simply pay the normal rate. You only give a discount on days that would otherwise have stayed empty.
Fill empty days through other channels too
A promotion only fills a gap if someone sees it. Your own website reaches the customers who already know you, during the hours someone responds. Two channels widen that reach.
Brokers and platforms. A broker reaches renters who would never find you themselves. You pay commission, but on a day that would otherwise have stayed empty, a booking with commission is always more than no booking. So use brokers above all for quiet weeks and for categories that stand still. In your busiest weeks you need them less: customers book direct then too.
Outside office hours. Some of your customers search in the evening or at the weekend. Whoever gets no answer then to a question about availability, deposit or pickup time books somewhere else. An assistant that answers questions 24/7 and guides visitors to a request or booking catches those customers before they look further.
What each channel brings and what it costs, we work out in part 4 of this series.
Bring customers back
Finding a new customer takes time and money. An existing customer who comes back costs almost nothing and already knows you. Yet at most rental companies, the contact stops at check-in.
It is right after the rental that the moments which bring the next booking happen:
- a thank-you with the invoice, without anyone having to remember it;
- a short request for feedback, so you know what can be better before the customer says it somewhere else;
- an offer before their next season: the customer who rented a van last May for a move or an event may need one again this year;
- email that arrives at the right moment, not in a monthly newsletter to everyone.
Every customer who comes back is a rented day you don't have to win again on a comparison site.
Lock in your regulars
The best way to prevent long quiet periods is to fill them in advance. You do that with customers who rent more often and for longer than a private customer who needs a van once a year.
Business renters with their own account
A builder, an installation company, an events agency: business renters book more often, often for longer periods, and often on weekdays that are quiet with private customers. Give them their own account with their fixed rates, their running contracts and their invoices, and let them book themselves. The lower the threshold to rent again, the more often they do.
Subscriptions and short lease
A car on a three-month short-lease contract has no empty day for three months. Subscriptions and short lease fill exactly the long periods that are hardest to fill with one-off rentals. They also give you predictable revenue, so you can back up fleet purchases and staff planning better.
Worked example: five points more utilisation
We continue with the rental company from part 1. This is a worked example, assuming 50 vehicles, an average revenue of €100 per rented day and 12,000 rented days a year.
Fifty vehicles together have 50 × 365 = 18,250 available days a year. With 12,000 rented days, utilisation is about 66%.
Say this company raises its utilisation by five percentage points, from about 66% to 71%. That is 18,250 × 5% = over 900 extra rented days. At €100 a day, that is over €90,000 in revenue a year. With the same fifty vehicles, on the same lot, with the same insurance.
There are costs that come with every rental, such as cleaning, wear and the discount on the days you fill with a promotion. But you pay depreciation and insurance anyway, whether the car is on the road or standing still. Every day you fill contributes to costs that were already there.
How to measure this in your own business
Look at these four numbers every week:
- Utilisation per vehicle per week. Which cars stand still structurally, and in which weeks?
- Forward utilisation. What share of the next four to eight weeks is already booked, per category, compared with the same period last year?
- Empty days per category. Where are the gaps: the vans, the cars, the large ones or the small ones?
- Share of returning customers. What share of your rentals comes from customers who rented from you before?
When reservations, contracts and customers live in one system, you don't have to collect those numbers by hand.
Increase fleet utilisation without extra manual work
Seeing gaps ahead, filling them in a targeted way and bringing customers back: you can't keep that up in a spreadsheet every week. That is why growing rental companies let their software do that work.
With Dashboards you see in RentVisie the real-time utilisation, revenue, vehicle availability and operational performance, straight from your rental administration. So you see per vehicle and per category where the empty days are, without anyone having to build a report.
With the Customer Portal Login/B2B, business and returning customers get their own account for bookings, contracts, invoices and repeat bookings. Business customers see their fleet overview and assign drivers to vehicles. They book again themselves, and what they do shows up straight away in your back office.
Promotions such as discount codes, promotional rates for a quiet period or category, early-booking and last-minute discounts are something you set up in RentVisie yourself. Communicator automatically sends customers the right email at the right moment in the rental process; campaign emails are part of our Digital Marketing service. With Subscriptions & Shortlease you manage recurring contracts with monthly or 30-day invoicing and automatic renewals; how Shortleasy connects its website and back office with RentVisie, you can read in their customer case.
For extra channels, RentVisie is connected with the brokers Check24 and AurumCars; their bookings arrive in your rental administration. And the Nexus AI Booking and Support Agent answers questions, collects leads and guides visitors 24/7 to a request or booking.
A quiet Tuesday doesn't come back. But you can see the next one coming. You'll find every part of the series on the page More revenue from the same fleet.
Frequently asked questions
How do I increase the utilisation of my rental fleet?
Start by seeing where the empty days are: per vehicle, per category and per week, and ahead for the next four to eight weeks. Then fill those gaps in a targeted way, with a promotion for that period or category, instead of lowering the price for everyone, and use brokers and an assistant that answers 24/7 to reach customers you don't reach yourself. Finally, make sure customers come back and that business renters can book themselves.
What is forward utilisation?
The share of the available days in the coming weeks that is already booked now. Compare it with the same moment last year and you see weeks in advance where a gap is coming, while there is still time to fill it.
Isn't a discount the same as a lower day rate?
No. A lower day rate applies to everyone, including customers who would have booked anyway. A targeted promotion applies only to a quiet period, a category that stands still or a customer group you want to reach. That way you only give a discount on days that would otherwise have stayed empty.
What are five points more utilisation worth?
Work it out with your own numbers: number of vehicles × 365 × 5% × your average revenue per rented day. In this series' worked example, with 50 vehicles and €100 per rented day, that is over 900 extra rented days and over €90,000 in revenue a year.
Book a call. Together we look at where the empty days are in your fleet and how to fill them.
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