Car Rental: the pay-as-you-go route to responsible motoring

Car rental the pay-as-you-go route to responsible motoring

British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association

ABOUT THE BVRLA The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association is the trade body for the vehicle rental industry.

Its members provide short-term self-drive rental to businesses and consumers, operating a fleet of around 275,000 vehicles and employing an estimated 25,000 people.

The association regulates the industry through a series of quality assurance inspections and a mandatory code of conduct. If you see the BVRLA logo displayed in a car rental branch or on a leaflet or website, it is your guarantee that you will receive the highest levels of service.

The association also runs a free conciliation service that can help settle any dispute that may arise between vehicle rental companies and their customers.

For more details, go to www.bvrla.co.uk ABOUT TRL TRL, the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory, is an internationally recognised centre of excellence providing world-class research, consultancy, testing and certification for all aspects of transport.

The figures in this document are based on data supplied by five of the UK’s largest rental companies.

Grateful thanks to Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty.

Full details of the research are given in: Cairns, S (2011) Vehicle Rental: Environmental and Sustainability Implications. TRL report PPR583. www.trl.co.uk COVER PHOTO: DUDAREV MIKHAIL / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM INCLUDES IMAGES © ABOSTUDIO, ALEXANDER CHAIKIN, CK., DENIS CRISTO, GAIL JOHNSON, JOSE AS REYES, KEITH GENTRY, PATI PHOTO, WOODSY, ZURIJETA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM AND ALSO COURTESY OF NEWSPRESS

Car rental

and sustainable road transport More than 90% of journeys made in the UK are made by road, but there is increasing pressure to make road transport more sustainable by reducing the carbon emissions, congestion and cost involved.

Supplying cars to millions of UK customers each year, the vehicle rental industry is often not recognised for the role it plays in the integrated transport environment.

For this reason, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association commissioned Dr Sally Cairns of TRL to conduct some research into the industry. We believe that the findings clearly show that car rental can support a more sustainable transport system and improve the mobility which is so important to the economic and social wellbeing of the nation.

On a verage, rental vehicl es ha ve lower emissions t han private cars

In 2010, average emissions from UK rental cars were 146g CO2 /km.

This is more than 12% lower than the average for the UK car fleet.

Rental cars are also likely to emit substantially lower levels of local air pollutants, especially NOx and particulates, than the average UK car.

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On a verage, s e l c i h e v l a t ren e b o t y l e k i l e ar hy t r o w d a o r e mor rs a c e t a v i r p n tha

Rental vehicles are newer and better maintained than the average privately owned car, and more likely to be fitted with recent safety technologies.

For example, in accordance with the BVRLA code of conduct, lights, brakes, tyres, oil and water are checked before every rent. National evidence suggests that higher levels of vehicle maintenance helps to reduce both collisions and casualties.

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Rental vehic les are used mo re efficiently t han private cars

Levels of utilisation of rental vehicles are likely to be substantially higher than utilisation of privately owned vehicles, because rental vehicles are typically rented out for 70-80% of the time, and driven for an average of at least 50 miles a day whilst on hire. Where rental companies assist corporate clients with efficient scheduling of business travel, there are likely to be particularly high levels of utilisation. Higher utilisation represents a more costefficient use of capital assets, reducing the space required for parking and helping to alleviate associated parking congestion.

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a s e d i v o r p Rental ty i l i b o m f o form le p o e p e m o s for s e i t i l i b a s i d h wit

Most companies have procedures in place to enable use of vehicles by people with particular requirements, and a substantial number of disabled people do make use of these options. For example, in 2010, the five major rental companies involved in this research supplied vehicles fitted with special hand controls to around 1,000 customers.

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Rental provi des a relatively c heap wa y of acc essing cars, compa red with person al ownership

A private consumer is able to book a one-day rental for a typical compact car like a Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf for as little as £25 per day. For occasional users, renting a car is therefore likely to be considerably cheaper than owning one, potentially providing important social inclusion benefits for those who don’t want to own one, have limited or no parking available, or who have a dearth of other realistic transport options (eg in rural areas). Car rental can also enable households to downsize their car to a smaller model in the knowledge that they can hire an affordable, suitable model when something different is needed.

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Rental can k n i l y e k a e d provi s m r o f r e h t to o t of transpor

Around one-fifth of car rentals are for one-way trips, which indicates that rental is being used to access or connect with other means of transport, including rail and air travel. Many companies have branches located close to railway stations – and booking engine thetrainline.com now includes a car hire page. There are currently EU proposals for integrated ticketing that could link rental services with other transport options. One company is expanding its London offering to include the rental of electric bikes for travel within the city.

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Rental provi des a supply of efficient, ne arlynew vehicles f the second- or hand market

The rental industry contributes a substantial supply of cars into the secondhand market. In 2010, these vehicles were, on average, 10 months old, and had emissions in the order of 147g CO2 /km, 11% below the emissions of the average UK car.

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Rental encourages p u e k a t e h t le c i h e v w e n of technologies

Most rental companies have low emission cars on fleet, with increasing inclusion of hybrid and electric vehicles. There is a reasonable amount of evidence that rental provides the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’, and that some large corporate customers welcome the opportunity to use vehicles with new technology without having to take the risk of investing in them personally. Electric vehicles are only suitable for certain applications, so it can make more sense to hire one for the appropriate journey rather than buy one outright. Hence, rental could have a key role to play in helping to develop customer confidence in, and the general market for, lower-emission vehicles.

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British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association Ltd River Lodge, Badminton Court, Amersham, Buckinghamshire HP7 0DD Tel 01494 434747 Fax 01494 434499 Email info@bvrla.co.uk Web www.bvrla.co.uk COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER: 924401