Leasing companies are increasingly offering daily rental services online as a low cost method of administering daily rental activity and raising customer service levels, says epyx.

The company has noticed this trend through the increased adoption of its 1link Hire Network e-commerce platform, designed to allow leasing companies to manage their daily rental programmes online.

"We have seen many major leasing companies sign up to use 1link Hire Network in recent months, a trend very much prompted by the recession and their response to it," explained Ken Trinder, head of business development at epyx, the company behind 1link.

“The market has changed - partially because of the desire to identify new revenue streams, but also due to the continuing reticence of some leasing customers to enter into new long term vehicle leases thanks to the uncertainty caused by the recession.”

Trinder added that he expected the trend among leasing companies to extend their rental provision to continue well into 2010.