Fleet operators are looking at their daily rental spend as a way to reduce costs, according to initial findings from the Fleet News Fleet Confidence survey.

The actions taken include changing rental supplier, encouraging car sharing in rental cars and making sure that the right car is rented.

Marie Jarrold, car fleet controller at BCA, changed rental suppliers this year and believes it will bring savings of around 20%.

"Our new suppliers' daily rental charge is more competitive than our previous supplier and we forecast that over the next year we will save at least 19%," she said. 

"And that's taking into account the recent price increases from rental companies." Julian Daley, reward manager at Carlsberg UK, is another fleet operator looking at rental spend.

"The brewery market is poor and cost is my main concern," Daley said.
 
"I'm looking for opportunities to reduce costs and I think hire car arrangements is one of them. My suspicion is that people are hiring bigger cars than they need to so I'm going to be making sure that the right car is hired for the journey."
 
Jarrold has restrictions in place for the type of car rented, with the majority of staff restricted to vehicles with a 1.4-litre engine. For an upgrade they need to give Jarrold 'good reason' and supply details of their journey. 

Jarrold also encourages sharing of rental cars. For instance, if staff attend the same conference they travel together in a rental car rather than using separate private vehicles.

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