Avis is looking to step up activity in the fleet sector after admitting that it has fallen behind in recent years.

The rental company has launched a three-year ‘fast forward’ strategy intended to deliver double-digit growth in the corporate market. It includes beefing up its sales team and creating three operations: a business development team to target small fleets as well as large corporates; account development to manage corporate customers; and business travel to focus on the travel companies.

Anthony Ainsworth, Avis sales director, said: “Fleets want value for money, service and reliability. We are making the process simpler, from booking to account management.”

He is looking at new initiatives, such as software to boost fleet utilisation and an iPhone application that is being piloted in Germany and could come to the UK later this year.

“Our big focus this year is on fleet utilisation and getting the right cars to the right place at the right time,” Ainsworth added.

This month Avis will introduce a £40 non-cancellation fee for fleets in a bid to reduce the number of no shows, which are up to 10% of bookings.

And it has taken action to reduce costs and improve availability by broadening the range of brands on its fleet, most of which are on buy-back.

The company is also running cars for longer - up to a year - and it is buying pre-registered cars as well as new – both measures to offset rising new car prices.

“The strength of the euro is making sourcing vehicles very expensive and we expect more price rises this year. Those will have to be passed on again to customers,” said Ainsworth.

“Customers have also accepted that the age and mileage of rental cars has increased and the days of getting a new vehicle are over.”