The basic feature of a car rental business is, you will rent car for money. You can rent your own car or lease cars and then rent them for money. Car rental companies also make money by selling old used cars.
Key Takeaways
- When you rent a car, you don’t own the car permanently, you just hire the car for few hours
- A car rental business can has its own cars or they can get the cars from various lease agreements
- Requirements to borrow a car from a rental company varies depending on their policies
- In order to start a car rental business, you will need a business license and a vehicle leasing/renting license compliance certification
Overview of Car Rental Business
A car rental business is also called a hire car or car hire business and is simply a company or agency that rents or hires vehicles. We all know what renting or hiring entails, the vehicles you get from them aren’t for you permanently, you have to return the vehicle when your time with it elapses. Most times, the time you are given with these cars is not too long, it just varies though.
One business strategy used by most of these agencies is that they open different branches in different states and cities so that it is easy for users to return it when they get to their destination. Most times, close to the airport is their best bet for a spot when you want to run a car rental agency. With the world we live in now, you don’t have to walk down to their office to pick out a car for yourself, you can choose a particular car from their website and then go over there to pick it out.
The major aim of a car rental company or agency is to provide service by offering their vehicles to people temporarily for a good amount of money which varies with different factors.
People who go to rental companies are people who travel out of town without their vehicle, people who have their cars stuck in the mechanic, and those who do not own a car yet (on rare occasions). These are the people who put these car rental agencies in business because there are always people in these categories.
These agencies are not just there to lend you luxury cars, the agencies with luxury cars give them out at a higher price, you can also rent trucks and vans from them, even cars that are used to go to the market are available there. Some agencies have a lot more than cars, they have scooters and motorcycles in their list of vehicles.
One good thing about renting from a good rental agency is the extra things they put in the car to help you get to your destination, especially when you are in a new town. They have things like insurance, GPS (Global Positioning System), navigation systems, entertainment systems, and other things that could be of help along the way.
The Car Rental Business Model
The whole car rental business is not one to jump into, well that isn’t why we are here. What car rental agencies do is that they get several vehicles in custody for renting to different customers who need them. The companies mostly buy these cars but sometimes, the cars are gotten on lease.
There are different ways in which the companies go about getting their fleet of cars. For example, we have vehicles that are bought from wherever, although the companies are taking risks for this particular system because there is no telling the exact worth of the car you are buying when it has stopped working.
The companies can also get the vehicles on a lease agreement or working out a system where they are able to work something out with the manufacturer of that product so the risk is reduced to a minimum.
In countries like the UK, rental companies register their vehicles by making use of a concealed or strange initials which can help to improve the value which is used to resell the vehicle to other buyers.
When you come to North America, car rental companies in that area are known popularly for their own particular car dealers that deal with mostly second-hand cars. They get cars from here and then sell their old stock back to the public.
Instead of the other systems, in the United States, it is less stressful to just make sure that the cars are sold out through the auction process.
Conditions Followed For Car Rentals
This is something that is common among most car rental companies. This is normal because even when you are trying to borrow your car from someone, you have your conditions that have to be met too. It is kind of hard to imagine having fleets of cars in your possession that you aim at lending to people and then try this out without having some rules or conditions that you must have set to be followed
The conditions for car rental companies vary according to company policy and the rules of the country too. The common rule that must not be broken is to make sure that you return the car in the same condition that you took it and be sure to return the car during the same time that you must have signed that you would. Although these are both conditions that could be broken because most times you don’t know what will happen on the road, so the penalty is the extra fee that you would have to pay.
For normal safety reasons, some car rental companies will not rent a car to you if they don’t think that you are old enough to handle the car they have and bring it back in good shape. The whole trouble is best avoided than trying to fix it. All of these things usually vary with countries and companies, there are companies and countries that don’t allow individuals under the age of 25 to rent cars. This age is most common with rental companies that have luxury vehicles.
In some companies and countries where they issue out driver’s licenses to people who are just 16 to 18. In these states, car rentals give out cars to people who are 20 or 21 years of age. In some states in the US, the issue out cars to people who are 18 and higher. What we are trying to say in essence here is that the whole condition thing just varies with what is going on in the state or country, and also the risks that the company is willing to take from renting out vehicles to people.
Another common factor used in giving out cars to people is their driver’s license, no company would give you a car when you don’t have a driver’s license or when your driver’s license is expired. As a foreigner going to other countries, you would require an international driving permit before you can get a car to move around.
For the purpose of collateral, most car rental companies would need to ask for a credit card so you could immediately be charged extra when you default on any of the company policies. The person’s credit card is immediately charged when a problem is found with the car.
A Table Showing The Possible Steps And Explanations Of How A Car Rental Business Can Be Opened.
| Steps | Uses |
| Get a business plan | No man can move forward without a plan, a business needs a plan so it could grow. |
| Make a legal corporation | It is best to have a company name that is registered. |
| Keep up with the taxes involved | Avoiding taxes are illegal in most countries do this id something you have to consider |
| Use a business account and request a credit card | Your business account is what you use to spend and get returns for your business |
| Start business accounting | With a particular business account, you can keep track of your profit and loss |
| Get the important documents | Licenses and permits are very important because it is illegal to run businesses with documents like this |
| Get good insurance | Insurance helps in the sense that incidents happen and some of them might be from your side, so your insurance can help you clear the monetary problems |
| Describe the brand you want to portray | This is what you have to show others to let them know the type of business you run |
| Startup a website | Your website helps people get to know about your company and also your terms and conditions |
FAQs
What Kind Of Business Is A Rental Business
Commonly, a rental company makes use of the opportunity to be a Limited Liability Corporation.
Is It Profitable Owning A Car Rental Company?
From what we have heard or seen so far, people who own these kinds of corporations profit a lot from it.
Conclusion
The whole car rental company thing has several considerations to go through before it is opened. One of the things that most companies seem to consider at first is to select the exact kind of car you think you can handle. There are different kinds of cars, like luxury, vans, maybe trucks, and other things, you can decide to go into any of the above types of vehicle. Just like every business, you have to start from somewhere so you would need to figure out the number of cars that would be suitable for you to start with.
References: 1 https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/small-business/how-to-start-a-car-rental-business
References: 2 https://howtostartanllc.com/business-ideas/car-rental
Last Updated on October 8, 2022 by Magalie D.
Magalie D. is a Diploma holder in Public Administration & Management from McGill University of Canada. She shares management tips here in MGTBlog when she has nothing to do and gets some free time after working in a multinational company at Toronto.
