How Telematics Help Deal With Change In The Car Rental Industry
Ireland based RentalMatics believes technology offers more opportunities for everyone
Car rental professionals are facing a rather blurry future in the industry and much of that has to do with changing consumer tastes and technology’s response to those changes. What’s likely to be confusing for starters is the notion that the industry as we know it is starting to disappear and morph into a wider label dubbed the mobility industry. With current restrictions in place now, the industry will be pushed even further into the ‘mobility’ umbrella.
Few people understand that better than Ireland-based RentalMatics, which provides Internet-based solutions to suit the needs of the rental car business. It’s also an integration partner of Bluebird).
RentalMatics believes that in order to understand the future, it’s best to wrap your head around the changing demands of consumers and understand the technology designed to meet those demands. That’s where telematics comes in.
What exactly is telematics?
Often used synonymously with connectivity, telematics is an online feature that enables electronic devices to either talk to each other or to us humans. How it pertains to the car rental industry is in how that technology enables companies to make decisions. Those decisions are derived from data retrieved from those interactions, which can be used to figure out whether fleets are being managed efficiently and whether the company’s services are addressing the needs of the consumer.
It turns out that meeting those needs has proven to be a real challenge. Thanks to innovations in communications, it doesn’t take much for consumers to rent a vehicle these days, usually via a smartphone app that handles those requests instantaneously. Car rental companies who aren’t equipped to meet those needs stand to lose a large amount of business, not only because of their inability to meet the pace of those demands, but inherently grab a market that’s more impatient and fickle than ever.
“It’s no longer just about renting cars but providing a mobility solution to allow people to gain control of their time and destination,” the company wrote in a recent in-house document called Telematics For Rental Fleets: Shaping the Mobility Industry. “In essence, they are no longer rental companies but mobility solution providers.”
RentalMatics adds that at the beginning of this century, the only alternative to own a vehicle was renting. With ride-sharing entering the picture, the rental car industry now has to shift its focus onto a consumer base that’s looking for short-term vehicle access on demand. With technology like telematics offering more consumer choice, it’s also likely to create more opportunities for everyone in the industry.
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