Self-Service Car Rental

[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate...n_id=bier_innm

Cool!

[slave no more]

In other words you have to clean the car yourself and you cannot keep it longer than originally reserved if something comes up or I guarantee there is some huge fee. I see the same issues as with ERAC except there is no one around to yell at. It is a cool concept but without the human factor if your fucked your fucked. You arrive to the scene and the car is damaged that you reserved. OOPS. You get there and there is no gas in it.....OOPS. Its filthy....OOPS, the tire is flat, the windows broken it wont start someone else happened to reserve it at the exact same time etc.etc.etc. I don't doubt that something like that would be cool as an option as opposed to the only way to do it but to not have people there a) leaves the opportunity for more mistakes and b) takes jobs from people because someone is too "important" to have a conversation with someone who is trying to help them. Should ERAC stop pushing reps to hammer CDW. Yes they should but also they should teach them how long is too long to talk to a customer and how to read "shut the fuck up kid I am late" body language.

[slave no more]

Oh yeah. And how long does it take to get that card reader because if you need a car this afternoon and they have to mail it then how do you get your car?

[slave no more]

$55 per day for a Matrix or Xa, 125 free miles then 18 cents per mile afterwards, blind charges to your account that you have to wait to get in the mail, the isurance has a $500 deductible for damage (gee admin how would they sort that mess out without humans around?) I just see to many issues but any alternative to ERAC right?

[Car Prep 57]

This is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy that would only work in a perfect world without human failings. As the posts above mine illustrate, all of the possible negative scenarios would come into play very quickly, and the customer would soon be headed back to the nearest manned rental office.

This is nothing more than a bottom line bean counter's wet dream.

[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

Originally Posted by Car Prep 57

This is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy that would only work in a perfect world without human failings. As the posts above mine illustrate, all of the possible negative scenarios would come into play very quickly, and the customer would soon be headed back to the nearest manned rental office.

This is nothing more than a bottom line bean counter's wet dream.

I'm fascinated by these responses, partly because here in San Francisco there are several completing companies that offer these services and they appear to work well. I suspect it may require a certain type of culture in order to be a success, with customers who are tech-friendly, civic minded, responsible, and who want to give a get a square deal. It feels similar to Craig's List, or sharing your wi-fi connection publicly. I think this type of business is a great idea and I'd like to see it succeed.

Of course this is a totally different model than what Enterprise prefers, which often seems to be offering low-ball pricing to low-rent customers, and then pulling a bait-and-switch combined with a full-court press on upselling.

The business model described in this article requires and expects honest dealings with everyone involved; Enterprise, by contrast, starts off by scamming. It would never work if Enterprise ever got their hands on it.

I think people who work for Enterprise right out of college get a distorted view of American business and culture. They're forced to lie to customers constantly, and then their customers start lying back, and before long they're trying to scam everyone and then giving away the farm whenever somebody complains.

I think most Americans just want a square deal, without all the scams. Enterprise, you could learn from this. But you won't, of course.

[aans01]

There is a similar thing being tried on the UK.All the cars are VW golfs so you don't get a choice of car and they don't let everybody join there is a vetting process of some sort.The company has been running for over a year so it seems to work