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DAILY RENTAL: Rental flexibility key for fleet
Date: 12 December 2013 | Author: Jack Carfrae
All of the rental experts that BusinessCar spoke to acknowledged that long-term business rental schemes have become more popular, which begs the question - where does leasing start and rental finish?
Hertz's general manager for off airport, Neil Cunningham, says his firm can have vehicles out for as long as a year and a half: "I don't think anything we're doing is getting to the two- or three-year rental mark. Leasing typically starts at two years for cars and a three years for vans, but it is shifting into the middle ground more. For a flexible rental programme, we might expect to go up to 18 months, but they could return it after 18 days if they want to."
Others acknowledge that long-term schemes are popular but claim there is more of a definitive cut-off in terms of what constitutes long-term rental.
Hitachi Capital's new head of rental services, Kathleen Whittam, tells BusinessCar: "It's very clear-cut. You have to bear in mind that, with rental, you really are looking at changing over a vehicle within a certain mileage.
"Someone will typically rent a vehicle for six to nine months. Then, after that, they will go into longer-term leasing contracts."
Rob Ingram, director of business rental at Enterprise, agrees that rentals are usually capped at around the nine-month mark, but says that businesses requirements and the reason for renting rather than leasing has changed.
"There was a shift in what long-term rental was used for, definitely. It used to just be pre-contract [filling the lead times for new cars when a new employee joins the company].
"A fleet will normally have a core group of lease vehicles then a group of long-term rentals lasting for maybe three, six or nine months. It comes down to flexibility. If they want to downsize by 10% tomorrow then they can just do it with no penalties."
Arval's Marchment disagrees, though, and claims the distinction between the two forms of vehicle supply is becoming increasingly hazy. So much so, that the company has recently introduced measures to bridge the shortening gap.
"There is a bit of a blurred line for short-term rental and mini-lease," he says. "We also have an 84-day rental that straddles the two, which was introduced earlier this year.
"With project work, project managers might require vehicles for six or eight months while they're working on a project, but then they're not working on it after that and that's when mini-lease makes sense."
