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Call for rental firms to offer cars by CO2
Date: 25 June 2008 | Author: Tristan Young
New owner and boss of online rental broker Nexus, Neil McCrossan, has called for rental firms to offer cars by CO2 band, rather than just vehicle size.
McCrossan, who previously worked for National Car Rental owner Vanguard, bought Nexus with backing from private equity firm Isis three months ago.
Nexus uses a web-based system to match rental users to rental firms. However, while the Nexus system has the ability to offer cars by CO2, doing it isn't possible because the rental firms can't guarantee the CO2 figure of the car in a given sector.
"There's a fiscal part of renting and an environmental part," said McCrossan. "Rental companies don't care about this and they can't guarantee a car at or below a certain CO2 figure; they only go on vehicle size.
"If, as a business, you are trying to be green, then how can you be green with rental? Demand is already there for CO2 banding in rental - we know this from our customers."
McCrossan agreed that because the daily rental industry is used as a dumping ground for less popular cars, given the current demand for low-CO2 cars, this means that rental often ends up with high-CO2 cars.
Commenting on the acquisition of Nexus, McCrossan said: "I spent two years looking around after leaving Vanguard. I had to kiss a few frogs in the City before I found a princess.
"I knew Nexus from my days at National where I dealt with them. I then did some consultancy for them, then bought in with the operations director John Ellis. Nexus is a business to business rental broker, but not in the traditional sense. We're the biggest independent one, most others are attached to fleet management firms."
