Processing and analysing big data provides businesses valuable insights into customer behaviour and market trends. This, in turn, allows businesses to make informed decisions, ensuring their competitiveness and profitability. In addition to facilitating business growth, conclusions drawn from data analysis may also reveal a positive influence on the quality of service. Let's explore how this how this works in practice in the car rental industry.
Many smart rental providers use advanced telematics technology to remotely monitor and analyse data from their vehicles. This includes information such as car location, speed, fuel consumption, and other metrics related to vehicle performance and maintenance. There are many providers of telematics services on the market: Invers, Liberkee, Continental, Verizon, etc., each with their distinct technological advantages and disadvantages.
Telematics systems are often used in conjunction with a car cloud platform to provide real-time access to the whole fleet of rental vehicles. By monitoring car location and usage patterns, rental companies can optimise their fleet management and ensure that vehicles are available where and when needed. As a result, this will make the rental process more efficient and customer-friendly.
Additionally, telematics can be used to improve vehicle maintenance and safety. Rental companies can take proactive measures to prevent accidents and ensure customer safety by monitoring vehicle performance and identifying potential issues early on . Reduced liability risk and an improved overall rental experience benefit both customers and businesses.
With car manufacturers’ focus now shifting to connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) , the functionality and importance of telematics systems are undoubtedly going to increase. Already, software updates can be delivered directly to the vehicle and installed with minimal input from the driver, or in some cases, even automatically.
Processing highly sensitive information requires a lot of responsibility from smart rental companies. It is crucial to note that, like all service providers, the companies are legally obligated to guard customer privacy and data. In the EU, the underlying legal framework comes from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Not only does this apply to vehicle data obtained via telematics systems but also to customers’ personal information like their full name, credit card number, IP address, etc.
The market outlook allows us to predict that smart rental solutions are growing in popularity each year. Likely resulting in many more vehicle operators turning towards cloud-based solutions like the Car Cloud Platform in the Car Rental Gateway ’s service lineup. Keyless rental experience with real-time overview of the entire fleet data is clearly a market advantage smart rental companies will enjoy over traditional desk-rental service providers.
