The past few years have seen a drastic change in the way people think about ownership. millennials have come to believe that it might not make sense to invest in a depreciating product if it can be rented as long as it finds its utility. This new craze for renting has spread across industries and in different directions.
One of the manifestations of this shift towards renting utilities is the steadily increasing welcome for car rentals. People have realized that owning a car could be an expensive affair. There is a lot of money that needs to be pumped in for fuel and maintenance. In addition to that, a car is a depreciating asset. The value can be expected to sharply diminish after a period of 3 to 4 years. In fact, A car starts to lose its value as soon as it is taken out of the showroom even if it wasn’t driven at all!
Given this situation, renting cars has turned out to be a viable and practical option. There are enough stats that prove it!
The Statistical Evidences
The Global market for cars has been steadily increasing since 2009 after it took a massive plunge in 2008 because of the Lehmann brothers crisis. In 2017, the graph started to dip a little bit. The numbers did not reduce but there was a significant decrease in the growth rate. The flattening of the graph continued into 2018 as well.
Parallel to this, stats have been favorable for the car rental business. Statista has shown that the business of car rentals will be worth $43.1 billion by 2022. As a teaser to this massive growth, Hertz, the most resonant (pun intended) name in car rentals has recorded a whopping $8.8 billion in 2017.
The stats not only prove that car rental is here to stay as a practice and a lifestyle, but also succeed as a business. The millennial mindset is slowly becoming geography-agnostic, and it might not a thing of surprise to see the impact across many countries.
This not only makes the business opportunity of car rental apps profitable but also promising and global.
The Different Avatars of Car Rental Business
Often, when we think about car rentals, we often think about a monotonous concept where we pay a security amount, take a car, use it, pay as we use, and get back the security deposit at the time of returning.
However, car rentals have a wide and vivid spectrum of dimensions.
Renting For Business
The car can be rented, not for an individual, but for a business. Any person can use the car for business-purposed, either to commute within the city or for inter-city travel. This mode of renting is useful for businesses that can’t afford to have their own car but need a car in their command all the time.
Self-Drive Rental
This is one of the most common methods of renting cars. It’s the same model that we saw at the beginning of the section.
P2P Car Rental – The ‘Torrent’ of Car-Rides
This type of car rental is almost like as if the business went the cryptocurrency-way! A user can have their car rented to people around them. They can, in turn, drive other rented cars. This can be useful when people have cars congenial for a certain type of commute – like small electric cars for the city, and they need a car for a different purpose – like a MUV for a picnic. Well… We’ve talked about both torrents and cryptocurrencies – and needless to say, this car rental method is completely decentralized.
Local & Outstation Rentals
Some cars can be rented for local use, on a fixed-time-and-fixed-distance basis. Also, some cars can be rented on a per-kilometer-and-per-day basis for outstation use. Some of the rental companies just charge a per-day amount, but the fuel expenses fall on the person who rents the vehicle.
Long-Term Rentals
This type of rental system can be useful for ex-pats who expect their stay to be fairly long. The car can be rented for extended periods. It’s precisely the utility of owning a car, but without the commitment of maintenance and the fear of depreciation.
Features Of A Car Rental Mobile App
For a rental app to function flawlessly, certain features need to be in place. The features are specific to the different entities involved in the functioning of the app.
Features For The User
- Login – The user should be able to log in and register easily using social credentials, or email or phone number.
- Selection of Cars – The user should be presented with a wide range of cars for them to rent.
- Manage Booking – The booking for the cars needs to be managed, including the cancelation of future-rides.
- Scheduling Of Rides – Rides need to be scheduled in advance for calendared events.
- Tracking – The user should be able to track the vehicle, both during delivery and also during the usage/ride.
- Cost-Estimation – Upon the submission of details (like the car to be rented and the duration of renting), a cost-estimate should be shown to the user.
- Door-Step Car Delivery – The car should be delivered to the user at their doorstep or a location of their choice.
- Versatile Payment Options – The user should be able to make payments using multiple methods including but not limited to credit cards, debit cards, net banking, wallets and last, but not the least, cash.
Features For The Driver
- Easy Registration – Just like the user should be able to register as easy as possible, although the driver might need to go through the formalities on the legal and identity-verification front.
- Quick Processing of Payments – The payments for the driver should be quickly processed to meet their recurring expenses.
- Accept/Reject Requests – The driver should have the fullest liberty to accept or reject requests.
- Trip Details – The driver should have access to all the details of the trip.
- Quick View Dashboard – All the vital information should be quickly viewable on an intuitive dashboard.
- Expense Records – The drivers should have a complete log of all their expenses, irrespective of them being eligible for compensation.
- Navigation Options – The driver should have access to navigation-assistance just in case the location is unfamiliar.
Features For The Administrator
- Bird’s Eye View Dashboard – The administrator should be able to view all the vital bits of information on a specialized dashboard.
- Fleet Management – The administrator should have a facility to manage the fleet.
- Content-Management – The app is bound to have promotional or information-oriented content. The administrator should be able to manage these contents.
- Fare Management – Although not as impulsive as surge pricing, the administrator should have the power to change prices based on a lot of dynamic factors like demand and traffic.
- User Management – The admin reserves the right to delete users and drivers based on their behavior.
- Analytics & Intelligence – With the vast amount of data, the administrator can gain access to analytics and the intelligence arrived from those numbers.
Create An App Or Customize A Clone – Which Is Better?
Purists will say that it would always be a good idea to create the app from scratch. However, considering factors like time and money, it is always a great plan to go for a clone-app and customize it! After all, every car rental app is the same under the hood!
Conclusion
Should you like to create your car rental business with a robust app, you can get in touch with a car rental app development company that can do the job for you. Our team of expert developers and business analysts will take care to converse with you and understand your requirements. After that, it’s just about a matter of time before you have your own car rental app!