 |
| |
FIRST CAR RENTAL LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST ‘GREEN’ MOBILE CHECKOUT FACILITY
First Car Rental’s corporate Show & Go Loyalty Card offers corporate car renters access to much more than just car hire.
The latest Show & Go Mobile Checkout feature is a world-first time-saving, convenient checkout facility for those that want to save time, avoid queues and paperwork and go from airport arrivals straight to their rental car - checking out in less than a minute.
First Car Rental’s corporate customers arriving at OR Tambo International, Cape Town International or King Shaka International airports now walk out of airport arrivals, straight to their rental car where a staff member using a handheld mobile checkout device allows them to checkout in less than a minute.
Corporate clients bypass the branch avoiding queus and paperwork. This green technology ensures the entire transaction from the online booking to closing off the contract after the rental period has ended, is paperless.
Comments Melissa Storey, Executive Head of Strategy, Development and Marketing at First Car Rental: “For business travellers, waiting to be attended to is extremely frustrating, especially in peak periods. We want to completely remove this element from the car rental experience and get them moving to their destination as quickly as possible, whilst simultaneously inspiring green processes.” |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
| HOW IT WORKS |
 |
A booking is made online. |
 |
|
The renter walks out of airport arrivals using the shortest pre-defined route to the First Car Rental Show&Go collection and termination zone where their car is parked, bypassing the branch completely. |
|
A staff member is waiting within this dedicated area with a mobile checkout device to check the renter out by tending to a simple verification process such as ‘does this photo look like the renter? |
|
First Car Rental staff pre-prepares a check-sheet and walks around the vehicle with the renter to ensure they agree on the vehicle condition. |
|
The renter’s Show&Go card is ‘snapped’ by the device and the renter is voice-recorded agreeing with the check-sheet. |
|
There is no signature required. The client is ready to go in less than a minute. When the renter returns the vehicle, they park the car exactly where they picked it up from, which is the closest parking available to the airport and branch. They drop their keys into the Show&Go key drop safe and off they go back to the airport. |
|
|
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
The technical side
|
 |
On the technical side, Firestring, First Car Rental’s loyalty platform provider, modified its MobiSnap 2D Bar Code Reader software to in conjunction with their own software solutions enable quick mobile checkouts for First Car Rental’s existing Show & Go 2D Bar Code Card Holders.
The software, written in J2ME, runs on BlackBerry Torch 9800 mobile phones and provides our car handlers with mobile technology to seamlessly recall customer- reservation - and vehicle information directly from First Car Rental’s online reservation and fleet planning solutions as well as its operational system.
A secure VPN is established between the device and the server using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). |
| First Car Rental’s Service Orientated Architecture allows modules to be added securely with ease, enhancing the customers’ experience through innovative technologies and unique First Car Rental business processes. |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
How it all started
|
|
In 2010, First Car Rental began applying speed to the car rental experience with its customer recognition software rolled out at all 43 branches nationwide.
The technology was designed to capture electronic customer profiles with photographs and the relevant legal documentation.
This system allows staff to access customer profiles quickly from a central database to complete the car rental process without time-consuming repeat paperwork.
The technology, coupled with First Car Rental’s loyalty card programme, means that customers provide their personal details just once.
|
 |
Storey said: “The new software dramatically speeds up the rental process for customers and forms part of a phased approach to a fully paperless rental agreement, fulfilling our vision of being the first car rental comapany in South Africa to offer a truly ‘green’ check-out procedure, which we have now achieved.”
Their photos and details are captured and saved on First Car Rental’s central and secure database, and in future, clients simply produce their loyalty card, speeding up the rental process while they earn loyalty points. Storey explains that the software was initially developed to drive First Car Rental’s loyalty programme in order to identify and reward frequent customers. Over and above flagging frequent renters in the system for additional benefits, the loyalty software also records rental activity so that customers can view their rental history and rewards online.
Says Storey “We have now taken this a step further and designed the Mobile Checkout Device using this advanced technology, which we believe, is a world-first in the car rental industry and thereby living up to our name and payoff line ‘First Car Rental - First in Car Hire, First in Service’.”
|
| |
| Open a Show & Go Corporate Account here |
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
|
|