The industry standard is for companies to own a private corporate fleet. Owning such a poorly optimised and notably cost-ineffective system can lead many SME’s to needlessly spend so much of their business travel budget. These companies would be very pleased to discover that there is an alternative method for your employees travelling by car that is steadily growing into a fan-favourite for SME’s. This alternative comes in the form of Car Clubs.
What are Car Clubs?
Car Clubs are a membership service that allows a user to rent a vehicle for when they need it, as opposed to privately owning a vehicle and allowing it to take up space while it isn’t in use. Being cheaper than simply owning a car, Car Clubs are a developing alternative that presents many new opportunities to both an individual or SME.
Car Clubs being rental based means that the users are already covered for insurance, fuel costs and other contractual arrangements, essentially meaning that the overall cost of your journeys over a long-term basis will be cheaper and to some extent less risky as per the insurance.
Why would Car Clubs be good for SME’s?
Car Clubs allow for on-demand travel services all at a cheaper price than conventional forms of travel. Using Car Clubs combines both the low price of public transport with the privacy and flexibility of private travel, giving the most satisfactory business travel experience for the employee whilst still providing a cost-effective option for SME’s.
In addition to this, Car Clubs are significantly easier to manage. Many companies that provide Car Club services such as Enterprise have an account feature, presenting your expenses there. Furthermore, MaaS platforms such as Mobilleo feature Car Club within their journey planner, meaning that expenses will be measured and accounted for through that before making the purchase. Using MaaS platforms to use Car Club services allows SME’s to carefully consider each viable option and choose the most appealing Car Club based upon their own priorities and requirements.
Flexibility
Many Car Club companies provide a wide range of vehicles for rental, promoting the use of Car Clubs over a number of industries and initiatives. Companies such as Enterprise and Co-Wheels supply vehicles of all sizes and classes, such as vans all the way to electric vehicles.
Having this flexibility available for an SME means they can pick the right vehicle for a specific job. Should the business travel require taking along equipment then a van is available on-demand for the company rather than having to rent it at a much higher price through an alternative provider. If your company is environmentally focused, then you have the option to hire electric vehicles. Providing a possible future solution to both petrol demand and congestion charges in the future.
A dependable yet still flexible business travel option is often overlooked by SME’s, yet it can be paramount to an effective travel system for the company. Whilst many companies continue to use an outdated system to organise travel, it is up to SME’s themselves to make the transition to more developed standards of travel. Within an era of revolutionising travel technology, companies need to adapt alongside it and move towards more unconventional yet more effective methods of travel such as Car Clubs. Extending the optimisation further by booking through platforms such as Mobilleo, SME’s could see vast improvements in both travel expenditure and employee travel satisfaction.