In the recent past corporate car rentals has been undergoing a sea change from being a fleet rental agency to uberization of time share in executive sedans. Earlier the agencies concentrated mainly on
Fleet management and owned cars, however over a period of time this changed, and it was the fleet aggregators who scored higher than the conventional corporate car rental agencies. Time sharing was the Call of the day and of course vehicles with clean and hygienic interiors with English speaking chauffeurs with cutting edge technology including the GPS system installed scored a duck over others.

The availability of vehicles and connectivity and availability of executive class vehicles are tiding over others. With this the agencies are required to have strong financial capability to backup late payments from corporate customers which normally runs on credit business. Increasingly the mercs, bmws and audis are being made available to senior executives who brace their cars as a status symbol to attend client meetings. Hence in todays small world small operators have joined hands with aggregators to make vehicles available in a pool. Gone are the fleet exclusivity and all

have geared up for a resource Sharing agreement. With the likes of hertz, Oryx the game has stepped up to the best of competition. Pricing points are no longer considered to be exclusive but more competitive. When supply exceeds demand in a currently economic volatile market, the rates are bound to be pushed down. Aggregators are tying up with multiple vehicle owners and the pool is increasing by the day across, cities, metros and even smaller towns. Accessibility is a matter of great interest wherein aggregators are looking at market penetration. In smaller town and tier 2 and 3 cities in the hinterland of India corporates are going increasingly to visit customers and the car rental agencies and aggregators are looking at market penetration. It is running this extra mile which keeps the agencies afloat in the market. The vehicle acquisition model has completely changed. At the backend the vehicle owners are going for vehicle leasing rather than owning hence acquisition of luxury brands have become more affordable. The auto majors also run the maintenance scheme and car giants like Ford are finding more profits in mobility business rather than making cars.

Along with the variety and availability certain operational factors like capability to provide backup vehicles also provides an agency an edge over others. The tie ups with hotels is also an advantageous factor
Wherein hotels provide car pickup and drops to and from airports in metros and other cities. The tie ups and working on pan India based rate contracts also ensures secured business to corporate car rental agencies. English speaking chauffeurs are a must and driver grooming has important role to play much like the finishing schools. Maintenance of vehicles must always be done from the car manufacturers workshops. Signing Trip sheets are now a thing of the past and electronic signatures on pre-programmed tablets are the call of the day to prevent data tampering and ensure billing integrity.

The metamorphosis of car rentals over the last decade has graduated from one of the car rental operator to that of an aggregator driven market and uberization and resource sharing has become the key for growth and survival in the current market scenario.