How peer-to-peer car rental businesses can save time on vehicle returns

The success of peer-to-peer car rental companies depends in great part on the success of vehicle owners. Can vehicle owners quickly and easily list and rent out their vehicles on the car sharing platform? Is the customer experience flawless, or do car owners need to worry about inconveniences such as renters cancelling on them, waiting at a pick-up or drop-off spot, and not getting paid on time?

The inconvenience of car rental returns

A large pain point that vehicle owners have to deal with is a car's return at the end of each rental period. Owners need to meet with renters, look for dents or scratches on the vehicle's body, read the odometer, and check the fuel tank level. If renters have damaged the car, exceeded the mileage limit, or forgotten to fuel up before returning the vehicle, owners have to manually report the issue to the car sharing company and wait to get paid an inconvenience fee.

This said, car rental returns are not only a small inconvenience. They also waste every vehicle owner’s time, which adds up to large profit losses for car sharing companies.

Car rental returns made easy

P2P car sharing companies like Nabobil use Smartcar to eliminate these pain points. Our technology allows businesses to simplify vehicle returns and to save car owners a good chunk of time on each car rental return.

⛽ Automatic fuel tank check

Using Smartcar’s technology, car sharing applications automatically pull a vehicle’s gas tank level at the end of each rental period. When the tank is only half full, car sharing companies immediately reimburse the owner and charge the renter a convenience fee. Vehicle owners don’t need to worry about sitting inside their vehicle, checking the fuel gauge, manually reporting issues, or waiting for payments to get approved.

⏲ Automatic mileage check

Similarly to the fuel tank check, car sharing applications automatically pull the odometer reading from vehicles at the start and end of each car rental. When the driven mileage exceeds the tier that renters paid for, the business automatically charges them and pays the difference to the vehicle owner.

By using Smartcar to make vehicle inspections easier and car rental returns faster, peer-to-peer car sharing businesses have improved customer satisfaction and significant increased car rentals as well as profits.

To learn more about these and other features, check out our recent posts on instant car rentals and digital car key solutions. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or feedback. We’re happy to help!