WINNER of the 2021 Business Vans Van Rental award, Europcar focused its services during 2020 on the needs of ‘Business Britain’ and in particular on providing services that would help small businesses continue to operate in a COVID world.
The UK’s reliance on the logistics sector changed immeasurably in 2020 – with firms having to pivot to provide delivery of goods in a way never previously experienced.
The right vans, in the right place, at the right time Unlike many of our competitors during the COVID-19 restrictions Europcar retained a comprehensive network of Stations and Supersites maintaining its usual delivery and collection service throughout.
It underpinned this network with nine strategically positioned Van and Truck Supersites meaning that on average, it was never more than nine miles away from its customers.
From a customer standpoint, the Supersites mean that Europcar teams are on hand to deliver a customer-focused service on-the-ground, backed up by a much larger business that has the infrastructure and resources to react quickly and fulfil customer needs rapidly.
The year saw a 72% year-on-year increase in the number of vehicle rental days with the average length of rental hire also increasing by 50% year on year as firms capitalised on the flexibility of rental as an alternative to long term lease agreements, much of the growth came from the logistics and online retail sectors as businesses strove to meet the need for home deliveries.
It is also notable that through strong relationships with manufacturers, Europcar Van and Trucks was able to mobilise large numbers of vehicles in the space of less than two months at the start of the pandemic and the first Lockdown. As a result we were able to provide more businesses with the vehicles they needed – often quickly and at short notice.
Its services include: Real time online booking and reporting platform Hand held Delivery and Collection software via its ‘Pathfinder’ app including the provision of a digital schedule of return documents and images of any damage at the end of the rental Fully inclusive service, maintenance and repair (SMR), including tyre replacement, industry leading downtime management providing crucial driver insight and improving fleet optimisation
Another important initiative in 2020 was a new UK partnership between Europcar Van and Truck and Geotab and SureCam to deliver telematics and video technology as a single, cost effective solution for the van and truck market. This new partnership is giving Europcar’s long-term van and truck rental customers access to valuable insights to help improve driving behaviour and optimise their fleet utilisation.
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