Using a process of forecast modelling one of UK's leading car rental companies realised they had the potential to increase their car utilisation by up to 10%, as well as increasing the efficiencies in other areas of the business.

In order to meet its efficiency objectives the rental company would need to solve many complex issues related to delivery and collection of cars:

• Coordinating schedules of many resources (Drivers, Cars, Multiple Delivery & Collections),
• Pool resources (cars & drivers) between stations to ensure maximum efficiency,
• Quickly re-plan in real-time based on coming events (e.g. driver is early or late, reservation is changed or cancelled)

Magenta produced a powerful browser based scheduling solution for the company that would be operated out of the individual stations and automatically generate and dynamically update the daily schedules.

The solution provides the following functions:

• Schedules reservations – different types:
  • Station pickups / station returns,
  • Deliveries / collections;
• Rental car exchanges,
• Re-scheduling based on:
  • Changes of situation - delays, weather, traffic jams,
  • Driver actions and behavior – late, lunch, break,
  • Events from stations -delay, station return, car exchange, damaged car;
  • Send instructions to drivers via mobile (drive, wash, walk, carry out delivery or collection).

The rental car company is currently rolling out Magenta's solution and looks forward to the following benefits:-

• Reduce rental car idle time and empty miles:
  • More efficient scheduling of cars and drivers,
  • Better customer service,
  • Reduce mistakes,
  • Ensure the right car is in the right place at the right time;
• Improve efficiency:
  • Automate manual business processes,
  • Increased visibility for operations and management,
  • Increase asset utilisation by 10-15%,
  • Shared resources between stations.

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