Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for car rental companies.
A checklist built from how car rental companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Booking calendar by vehicle
- Digital duty slip
- Corporate package billing
- Vehicle document and service alerts
- Running costs per vehicle
- Self-drive check-out and check-in
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For the reservation desk
- For counter staff
- For chauffeurs
- For accounts and the workshop
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Utilisation and idle days by vehicle
- Open reservations without a vehicle or driver
- Documents expiring soon, by vehicle
- Corporate dues by company, with ageing
- Running cost against hire income per car
- Damage and deposit deductions by month
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- GPS and telematics feeds
- Toll tag accounts
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- SMS
- Payment gateways
- Accounting software
- Insurer claim forms
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can one system handle self-drive and chauffeur hire?
- How does it avoid booking one car twice?
- Can we hire cars from other operators and still track them?
- What happens to the photographs taken at handover?
- Can drivers use it without a data connection?
- Can it read distance from our vehicle trackers?
- Can corporate clients see their own bookings?
- Who sets our tariffs and vehicle classes?
- What will the system cost us?
- If we leave, do we keep our fleet records?
- How soon could the reservation desk work from it?
- What should a rental company bring to the first sitting?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Double bookings and idle cars
- Duty slips do not reconcile
- Documents expire without warning
- Traffic fines arrive long after the trip
- Self-drive damage is disputed
Prefer to talk it through? See the car rental companies page.