Conducted by the French Car Rental Syndicate CNPA, the study reflects 25,000 interviews run over 2016. Here are some highlights.
Conducted by the French Car Rental Syndicate CNPA, the study reflects 25,000 interviews run over 2016. Here are some highlights.
Overall, the French car rental market gets similar renting specificities over years. Anyhow, an interesting factor can be pointed out: the overall potential market has shrunk by -13% due to the absence of driving license or lost (police), in the progression of +14%.
In general, 50% of interviewed persons have never rented before and for the one that did (70%), it was under constraints (moving, car replacement, or professional journey). On the leisure part (22%), the main motivation was to get a bigger car with more seats or because of a long road trip.
The persons, who do not have a car at all and therefore need one once a while, are only 7%. If youngsters (aged 18-24) represent around a third of this type of driver, 20% of the entire population who rented declared that using a car rental is financially cheaper than holding one personally. It is a good alternative to holding his own car especially in a city or a suburb.
38% booked via internet but only 10% via mobile, showing a stable proportion over the last four years. Warning: an important share of rentals were made at the retail counters as most French retail stores (Carrefour, Leclerc, Systeme U, etc) offer some cars and trucks to rent at a competitive price. This trend boosted the overall ratio of walk-in transactions (no reservation) from 18 to 30% over three years.
64% of interviewed people declared having booked via the brand site of the rental operator and only 10% via a broker. On the WeYield’s piloting web application Cocktail RM, the proportion is similar (from 10 to 14% depending on the French cities observed).
In terms of reservation anticipation on the French market, 35% of interviewed population booked one day prior to starting their rental and 44% from two to seven days before. This trend remains stable since 2012.
In a new mobility environment, people who rented were only 15% interested in co-driving (like provided by the French unicorn Bla-Bla-Car). However, this ratio increased to 34% over the population aged from 18-24. The other option to get a car hire from a regular brand is also challenged by a recent new habit to rent on a peer-to-peer basis. For the 64% who did it last year, the main reason is the significant cost saving vs the professional ones. And 55% trusted (+3% vs 2015) the car hired to a fellow even though, only 44% are willing to offer their own car for rent.
What about your own country? Do you observe the same trends? Do you record the same figures? Feel free to comment.
Expert in Revenue Management and Pricing in the Car Rental industry for 20 years, I aim to share my optimization experience with our customers throughout the world. I am specialized in revenue maximization, pricing strategy, yield management, reporting based on AI.
