Nowadays it is very common to go to a car rental company to rent a car. ¿Who hasn’t rented a vehicle to make a trip or move around for work? Well, beyond getting a car, to move with your family to spend a vacation somewhere, or go for business somewhere and be able to mobilize without depending on others to do so, my personal opinion is that many times we do things, not to mention that most of the time without thinking about the logistics behind it all, but specifically for a company that rents vehicles is a whole logistics within the company, so they can meet your reservation, meet your needs, provide good service and a complete experience around it.

In the world there are hundreds of companies that rent vehicles; in South America one of the best known and recognized by its trajectory, for its coverage, for its good service and immediate availability of vehicles in the category that fits your needs is Localiza Rent a Car, a Brazilian company that has expanded throughout the South American continent, through franchises with a fleet of about 60.000 vehicles in different ranges.

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But how is it possible to manage and maintain a fleet of this size and provide an adequate service? Will there be many or few vehicles?

Well, from my experience I can tell you that the company must always oblige itself to keep certain things in order to guarantee and adequately comply with the service. This franchise is located in the different countries in South America by big automotive and Renting companies, which negotiate on a large scale with suppliers and vehicle dealers. The vehicles offered to the customers have not been working for more than 2 years, so they are constantly renewed. The main aspects that make up a whole logistics are:

1. Attention to reservations and requests: To have the appropriate and suitable personnel to understand and attend to your requests either by telephone, through sales representatives, and also to have a good system via Internet that can also attend to the demand digitally, so that customers can manage themselves and know in real time the availability in range, cost, place of collection and delivery, time.
2. Availability index: Maintain an availability according to the peaks and seasons of the year, with a greater flow of bookings to meet the type of customers handled (Corporate, normal, customers who book through exclusive portals for car rental and not on the company’s own page as, for example: Booking, Skyscanner, Despegar …)
3. Vehicle maintenance: Apart from having a certain amount of vehicles, the company has to maintain relationships and negotiations with high quality repair workshops, to send their vehicles for maintenance both for the safety of the customer, and for the company itself. This implies logistics, because they must have personnel to bring and pick up the maintenance vehicles, coordinate with the workshops such assistance, and also be prepared to have backup vehicles to meet reservations and so on.  
4. Agencies or physical offices: To have the appropriate offices, the number of staff and number of people who attend the counter (staff that performs the procedure with your credit card and other documents), those who make the delivery of the vehicle, those who wash and tank the vehicles.

5. Coordinate passenger pick-ups: Localiza offices are not all located inside the airports, most of them near the airports or along the cities where they are located, which means that they must coordinate and maintain logistics with the staff that picks up the clients at the time, date and at the different points agreed upon and takes them afterwards to deliver the vehicles.

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And, last but not least important

6. Coordinate and maintain relationships with suppliers: With the vehicle insurance companies, with the repair workshops, with the companies that sell and market vehicles, with the gas stations, with the suppliers of car wash supplies; It is important to have excellent suppliers that meet your needs and requirements, so that you can deliver to the final customer in terms of Price, punctuality, quality, support, security, and coverage.