I feel that there is an opportunity to improve the current car rental services in the USA. Most of the car rental services offered by different companies have a minimum age requirement of 21. This means that, under this restriction, the business misses out on earning profits from college students. The reason for this is that companies don’t trust young drivers enough. Very few car rental services provide cars on rent at age of 18. But these services are missing out on another opportunity. These services require people to return the rented car back to its original position after use. Allowing people to pick a car from a different location and dropping it off at a different location would increase the size of market for the companies by allowing people interested in one-way trips to access their services. Having both of these features together would attract a lot of college students to be their customers by meeting their needs. The reason for lack of companies who provide both these features together in their services is due to lack of resources and not being quite as widespread.
Who: Students and other people looking to use car rental services for one-way trips.
What: Car rental companies aren’t able to meet the needs of a lot of customers who want to use their services.
Why: Companies lacking resources and not being quite as widespread.
Hypothesis: People, especially young students, are not satisfied by the current car rental services.
Testing the Who: It can be any other person who is below the age of 21 or needs a rental car for one-way trips.
Testing the What: A lot of people, especially college students, are preferring to use cabs because a lot of car rental services are not able to provide features that they are looking for.
Testing the Why: Companies lacking resources and not being quite as widespread. There are a variety of different companies offering car rental services and thus they are not able to earn enough resources to provide extra features for their customers.
Summary of the interviews: All the students I interviewed were below the age of 21 and thus were forced to be able to use car rental service from just one company. All of them had several cases where they would have liked to be able to return a car at a different location. There were two out-of-state students and an international student that I interviewed. They take a flight to go back home during the breaks and prefer car rental services over cabs because of the convenience factor and also because it is cheaper. But the problem they face is that the car rental service requires them to return the car back to its original position. Due to this, sometimes they have to ask some of their friends to drive them to the airport and then return the car back or else they end up taking a cab. They would love to have a car rental service in which they can drop the car at the airport itself. Another scenario brought up by a student where this feature would have been really helpful was in a situation where you need to go to place and will be returning after about a week. Under current restrictions, renting a car would mean paying rent for the entire week even if you drove for just 3 hours for traveling.
After the interviews, I was able to understand different views that people have n why they require a particular feature to meet their needs.
Hi Tarang,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I hadn't realized that this was a need that many people can relate to but I think it's great that you were able to recognize this need and establish upon that. I had always thought that we couldn't rent cars until we are 25 so I do understand that wish to have rental car companies to lower the age restriction. From my parent's experience though, I do agree that rental car companies do have an opportunity to improve upon their services.
Hi Tarang,
ReplyDeleteYour opportunity is a great solution to a problem that many under the age requirement discuss. When on trips, those under the requirement have no other recourse that is not public transportation, ubers, or taxis. Yet, they would still prefer being able to rent a car. By addressing this unmet need, the opportunity would receive the demand from an entirely ignored demographic in the sector.
Hello Tarang,
ReplyDeleteAs an in-state student with my car parked outside of my apartment, sometimes it's hard to see all of the issues that go on with student transportation. However, I do think you have an interesting solution to a common problem here. I honestly try to avoid cab/Uber/Lyft rides because I don't really like having to make awkward small talk with the driver, so I can see how this could be useful to out of state and international students. Very creative.