Rental Companies and Fleet Maintenance companies

[NCWindshield]

Alright, I have a few more specific questions and in trying to keep with the rules of the board, decided to make a new topic.

1) Rental agencies were notorious for not spending a dollar on maintaining their vehicles mechanically. Does anybody service them for windshield repair? does the same thing hold true when it comes to glass as it does to brakes and other mechanical repair? I know selling them work as preventative maintenance was impossible as a service writer. They just simply didn't do it unless brakes were metal to metal or something was dangerously wrong.

2) Fleet maintenance companies i.e. Lease Plan and other companies that maintain fleets so companies don't need a fleet manager exist, but do they repair windshields? And is it a you call in and tell them you are repairing one of their vehicles and get an approval number and a check in the mail, or do they have guys that they use in particular and set their drivers up with?

[Frank EU]

Here in Europe LeasePlan (a Dutch company) is in bed with Belron companies. LeasePlan is, like most other rental and leasing companies, blind and deaf not willing to work with proper vendors. Despite their smooth and slick marketing crap, they just do not care for preventative maintenance. All they care about is the brown enveloppe. No mate, it would surprise me if you were able to work for Avis (connected to Belron!) or LeasePlan. Don't know for National, Budget or Dollar (we used to work for National and Budget some years ago, Budget stopped doing business here).

[bill lambeth]

I work for Enterprise and it is pretty good.I think in another post you ask me who some of my fleets are-UPS(multiple locations*)Ryder*,Penske,APAC* and a good bit more but not enough time to list!I do have to compete with safelite where I am at.They have signed a national agreement with Enterprise to do any replacement for 185. and repairs for 25..

[Brent Deines]

I used to rent moving vans for a national company out of our glass shop. As a "dealer", we did a lot of maintenance on the trucks and trailers, including windshield repair and replacement, and the company was always very good about paying a fair price for the work. Things may be different at other companies, but in this case they had company owned rental centers that were supposed to do safety checks prior to each rental and maintenance at regular intervals, but rarely did so. Several center managers told me they deliberately avoided doing the service work because they got bonuses for keeping their expenses to a minimum, and since most of the trucks and trailers were one way rentals they would pass the buck and hope the next center took care of the maintenance. Dealers like me on the other hand, were happy to do the maintenance and repairs whenever possible. I not only did repairs on the trucks that I rented out, but also for the other dealers in town. Dealers don't do the volume that the company owned centers do, but since they can transfer trucks back and forth you can sometimes work it out so a dealer is also servicing the center trucks. For example, if the center manager has a truck with a chip in the windshield but does not want the expense on his books, he can trade the truck for a similar truck on a dealer's lot and let the dealer handle the repair. Even if a trade is not available the center can transfer the truck to the dealer, the dealer can have the repair done and bill it to the company, and then transfer the truck back to the center. So to really make this work you may need to give a spiff to one or more local dealers.

Auto rentals are a different story as they tend not to do much maintenance because they get rid of the cars before they have many miles on them so the fewer repairs they have to make the more profitable they are. Windshields are one of the few exceptions however, as a chip left un-repaired is likely to crack out the windshield causing a more expensive replacement to be necessary. Not every company or local manager understands this, so it is your job to convince them. It depends on the agency and the local management, but most rental car agencies are open to a windshield repair program.

Larger truck leasing firms are often very good prospects. I did a lot of fleet work for leasing companies specializing in 18 wheelers. The only real problem for me was that most of the work was in the evenings and on the weekends, but the amount of work they provided was well worth the inconvenience. If you can get them to sign a contract it helps keep the national guys out, but sometimes the bean counters make decisions at a high enough level that the local managers don't have any choice on who they use.

[bill lambeth]

Brent your exactly right,early morning and late evening but of course this time of year kills me with the frost and sun setting at 4:30.I work every Sat and Sunday also but it is well worth it!

[the big welshman]

Hi--Regarding fleet accounts You may have to purchase a credit card machine for payment???, there is plenty of work out there in the fleet acount world?? car rental company in the airports when I was in local airport the rental companys would only want me to fix the small chips and not the Bullseye or stars or combination I suggest if you get some work with rental companys in the airport do not put all your eggs in one basket -they may drop you like a ton of bricks??. How about coach companys some of those heated windshield on a coach cost $1000.00 each , truck companys payment may be around 60days-courier services vans etc I am quit sure a vehicle buisness who are self insured would rather have somebody repair a windshield than replace a winshield when they have to pay out of pocket -

[bill lambeth]

I take a good bit of credit cards and I do not use a machine.You can enter everything over the internet.Mine is setup through my QB(quichbooks).It is very safe and simple!