5 Reasons LoanerTrack Is Right For Your Car Dealership
Officially approved by the major OEMs, Bluebird’s LoanerTrack is a Turn-Key software application for managing your Courtesy Transportation Vehicles
Many car dealerships struggle to decide whether a rental service within their dealership is worthwhile. The demand for vehicle rental availability at a convenient location is evergrowing. With a reduction in the number of new car dealerships, existing dealers have been able to expand their customer base, thereby expanding their potential market for car rental customers. Thus, adding a rental service at your dealership could provide a new source of revenue. Dealers would also get a chance to have customers drive their brands, rather than going to an outside rental service. By letting your customers go elsewhere for a rental, you run the risk of losing future sales, service, and parts business. Only you can determine if a rental division at your dealership is something worth pursuing. If it’s something you decide to implement, the appropriate car rental software simplifies operations and reduces the additional management responsibilities that come with a rental service.
LoanerTrack by Bluebird has made this pursuit possible for a wide range of dealerships, including Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, and even luxury brand dealerships such as Audi and Porsche. So how can LoanerTrack easily implement a rental service at your dealership?
1. Processes Rentals and Returns Quickly on a Single Screen
LoanerTrack has been designed to keep your customers moving with a slick single screen interface to rent cars or return them. All the necessary data can be entered quickly so you can get your customer on their way. The rental process begins with the Loaner Rental Entry screen. This screen allows you to fill in all renter information, including information for The Loaner Rental Entry screen for quick entry of loaner agreements. You can access this screen from the Rez Planner, and you can honor reservations by searching for open vehicles upon entering the Loaner Rental Entry screen. All necessary data to complete a reservation is logically divided into sections of information required for:
- The Renter
- Pickup info
- Vehicle info
- Deposit info
- Service info
- Credit card information
Once the loaner agreement has been created, the Counter screens are used for modifying/closing the agreement.
2. Laser Printed Rental Form
LoanerTrack allows you to wow your customers with a professional looking laser printed rental form. Once your customer information, as well as the vehicle provided and add-ons for your rental are entered, providing a proper rental form is of great importance. Your rental form can be customized to your liking on headed paper with your logo, address and phone number. Fuel levels, charges and sales taxes can all be calculated and printed on a clear easy to read laser form. The form is fittingly sorted with all the information entered in your agreement displayed in a manner that is easy for the customer to follow.
3. Ability to Split Charges Between Dealer and Customer
LoanerTrack has the ability to split charges between warranty claims and customer related charges such as gas, parking tickets, late fees, etc… The process of splitting charges can be completed when closing a contract with a customer at check-in. A full breakdown of the charges issued to the dealer and customer can be accessed by clicking on the sigma. This will show the balance summary. The dealership is set up as the default bill when opening a contract, but at the check-in stage, the correct payment amount for the dealership and renter are shown. The remaining balance can then be properly divided and charged accordingly. A contract will not be closed until the balance due is zero.
4. “Rez Planner”
The “Rez Planner” allows service agents to visually allocate loaner vehicles to reservations. This visual aid lets you look at all of your vehicles in a snapshot. Vehicle unit numbers are displayed on the left of the screen. Odometers of each vehicle can also be accessed by dragging the vertical silver line to the right. The graph provided in the center of your screen indicates the status of your vehicles on a specific date/time with color coded bars. What are the color codes?
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- Blue – Contracts
- Red – Overdue
- Gray – Unavailable vehicles
- Green – Reservations
- Assign reservations to specific vehicles with a simple drag and drop of the green bar.
5. Management Reporting
LoanerTrack’s Management Reporting shows vehicle utilization to maximize reimbursement money. Many OEM programs provide for reimbursement dollars if you can demonstrate the vehicles are being effectively used to service your customers. LoanerTrack has this reporting built-in so there is no need to manually track anything, it’s all in the system.
There are several folders of reports, but for dealerships, we have created a special folder of the more common reports. The ‘Available Loaner Vehicle List’ is quite popular, as the list simply incorporates the fleet status report, plus maintenance due, location and status information.
We encourage you to maximize the use of the reports available. Running more reports means constantly ensuring your information is up to date. Reports can be scheduled at your own convenience using the ‘Schedule’ and ‘Reschedule’ features, accessed on the top left of your screen.