THE MAJOR players in the car rental sector are set to even further dominate the market over the next five years as Europe opens up, offering more business and leisure bookings.
This is the finding of the market analyst Datamonitor’s latest survey on the car rental industry showing volumes will rise from 190m rental days in 1998 to 262m in 2004.
The statistics show continued pressure on turnover per car and the growing importance of the fleet sector. This means the smaller firms in the industry will lose out to the larger firms that use their fleet more efficiently and so can afford to charge lower rates.
Datamonitor says the top six European rental companies – Avis, Europcar, Hertz, National, Budget and Sixt – now have a combined share of 58.8% of the European rental fleet, which is a 2.8% growth from 1996. Avis alone has 15% of the European fleet.
The research also predicted that from now until 2004 the value of the market will increase from £5,184m to £6,878m a year. Penetration within the fleet and private sectors will increase rapidly within the less-developed European markets and rental companies will benefit from the rapid expansion of operational leasing and the strong economic growth of recent years.
Datamonitor’s automotive analyst Mike King said: “The larger companies in Europe are beginning to benefit from previous improvements in fleet operational efficiency and are therefore reaping rewards from continued growth in the majority of rental markets.
“Companies with low fleet-utilisation rates and less efficient operational processes will suffer from highly-competitive rental rates in the fastest growing markets,” he added.