The global motorcycle rental market is set to grow at a CAGR of 7.74% by 2021. A major reason for this growth is an increase in road trip tourism and rising traffic congestion levels. Increasingly, tourists are renting motorcycles to avoid congestion and reach exotic destinations which may not be easily accessible via public transport.
To deal with the growing demand, all motorcycle rental businesses must try to scale up. However, such growth comes with its own set of challenges. Here are some of the common pitfalls faced by motorcycle rental companies and how to resolve them.
1. Liability, paperwork, and lost time
Some rental businesses are at a greater risk of facing liability cases than others. For example, an AV rental business is less likely to face liability concerns than one that rents out extreme sports equipment.
As a motorcycle rental business, your customers face physical risks. While the open road has its allure, one mistake can cause serious injury. Other factors also elevate this risk. You are renting out high power vehicles that could malfunction at any given moment if they are not in optimal working condition.
As a best business practice, be aware of all possible liability claims and put checks in place to protect your business. Clearly establish liability protections at the start of every transaction by having customers sign a contract or rental agreement. This will keep you safe in case of any mishaps. You may also want to look into getting general liability insurance, which covers the following risks:
- Bodily injury
- Legal defense and judgment
- Medical payments
- Property damage
Dealing with these protections and insurance also brings with it mounds of paperwork and a designated employee to process it. This means you are losing both time and potential customers. Don’t get bogged down in paperwork and automate these workflows with motorcycle rental software. Dedicated software will simplify your processes leading to a smoother rental experience and no wasted time for your service staff.
2. Inventory damage and repair
A crucial part of business success is to ensure your machinery is well-maintained. While manually keeping track of maintenance may work when your inventory is not large, as your inventory grows, manual tracking can become highly inefficient and prone to errors.
No matter how meticulously you record maintenance schedules, you always run the risk of missing a few of them. And if your motorcycles are not in perfect working condition, you could run the risk of minor or even major accidents. These can range from something as common as a punctured tube to serious problems such as a major spill that results in a cracked frame.
When your rental store’s inventory incurs such serious damage, you have to deal with all the various losses which include:
- The potential profits you have to forsake because of the unavailability of the damaged motorcycle.
- The additional money you have to spend on reactive maintenance, i.e. sending an item for maintenance only after it breaks down.
- The time lost when the manager has to deal with all the additional paperwork about the malfunction.
Sometimes, the malfunction might be a result of the customer’s negligence. In such cases, you can easily recover the repair costs by collecting a security deposit on the front end. However, if you’re using manual data entry, then this will lead to more complications and paperwork.
The simple solution is to look for motorcycle rental software that helps automate maintenance and repair sessions. Here are all the ways such software will help:
a) Customized maintenance routines
You likely stock up on various types of motorcycles, and their accessories, such as rain gear and luggage systems. Not every item is the same and requires unique maintenance and care. With the appropriate motorcycle rental software, you can implement customized maintenance routines for all your rentals and set specific routines according to use and depreciation rate.
b) Implement preventive maintenance
Rental equipment undergoes continuous wear and tear because of extensive use over time. Therefore, you need to adopt preventive maintenance, i.e. regularly inspecting your equipment to identify any problems that might get worse over time. Motorcycle rental software allows you to easily schedule, assign, and monitor maintenance, thereby ensuring optimal results and equipment with longer life cycles.
c) Increase resale value
The best way to dispose of your equipment is to sell it. However, for the equipment to sell, it needs to have good resale value. Well-maintained rentals result in higher resale value and sell for higher prices, therefore ensuring the best ROI.
Read More: Equipment Rental Software: 5 Important Maintenance Management Uses
3. Competition from motorcycle shares
Motorcycle shares is a recent trend, similar to bicycle shares. Motorcycle rental schemes work by connecting a prospective renter directly with the motorcycle owner. This trend is becoming a low-cost alternative to traditional motorcycle shop rentals. In other words – they’re a direct competition for your rental business.
Such competition is hard to beat without bringing relevant motorcycle rental software onboard. The software helps you decrease your costs in the long-run, thereby enabling you to offer customers cheaper rental rates.
Additionally, you can also manage all your vendors with the help of the software and enjoy complete control over your dealings with them. Automate purchase orders so an automatic request is sent to the appropriate vendor whenever you hit a low stock threshold. Communication with vendors is easy. Send them emails at any stage to ask for quotations or pricing negotiations.
Such efficient vendor management helps you offer customers unfettered access to an expansive market of motorcycles.
Motorcycle rental software also enables you to deal with cases where you’re out of stock and would normally have to lose the sale. You can simply sub-rent! Good relations built through vendor management means you can sub-rent short equipment from partner vendors.
4. Security concerns
Your assets are the most valuable part of your rental business, which is why you must ensure their security. Here’s a little anecdote that the CEO of a motorcycle rental business shared with Entrepreneur. A customer rented a motorcycle from them. As soon as he left the store, the customer changed the number plate and sold the bike to an unsuspecting buyer.
If this ever happened to your company, you’d have to sit back and bear the loss!
The most effective way to ensure the security of your assets is to incorporate GPS tracking. When considering motorcycle rental software, check whether they offer this functionality. This will make it easier for you to keep an eye on your assets and ensure that they’re being used for their specified purposes.
With the relevant technology in place, you can prevent such untoward incidents.
EZRentOut: Try our leading motorcycle rental software
EZRentOut is the leading motorcycle rental software with specialized features to help you optimize rentals for different customer segments. Use our mobile app to create and process orders anywhere, anytime!
For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.
