How New Tech in Transportation Is Helping Drive Businesses into the Future

These innovative solutions can prepare growth-minded businesses for what’s next.

Businesses do not grow by standing still. They must move forward — change, adapt, improve, innovate. Just as important, successful businesses cannot afford to simply react to what’s happening in their industries. They must anticipate trends, ready their operations and deftly navigate the new way ahead.

Growth-minded businesses looking for innovative solutions to move people and products have a valuable partner in Enterprise. Leveraging a fleet of more than 1.5 million vehicles, Enterprise serves the transportation needs of customers worldwide, while helping build consumer awareness and understanding of new vehicle technology. Likewise, Enterprise takes a strategic, long-term approach to investing in emerging technologies, including autonomous, connected and electric vehicles.

Here are five innovations that are integrated across Enterprise’s business lines, including commercial truck and van rental, fleet management, commuter services and business vehicle rentals.

As a category of transportation technology, telematics and dashcams are far from new, but they can be integral to managing the safety and productivity of a business’s fleet. Data from these technologies gives mobility managers a bird’s-eye view of their entire fleet and helps them solve for predictive and diagnostic maintenance, fuel efficiency and compliance.

Businesses that work with Enterprise Fleet Management and Truck Rental can choose to have vehicles equipped with telematics devices, which log vehicle-specific data and upload it to a secure online portal. There, businesses have 24/7 access to reporting and statistics about every vehicle in their fleets — such as GPS location, average speed, miles driven, fuel usage and engine performance — so they can make decisions to help reduce fuel consumption, optimize routes and schedule routine maintenance.

The telematics system also can be customized to enable businesses to identify specific types of driving behaviors, such as harsh accelerating and braking, hard cornering, speeding and excessive idling. With this data, businesses can put programs in place that can help improve driver safety and ensure the company’s good reputation. In the case of emergencies, Geotab®, the provider that analyzes telematics data from Enterprise Fleet Management’s vehicles, will alert key contacts and even call for help if necessary.

Thanks to major advancements in technology, businesses can gather an incredible amount of detail on their transportation programs — an arsenal of tools that can help enhance vehicle rental and fleet management drastically.

Having access to all of this data, however, presents a new problem for businesses: what to do with it. A big challenge facing fleet managers is aggregating the huge volume of data from multiple sources and then trying to make sense of everything.

To help address these issues, Enterprise relies on the human element, born from the company’s cohesive strength in both the travel and transportation industries. With Enterprise, each business gains a local account manager who has logistical and operational experience. This strategic partner can collect data from various sources, interpret it through the lens of the business’s unique needs and turn it into action steps to help the business achieve its goals.

To date, telematics and data analytics have helped give businesses the tools they need to manage and continually improve their mobility operations. Looking ahead, connected vehicle technology will also help drive the future of car rental.

Connected vehicles are equipped with technology that can send data from a rental vehicle to Enterprise. Tasks such as checking fuel levels and mileage are automated to create efficiencies during the check-in and checkout processes, resulting in a more streamlined rental experience for business travelers and greater accuracy of travel costs for mobility managers.

Using Microsoft’s cloud-based computing and analytics technologies, Enterprise can apply insights from connected vehicle data generated by its fleet, which in the future may be used to benefit businesses. Specified data produced by onboard sensors would give mobility managers visibility into the performance of connected vehicles, helping them anticipate maintenance needs and support roadside assistance efforts.

Enterprise has already implemented connected vehicle technology in hundreds of thousands of its vehicles, including those within its corporate business program and its exotic and truck rental fleets. It is positioned to fully convert its fleet to connected vehicles over the next five years.

Electric vehicles, though still in the early phases, will play a critical role in the future of mobility. Enterprise embraces the responsibility to transition its fleet to electric vehicles — and is committed to doing so thoughtfully.

For Enterprise, it’s not just about adding large amounts of electric vehicles. Rather, it’s about working with industry partners and stakeholders to drive the long-term viability of EVs. Specifically, Enterprise’s EV strategy is focused on ensuring that the solution it brings to market puts customers first and on partnering and investing purposefully to learn and grow for the long term.

To that end, in late 2021, Enterprise Fleet Management and Geotab^® conducted an electric vehicle suitability assessment — using data from 91,252 Enterprise vehicles — to better understand the current and future business implications of evolving a fleet to electric vehicles.

They discovered that about 12,000 of Enterprise’s fleet vehicles were good candidates for immediate transition to electric vehicles, or electrification. Electrifying these vehicles could save $33 million and eliminate 194,000 tons of tailpipe carbon dioxide over a four-year service life.

By 2025, about 42,000 vehicles could be electrified, according to the survey. Over four years, cost savings could reach $167 million, or about $4,000 per vehicle, and carbon dioxide emissions could drop by 1.3 million tons.

By leveraging this data alongside decades of industry experience, Enterprise Fleet Management works with small to medium-sized businesses and government agencies as they navigate their journey to fleet electrification. By taking a consultative approach, Enterprise’s strategic account managers can help clients evaluate operational impacts, cost analysis and environmental benefits of introducing EVs into their fleets, making recommendations and providing information to help them make the right decision for their business. 

As part of the company’s efforts to drive the industry toward adoption of electric cars and trucks, Enterprise is working to address key hurdles to consumer usage of EVs, namely charging station availability, range and charging times.

To understand how EVs will affect car rental, Enterprise conducted a study around EV adoption, working with one of Europe’s leading management consultancies, Roland Berger. The proprietary study comprised an in-depth analysis of more than 30 million rental transactions.

Enterprise is also continuing to test EVs by providing them to employees and putting them into rental fleets in select markets to obtain a better sense of the overall driver experience. This input will help Enterprise provide a smooth transition for drivers as it transitions the fleet over the coming years.

True to Enterprise’s philosophy of providing customized mobility solutions, it will partner with each business to determine where EVs best fit within the organization’s operations.

Businesses are accountable for the safety of their employees when providing vehicles for company travel, whether that’s in town or across the country. As a mobility partner, Enterprise takes this responsibility seriously and continuously works to advance health and safety practices throughout its operations.

Although clean vehicles have always been important to Enterprise, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, the company expanded its rigorous cleaning protocols to create the Complete Clean Pledge. This includes washing, vacuuming and disinfecting each vehicle — paying particular attention to more than 20 high-touch points — and comprehensive training on cleaning guidelines for employees.

Reinforcing the Complete Clean Pledge, Enterprise partnered with Clorox to look at ways that disinfecting wipes and other products can be incorporated into its safety and car cleaning practices. As a member of Clorox’s Safer Today Alliance, Enterprise receives ongoing support and guidance around its safety measures from experts at Cleveland Clinic and the CDC Foundation.

As customers looked to companies to create lower-contact services during the pandemic, Enterprise accelerated an initiative that was already underway: a team dedicated to enabling a new low-touch rental experience and giving drivers options to limit contact throughout the rental process.

Besides a focus on clean vehicles, the last two years have seen a shift of the way people commute. Enterprise understands the importance of flexibility and convenience for riders in hybrid work environments and is evolving its Commute with Enterprise vanpooling program to put the power of mobility at the fingertips of today’s commuters.

Enterprise CarShare leverages in-car, technology to automate the transaction process from reservation to close, giving drivers the ability to use vehicles anytime and for however long they need — hourly, daily or weekly. Employees benefit from access to dedicated vehicles 24/7 and a contactless experience; businesses have transparency and visibility into the program’s performance and opportunities for cost and carbon footprint reductions.

These efforts of health, safety and sustainability are helping to streamline the management of rental vehicles for business travelers.

Enterprise provides comprehensive car rental, truck and van rental, fleet management and commuting services that deliver exceptional customer service, access to a large network of vehicles and locations, plus reporting and tools to help your business fulfill duty of care. ​​Click here to connect with a mobility solutions expert and explore Enterprise’s full range of services.

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