First Car Rental, one of the top car rental companies in South Africa, with 43 branches across the country, has implemented Customer Credibility Scan and Security Alerts (ACCSSA), a real-time solution designed to combat fraud, theft and vandalism in the car rental industry.
ACCSSA is a Red Flag Notification (RFN) system for the recording and sharing of defaulting customer information, both internally within a single company or group, and externally with fellow subscribing companies or groups.
The ACCSSA solution is seamlessly integrated into First Car Rental's rental system, and thanks to its dynamic development, allows the company to 'flag and relay' or 'retrieve information' on potentially risky customers, using a central database facilitated through ACCSSA.
This interface tool alerts subscribers to potential syndicates that have defrauded other users on the ACCSSA database, so that these offenders will never be able to defraud car rental companies again, as long as users report all first incidents.
“There has been a marked increase in instances of fraud and theft within the car rental industry, and in order to combat this, the ACCSSA system was a natural next step to complement our existing prevention tools,” says Melissa Storey, Executive Head: Strategy, Development & Marketing for First Car Rental.
“Individuals, syndicates and companies will now only be able to default once before being added to the ACCSSA database, after which all ACCSSA subscribers will be able to identify these high-risk clients upfront and be protected against them. This will help to lower instances of fraud and theft.”
The ACCSSA system works in conjunction with locally manufactured MaxID scanners to scan the information contained in 2D bar coded driver's licences, and chipped or RFI passports, to physically verify identities upfront and access a national database to ascertain whether or not individuals have been red flagged for previous offenses.
“While car rental and other companies can subscribe to other systems such as credit bureau checks, these are fairly expensive, which prohibit comprehensive screening of all clients and customers, adding to the risk of theft and fraud. The ACCSSA system is a cost-effective solution as customers such as First Car Rental pay only for the service, with unlimited scanning capability. This encourages companies to conduct checks on all clients, which in turn will make the database even more comprehensive and effective,” says Mike Martin, MD of ACCSSA.
“With the increase in fraud and theft in our industry, it is vital to have information at hand to enable us to reduce undesirable behaviour and high-risk customers. The solution provided to us by ACCSSA and MaxID addresses accuracy and security issues upon customer check out, and through collaborative effort will assist our industry immensely. The more companies that support this database, the less fraud, vandalism and theft will be experienced by all users, thanks to upfront alerts of high-risk customers,” Storey adds.
The ACCSSA system along with MaxID scanners have now been implemented in all 43 of First Car Rental's branches, integrating with their current point of sale software and operating system through an intuitive Web interface, to provide a seamless user experience. This provides rental agents with more than 100 terminals with instant access to the database, allowing them to make informed decisions instantaneously when renting out cars to potential clients.
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