Hertz Rent A Car will be the first car rental company in South Africa to auction its service online, by enlisting the help of SalesBid, a leading provider of auction-focused web applications and other dynamic pricing technology.
SalesBid, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Auction Alliance Holdings, recently completed the auction-enablement of Hertz's web site, www.hertz.co.za. The auction component of the site, which went live to the public early August, is auctioning Hertz's excess rental capacity (surplus rental days).
Russell Schiff, operations director for Hertz SA, says the strategy, one part of Hertz's overall e-commerce plan, is expected to improve fleet utilisation significantly in the medium term, without affecting business via traditional channels.
David Bloch, CEO of SalesBid, says Hertz was attracted to his company's dynamic pricing solution because of its cost-effectiveness and its easy, user-friendly interface.
"Other attractions were the fact that it made additional business channels available to Hertz. In SA, travel is one of the most popular e-commerce commodities and in the US travel is the most popular search engine query topic and e-commerce focus. This gives the venture tremendous potential," he says.
"While local uptake will not be significant immediately, site visitors will be drawn to the easy-to-use interface, and before long, the site should be very popular."
Hertz's auction logo will also appear on www.salesbid.com alongside other luminaries such as Protea Hotels, Rugby365 and Computerbid, and the auction information will be served by SalesBid servers. However, the site will have the Hertz corporate look and feel and is essentially just an added component to their existing website.
Schiff adds that the new online auction facility adds a new dimension to Hertz's pricing, allowing prices to be more flexible during non-peak periods.
Share