Press Release

SK Rent-a-Car is launching a customized mobility solutions business that diagnoses corporate customers' fleet operations, identifies problems, and builds and delivers the products and services that fit the results.

SK Rent-a-Car (Co-CEOs: Shin Jeong-ho and Park Sang-wook) announced on the 4th the results of a survey on corporate fleet operations at 465 domestic companies, conducted with Remember & Company (CEOs: Choi Jae-ho and Song Ki-hong), a business networking service. Respondents consisted of fleet managers responsible for vehicle management and administration (41.9%) and employees who actually drive the vehicles (58.1%). The survey was conducted online among Remember members from June 16 to 22.

According to the survey, 84% of companies using rentals or leases said they would be willing to switch to a different provider when their current contract ends. However, only 7.5% ranked "low rental fees" as their top priority when choosing a service, the lowest of all items. Instead, 85.6% expected that adopting an integrated management service covering both vehicle management and administration would improve work efficiency by 10% or more. The selection criterion is shifting from the fee itself to how much of the operation and management a provider will take on.

The type of management a company needs varies depending on how it operates its vehicles, the nature of its business and its asset management policy. Accordingly, SK Rent-a-Car will visit corporate customers in person to review their fleet operations and, based on the findings, build and propose customized products and services for each company.

■ Three Hours a Month Spent on Vehicle Logbooks… Smart Link Records Them Automatically
75.4% of fleet managers spend three or more hours each month on paperwork such as compiling vehicle logbooks and reconciling receipts. 70% of the staff handling these tasks were at the deputy general manager level or above, and only 22.6% said they clearly separate and verify business and personal use of vehicles.

For companies that must manually cross-check each department's vehicle usage or reformat vehicle logbooks into the National Tax Service format, SK Rent-a-Car's comprehensive fleet management solution "Smart Link" hands this work over to the system. A dedicated device installed in the vehicle collects driving data in real time, automatically generates vehicle logbooks and converts them into the National Tax Service format. Business and personal use can also be managed based on measured data rather than estimates.

For companies that often spend time searching for vehicle registration certificates or contracts, or that check traffic fine notices too late, the corporate-only mobile app "Smart Care Biz" allows them to download related documents and look up fines and penalties.

■ 72% of Sales Staff Have Waited at Repair Shops… On-Site Maintenance Comes to You
64.8% of respondents said vehicle problems had disrupted their work schedules within the past year. In particular, 72% of sales staff said they had visited a repair shop in person and waited for maintenance. Time that should be spent meeting customers is being lost to travel and waiting.

SK Rent-a-Car operates an on-site maintenance service in which professional technicians visit customers' workplaces to inspect vehicles according to their schedules. This eliminates the travel and waiting time involved in dropping off and picking up vehicles. In a survey item that evaluated services by function alone with brands hidden, on-site maintenance by visiting technicians (58.5%) also ranked near the top.

For companies whose vehicles, such as sales cars, are driven frequently and face a higher risk of accidents, one-stop accident handling, covering everything from claim reception to repair and replacement vehicle support with a single call, eases the burden on managers. It is in the same context that one-stop accident repair (64.1%) and mobile EV emergency charging (62.6%) both ranked near the top in the same survey. Companies that have adopted electric vehicles can use EV emergency charging, which dispatches to the location where the battery ran out, and can also request 24/7 emergency roadside assistance for situations such as flat tires or running out of fuel through Smart Care Biz.

■ Buy or Rent? Long-Term Rentals with the Choice to Purchase or Return
Companies that purchase and operate their own vehicles cited wasted internal staff resources (38.9%) as their biggest loss, rather than depreciation and disposal losses (30.5%). The share of companies that experienced work disruptions due to vehicle problems was also 75.9% among those operating their own vehicles, well above the overall average. This is because the moment a company owns a vehicle, it also takes on maintenance and accident handling.

For companies that want to secure vehicles as assets without taking on the management burden, new car long-term rentals are a good fit, as they can choose whether to purchase or return the vehicle at the end of the contract. Companies looking to further reduce initial costs can consider used car long-term rentals.

"A significant portion of the costs arising from corporate vehicles are generated not within the quotation but outside of it, yet in reality it is difficult for companies even to grasp the scale of these costs internally," said an SK Rent-a-Car representative. "We will propose customized fleet operation models for each customer, backed by vehicle management expertise built over 38 years since 1988 and the industry's broadest product lineup."

Meanwhile, Smart Link is a comprehensive fleet management solution independently developed by SK Rent-a-Car in 2016 using its own proprietary technology. Through a dedicated device installed in each vehicle, it collects and analyzes some 10,000 types of driving data in real time, providing a range of services, such as vehicle tracking and car sharing, that improve efficiency in operating large corporate fleets.