Car rental, driver included

Forget GPS—customers in ten major U.S. cities can now book professional chauffeurs for their rental cars. Car rental giant Avis has teamed up with WeDriveU, a private chauffeur service, to make this convenient new option available to Avis Preferred members. With Avis Chauffeur Drive, fully insured and certified drivers, who know the ins and outs of local thoroughfares and can navigate city streets with ease, pick up customers in their rental cars from baggage claim or passenger loading zones, chauffeur them around town, and can drop them off and return their rentals at the end of their trip. There’s no need to wrestle with maps and directions, and customers can get work done while en route to their destination, making the time savings alone worth it for business travellers in a crunch. And offering customers the best of both worlds: a driver for the part of their trip they need one, and just the car for the rest of the journey. The service is priced at USD 30 per hour, with a 3-hour minimum, in addition to standard rental car charges—an estimated 35% less than customers might spend on standard car and driver services. Customers can reserve chauffeurs up to 24 hours in advance in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. But there’s no reason why this concept couldn’t take off in other regions or industries—entrepreneurs in any hire business should consider how their clients might benefit from booking professionals along with their rentals. For an extensive look at the role of rental in the experience economy, check out trendwatching.com’s transumers briefing.