Treat franchisees as brand ambassadors

Urban Mobility Solutions Provider, Carzonrent has a product for all pockets, locations and occasions. The brand provides its customer an ability to book an outstation driving holiday, local city car, radio taxi (EasyCabs), self-drive car hire (Myles) and international car hire solutions. In a tête-à-tête, Sakshi Vij, Executive Director of the brand shared with us more entrails of the growing industry and what are her plans for Carzonrent. Take a drive….

Could you comment on the industry size of the car rental trade in India?

Car Rental business in India is mostly unorganised, having very few players in the organised market. The Indian taxi market is pegged anywhere between USD 6-9 billion (Rs 36,000- Rs 54,000 crore), of which only 10-12 per cent is organised.  Established in 2000, CIPL (COR India Pvt. Ltd) is the leader in shaping the cab rental market in India. A short-term objective of offering a safe and reliable medium of travel to a long-term vision of providing an alternate to buying a car, CIPL occupies 22 per cent market share of the organised segment.

What reasons do you put in to the sudden rise in car rental brands?

The Indian cab rental industry is entering an exciting phase and has witnessed a remarkable growth in the organised side of car rental business. The progressive change in the economic scenario of the country, growth of the tourism and aviation industries, the improvement in infrastructure (road and highways) and fast technological development in recent years has fueled the growth of the car rental industry. Technology is an integral part of this changing scenario.

One crucial aspect in the car rental trade in surely about maintaining the cars and keeping them in top condition. Do you have tie-ups with car wash brands or maintenance companies? How do you do this typical task on a regular basis?

We follow a collaborative model in all our businesses with the Manufacturers and Ancillary services providers. They are important stakeholders in our smooth operations and we ensure that we are able to tie-up with service providers with the largest national network in the areas of car cleaning, servicing and repair, fueling, insurance etc.

What are the requisites to become Carzonrent franchisee?

We are looking for entrepreneurial, energetic and enthusiastic individuals with a passion for growing with a growth sector like ours. We are in the business of seamless consumer experience using technology, superior service experience and affordable pricing. Therefore, we are looking for individuals who could be brand ambassadors of our products.

How do you train your franchisees? Any typical aspect you focus on?

Training and development is an integral aspect of our Franchise Program. It comprises a list of on-site and off-site training methods covering entire aspect of business and will also be provided with training material they can refer from time to time. After onboarding training program there would be consistent franchise assistance (Hotline) between the franchisee and the franchisor. We have designed a Comprehensive Franchise Training which covers all departments, namely, technology, people management, fleet management, customer service, processes & procedures to run Self-Drive business successfully. We also strongly believe that if we want Franchisees to be our brand ambassadors, we need to take their feedback because they get quicker information of the local market. We have therefore created many feedback and response tools to enable collaboration and sharing of ideas.

What are the expansion plans of Carzonrent in 2015-16?

CIPL is the only company in India offering customers, a mobility solution to have a car for as low as 20 minutes to as long as the lifecycle of the car. CIPL’s portfolio strength lets it create product differentiation in all the segments – budget, economy and premium. Our wide network base and the largest fleet size ensure that we are able to cater to every customer’s need at any given point of time. In the coming financial year, we will be focusing on retail, through the largest network of self-drive and chauffer driven services along with more tie-ups with the airports

Myles Car sharing and Self drive – Our focus is to grow Myles as the global self-drive brand from India. Currently, we are present in 20 cities and planning to create presence in 35 cities with over 5000 cars in the coming 3 to 4 years.  CIPL will be investing approximately Rs. 400 crore in the next 3 to 4 years for the expansion of Myles.

EasyCabs and Carzonrent Corporate Chauffeur drive–Our Chauffeur driven services are currently available in 39 cities across India which Includes Easycabs and the Carzonrent Chauffeur drive product. We are also available at 10 Airports in the country with exclusive partnerships.

We plan to increase our city network to 100 cities in the next two years. We will also be looking at reaching over 20 Airports in the Country to cater to the discerning air travelers. We are going to increase our fleet of current 10,500 cars to over 50,000 cars in the next two years through this expansion.

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