7:26 am, May 22, 2021
Dealer group Hendy has partnered with a new supplier and hopes to make its cars ‘work harder’ by hiring them out.
Karzoom has launched this week and is a car hire company without any cars. Instead, they work with franchised car dealers by utilising their nearly-new stock.
The rental market has taken a huge hit since the pandemic become, but the firm’s owners have taken a fresh look at the arguably outdated model to make hiring a car easier than ever.
Hendy is the first dealer group to partner with Karzoom and they will now become its car hire point serving the south of England.
This new approach to the rental market with a digital platform caters for those needing a car for one to 60 days rather than the more common subscription models that run for one month to two years.
Commercial director Mark Busby told Car Dealer: ‘For us this is a great opportunity to connect with people who don’t have a car and get them into our dealerships but it also makes our stock, such as demonstrators work, harder.
‘The platform is a really sleek and fully digital. It means we can rent out inventory and drive some extra revenue but do so in a way that serves our community in a unique way.’
Karzoom co-founder and operations director Melanie Fazal said the frustrations with car hire both at home and abroad had left her wondering if there was a better way to do things.
As people began changing their car ownership setup faster due to the pandemic, she explained it seemed the perfect time to provide an alternative.
Fazal told Car Dealer: ‘We were driving past dealerships and thinking why can’t some of these cars be used as rentals.
‘We started looking around where we live, which is in south Manchester, and the only place we can hire a car is the airport.
‘These days it’s nearly impossible to get dropped off at an airport if you’re not planning to fly and they’re not usually in the most convenient to access places.
‘When you think about how many car dealerships are near your house, that’s a completely different story.’
Fazal explained that some of the biggest problems the team had identified were that fear of being stung by car hire companies at the end of the rental and that the car you got was always different to what you booked. Not to mention the painful process of queuing for your car before walking miles to check it over and photograph every existing ding and scuff.
Customers who use Karzoom will be able to choose the car they want to hire on the app, and when they arrive at the car they meet with a dealership employee who’s able to quickly get them set up with the car.
As more car owners has decided to give up their vehicle since working from home they expect this to offer an easy alternative when they do need to get away.
Customers looking to hire a vehicle will be able to do so from 15 Hendy dealerships in Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Salisbury and Southampton.
Car available to hire will include Dacia, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, MG, Nissan, Renault, Skoda and Toyota.
