Meet the author: Drake Bauer
Drake Bauer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Flete, a fleet management software startup focused on providing modular solutions for complex operations.
The opinions expressed in this article are only those of the author and not necessarily those of ACRA.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, rental car operators are having to adapt to a host of new solutions claiming to solve long-standing obstacles in this industry. The pressure to reduce costs, maximize utilization, and meet evolving customer expectations has made adopting new technology imperative for rental fleets of all sizes.
As a company that builds software for rental fleet operators,. we’ve documented the top technology-related issues shared with us this year by teams across the country.
Two key points were common themes across our conversations:
- There remains a heavy reliance on manual, disconnected tools like spreadsheets, emails, and text messages to support daily fleet operations. While helpful, these systems require consistent input to remain accurate. Mismanagement and human error often lead to inefficiencies that negatively impact a team’s performance.
- Cumbersome workflows for teams in service, claims, and inspections can increase the likelihood of missed maintenance, unreported damages, and excess downtime. Combined, these operational bottlenecks can diminish utilization rates over time.
How Today’s Technology Can Replace the Shortcomings of Yesterday’s
One solution we’ve found to have significant impact on rental fleet operators is investing in systems designed for automation. Across cross-functional communication, maintenance management, claims processing, and administrative reporting, organizations both big and small are seeing a positive ROI by upgrading to improved solutions.
We recommend that fleet operators get familiar with automation by having their teams set up simple notifications in the systems already being used. For example, you could have your team configure a task to schedule a service appointment every time a vehicle fails an inspection during a turnover event. Likewise, instead of simply filing away the email your service provider sends upon repair completion, your team could set up a Microsoft Teams notification to pop up, indicating the vehicle is available to be picked up.
Here is a list of automations we’ve seen operators implement in 2025:
- Pre- and Post-Rental Inspections: Lot attendants are automatically prompted to capture vehicle condition photos before and after each rental based on live reservation data, instead of relying on visual drop-off events.
- Automated Damage and Service Management: Damage reports are automatically routed to the appropriate teams, with integrated tracking of repairs, vendor assignments, and cost documentation. This reduces manual data entry and speeds up claim resolution.
- Task and Maintenance Scheduling: An automated lot view can trigger task assignments for cleaning, maintenance, or vehicle transfers. Real-time status updates eliminate the need for manual check-ins and improve team efficiency.
- Integrated Communication and Support: Users can access 24/7 support, vehicle information, and policy resources through digital portals, enhancing team productivity and reducing administrative workload.
Evaluating ROI Through Efficiency and Cost Savings
The impact of automation we’ve seen with our clients is substantial. In fact, according to direct operational details and case study data drawn from Flete’s real-world client impact reports and fleet automation implementations, as well as observational insights based on fleet manager feedback and industry trends from recent deployments, in a recent nine-month period, a 1,100-asset operator who replaced old fleet management software with systems supporting automated workflows optimized tire replacement times by 45%, body repair times by 42%, and windshield repair times by 47%. These efficiency gains translated into over $330,000 in annualized savings from time-to-repair improvements alone.
The Road Ahead: Digital-First Rental Operations
Implementing new technologies comes with inherent apprehension; long onboarding periods, unsupported integrations, and difficult change management within teams have all been good reasons to avoid migrating away from existing platforms.
Fortunately, modern providers are leveraging AI to overcome these obstacles and provide end-users with seamless transitions to solutions that feel tailored to an organization’s needs, rather than another off-the-shelf offering. Our advice is to meet this transformation halfway, applying automation to other parts of your technology stack.
Of course, it’s not going to be an overnight project, but getting comfortable with the process of finding bottlenecks will lead to investing in smarter workflows. This has proven true for the rental operators in our network. They are the ones who treat digital transformation as a mindset, not a milestone.
For those still on the fence, my advice is simple: start small. Pick one pain point (maybe inspections, maybe maintenance scheduling) and find ways to automate it. Ask your favorite AI chatbot about it if you’re still not sure. Track the results, learn from the process, and progress from there.
Better technology is ready, and the impact today is greater than ever.