Best cars for business travel: Your car rental guide

Searching the internet for the best car for business travel can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially when you have other regular tasks to perform for work. As an HR manager or office manager that takes on the brunt of the work, you want to be sure resources are efficiently managed so that you can minimize costs and maximize productivity. 

This guide is designed to give you practical tips and strategies to maximize efficiency when it comes to car rental and find a way to optimize expenses. The more you can cut back on unnecessary expenses, the more you can stay on budget. 

3 steps to choose the best car for business travel

To choose the best car for business travel, it’s important to have your ideas clear. Knowing your company’s priorities will help guide your decisions around whether a rental car is the right decision for your company’s business travel goals. When making this decision, it’s a good idea to consider the distance, travel time and convenience. 

Step 1: Assess mobility needs

Before looking for a rental car option, it’s important to understand and assess your company’s and your travelers’ mobility needs. Some questions to consider:

• Are travelers staying in one place or do they need to get around to different locations?
• How many destinations will the traveler be visiting on the trip? Are they drivable distances from each other?
• Is there a train route available?
• Does the traveler need to drive clients around?

By understanding these questions, you can better assess if driving is a necessity for your travelers or just a “nice-to-have.”

Step 2: Plan ahead

Just like with flights, it’s often cheaper to book a rental car ahead of time. Not only do you have access to better rates but you may have more availability, and the closer to your trip, the less options will be available. Planning ahead will help with a better overall organization of the trip, and also prevents added stress of having to run around at the last minute to organize everything. 

Step 3: Establish clear guidelines within your travel policy

Make sure you have clear guidelines within your travel policy so that travelers are clear how much they can spend on a rental car, and you as a company, you can protect your bottom line. Include guidelines on who can rent cars, what should happen in case of an emergency and what add-ons are permissible (4 wheel drive, automatic instead of manual, electric car, etc.). The more you educate your employees, the better they will be set up to make educated decisions that lead to cost savings.

Benefits for employees

Car rental has its benefits for employees, which is why it’s important to analyze those benefits and weigh the benefits with those of the company to make an educated decision.

Comfort

Car rental is often more comfortable and flexible because employees don’t have to worry about relying on public transportation or spending excessive amounts of money on Uber or taxi to get from one place to the next. This way, employees are able to live up to their commitments knowing they can get around to where they need to with little hassle.

Time savings

When traveling by train or plane, travelers need to plan a lot of time in advance to be at the train station or the airport. In the case of a plane, there are security lines and limitations around what you can bring that must be dealt with. With a rental car, you can bring heavy supplies, big suitcases and anything you need easily. This means you don’t have to waste time trying to figure out how you’re going to get everything you need to bring to the conference in a small suitcase.

Productivity

If employees have meetings close enough to drive to, car rental can be an incredibly productive way of traveling around. They can simply park close to the meetings and when they finish head off to the next meeting or drive back home. They just go to the car rental close to their house and drive to the destination without having to worry about how they’re going to get to and from the airport to the city center. This leads to more productive and time-efficient business trips.

Want more tips about choosing ground transportation for business trips? Read our guide to choosing the best ground transportation for business trips.

Flexibility

By driving a car, employees don’t have to be reliant on flight or train times. This means they can have the flexibility to decide whether to spend the night or to go back and forth in one day. Also, if meetings run late or they want to stay longer at a conference, they have the flexibility to do so.

Benefits for employers

Employers can benefit in other ways from incentivizing the use of rental cars, which are detailed below.

Cost savings

Rental cars can often make it so that you can save on a night’s stay because employees can go back and forth in one day without having to spend the night. Cost savings is an important reason for employers to prioritize rental cars when possible. 

Improved duty of care and employee safety

Providing rental cares ensures companies can choose safe, well-maintained, insured vehicles for their teams, which enhances employer responsibility. Employers can set specific safety requirements, reduce legal risks by having clear insurance coverage and help travelers reduce stress and risk by being able to do their own thing as they travel.