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Preventing misfuelling by yourself is one thing. Stopping other people who drive your rental cars or vehicles is another. Statistically speaking, people who rent your vehicles are more likely to have a petrol-engine habit than a diesel engine one. Therefore when they rent your vehicle and go to the filling station, guess what can happen. Unfortunately misfuelling, particularly diesel engine misfuelling, is a particularly vicious problem for rental companies, unless they opt for a cost-effective solution like FuelSure.
It’s an unfortunate aspect of human nature that people tend to take concentrate their attention less on things that they do not personally own. Rental cars fall into this category and misfuelling by putting the wrong fuel in a rental car is no exception. FuelSure has the solution.
For a number of items, a large, visible notice and customer liability for damages constitute the solution for possible problems. Rental trucks with high ceilings typically have a such a notice stuck in the driver’s cab, for example next to the rear-view mirror, reminding the renter of the minimum headroom required. This does not stop rental trucks of this type being returned with dents or large portion of the roof missing, especially when the renter is used to driving his or her own ‘low-level’ saloon car.
However, the difference with a number of misfuelling problems is that when the roof has been dented or broken, it is typically immediately visible. As a rental company you probably exclude this kind of eventuality from the insurance cover that necessarily goes with the hire of the vehicle. If it does happen, notwithstanding an argumentative customer, it’s typically an open and shut case in terms of the customer’s responsibility for paying for the damage.
With misfuelling, it’s a different kettle of fish. Damage to a vehicle engine after misfuelling may not show up for a period of time after the customer has returned the vehicle. Depending on the gravity of the misfuelling incident, you may not have the same open and shut case of a vehicle that has been obviously and significantly damaged. And after the vehicle has been rented out once or twice again afterwards, who is to say who did the misfuelling damage originally? Now you can avoid the problem completely with FuelSure.
Unless the customer has completely misfuelled the vehicle and broken down, or at least admitted to misfuelling, you may not know that anything untoward has happened. Subsequent customers may be disappointed by a lack of performance from the car engine, or worse, experience breakdowns through no fault of their own. With fleet life taking a hit, profitability decreasing and reputation as a provider of quality rental services being under attack, it’s a vicious spiral downward that any fleet operator would do well to avoid.
With this in mind, and until such time as filling stations adopt different foolproof solutions for pump nozzles, the only safe choice is to make it impossible for customers to fill up cars that they don’t own with the wrong fuel. A diesel misfuelling prevention device now exists that can be simply and easily fitted to most diesel engine vehicles. It’s the FuelSure. Customers re-fuel for diesel vehicles with diesel fuel just as before. Include it in the list of items to be checked or mentioned to the customer along with the spare tyre and road emergency safety kit.
To find out more and to discuss some of the considerable improvement in overall profitability that you could make via this diesel misfuel prevention, call us today on 0845 475 8397 or have us contact you by filling in the form on the contact page.
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