Cars On Demand, who have headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire, are specialists in flexible short term car leasing. They have highlighted the importance of ‘usership’ over ‘ownership’ in such uncertain times. Adapting the way they operate in response to this current ongoing national lockdown, Cars On Demand is currently utilising a fully automated system from the initial enquiry to quotation stage, through to contract signing where vehicles are delivered in a Covid safe way.
However, Managing Director Paul Brown of Cars On Demand believes the depreciating asset of owning a car, versus the benefits of flexibility of usership in uncertain times, offers both SMEs and consumers on the search for vehicles a greater maneuver to adapt to the ongoing lockdown restrictions:
“We’re expecting car leasing enquiries to ‘bounce back’ following this current national lockdown as it did previously mid-May 2020 when vehicle deliveries and collections could commence. The reasons for the bounce back mainly related to renewed increases in travel for work and the need to source a vehicle as people were unwilling / unable to use public transport, as well as those who experienced delays in sourcing new cars due to a slowdown in supplies due to factory closures etc. In addition, there was some pent up demand from people who needed transport but had not arranged anything due to the ongoing uncertainty as to whether further restrictions would be imposed again in the future.
In this first ‘restart’ from the very initial lockdown, we saw an increase in 1 to 6 month car lease enquiries. Between June and September 2020, the amount of people reaching out to us for long term car hire specifically increased by 80% YoY. We’re still seeing a consistent level of interest in enquiries where no long term commitments are required, and if anything, this has made us focus heavily on our flexibility of service and ease of use in short term contract leasing.
We have put Covid proof measures in place such as an App based handover with no requirement for signatures and our cars are all cleaned and sanitised prior to handover.”
Cars On Demand highlights that for consumers struggling to make ends meet in the current difficult climate, there are benefits behind short term car leasing that some might not be aware of. Short term car leasing provides consumers with flexibility in uncertain times and other factors like hire periods and mileages that can be tailored to suit each individual, such fine details are then agreed in the lease. At the end of the hire period, the consumer returns the vehicle and the process starts again with a brand-new vehicle, thus avoiding any car depreciation worries.
Cars On Demand work with established businesses with short term contracts to fulfill and have assisted start up businesses with limited cash flow throughout the pandemic.
Paul Brown added:
“We have seen an increase in the number of consumers requiring a short term solution to leasing a vehicle, usually due to a change of residence, job and personal situation. We are also dealing with employees in need of flexible transport solutions, reflecting the fact that businesses across the country are having to adapt to national lockdown measures, meaning staff are organising the leasing of vehicles themselves.
Our business model has proven to be a useful solution for those requiring the flexibility of a short term lease, may it be for just 1 month or up to 24 months.”
