With the football World Cup just around the corner managers of car rental companies in South Africa are feeling upbeat about the future. As with everywhere else in the world South African car hire has been feeling the pinch of the global economic downturn. Many companies struggled to remain profitable as business and leisure customers disappeared and many who were denied the capital to maintain their fleets were forced to dramatically increase the rental price on their remaining vehicles just to stay afloat. However the Christmas period showed that customers were finally returning. CEO of car rental at Barloworld, Keith Rankin says that at Avis Rent A Car, owned by Barloworld, the demand for vehicles over the festive period was so high that for a couple of days they actually ran out of cars.
CEO of Europcar South Africa, Dawn Nathan-Jones said that compared to December 2008 tourism figures were up by 12 percent this Christmas. However Christmas is now over and car hire companies in South Africa will be firmly focused on one of the world’s biggest sporting events, the football World Cup. Many say that they intend to increase the size of their fleets to cope with anticipated demand. Nathan-Jones says that enquires and bookings of vehicles at Europcar for the event have shot up over the past few weeks. She says that Europcar could grow their fleet by as much as twenty percent.
The MD of Budget Rent A Car, Ray Booth says that they too intend to grow their fleet before the World Cup and that they too have experienced a surge in bookings over the last couple of weeks.
