How Cutting-Edge OCR and Mobile Data Capture Ensures Keeping Your Rental Fleet Safe

Christian Dale

Product Marketing Manager at Anyline

Jun 15, 2023

Challenges

The car rental industry is facing many of the same challenges that the rest of the auto industry is, including a lack of computer chips that is limiting the production of new vehicles. That’s caused a significant reduction in the number of vehicles available to purchase and the number on the market. It’s also facing limitations due to a shortage of workers. Streamlining operations, then, is critical.

A car damage assessment is a big part of the sector. With damage detection, it is possible for rental companies to maintain more accurate records of the vehicles in their fleet. Such inspections happen prior to the customer being given the keys to the car and then again when they return it. The comparison of these reports helps rental companies to determine if there’s damage that’s occurred during the rental period.

Typically, people handle this process. Rental companies hire employees to do this work for them. Yet, that leads to numerous complications and limitations.

Poorly maintained tires on these cars can put other drivers at risk and cause reputational damage to the fleet company.
Repairs are expensive and play a role in reducing profits for rental companies. Spotting them is critical.
Slow and inefficient inspections make it harder to keep vehicles on the roadways.
It’s difficult to know when they change out tires – but they are the second highest fleet expense in most operations.
Vehicles that are not maintained lead to downtime, which impacts profits.

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A rental company’s priority is to meet the needs of its customers, and that means creating a seamless interaction that’s efficient. Rental companies must also maintain their vehicles, ensuring they are clean but also as safe as possible. Good service like this helps to keep customers coming back.

For all of these reasons, it’s critical for rental car companies to automate and digitize processes. It enables them to do more, meet goals, and keep costs low.

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Automating Data Collection

Many vehicle rental companies use vehicle tracking to capture license plate, VIN, or barcode information. Technicians and in-store employees need to be able to recognize the vehicle and then gather information about the tire condition quickly prior to the car being driven. That includes the tire DOT/TIN, tire size, and tread depth. Finally, car rental companies can enhance their customer experience by quickly identifying a customer’s ID and getting them on the road quickly.

Automating these services can improve operational performance. It ensures accurate data capturing while also helping keep customers happy.

Anyline’s breakthrough mobile data capture solutions make it easy to do this. It can be done with any type of mobile device and integrated directly into the workforce or driver-facing applications. That ensures everyone is safe on the road.

Scanning options that meet the needs of rental fleet operators include:

Vehicle Identification Number Scanning (VIN Scanning): This tool eliminates the need to manually record VIN information and instead allows for scanning of the information right through the windshield, allowing for the capturing of multiple images to verify accuracy.
License Plate Scanning (LPT Scanning): License Plate Scanning such as Anyline’s enables companies to gather license plate data in an instant, and that information is then securely stored online or offline. This can be used for European, US, and African license plates using any mobile device. It is an automatic process that eliminates the risk of human error.
ID Scanning: Another essential source of data is the driver’s personal data. Instead of having to write down this information, employees scan a passport or driver’s license to capture information quickly. This makes it possible to gather information related to the driver’s identification in moments. It also recognizes numerous languages and can be used in machine readable zone or via an RFID tag.
Tire Sidewall Scanning: With the ability to read all Tin/DOT information along with tire size and commercial tire serial numbers from a tire sidewall, Anyline’s tire scanner helps to reduce the time needed to record information. It also ensures faster scanning to avoid slowdowns during the process.
Tire Tread Scanning: Using state-of-the-art AI and computer vision, this system can scan tire tread in a few seconds. This helps to accurately measure the tire tread depth using a handheld mobile device that can be integrated into an option. This allows for the scanning of passenger or commercial vehicle tires with accuracy reducing safety risks.
Odometer Reading: The use of the odometer reading tool allows for both analog and digital values to be captured in a fast pace environment, drastically reducing the time needed to collect the information while also reducing errors from manually inputting that data.
Barcode Scanning: With over 40 types of 1D, 2D, and stacked linear barcode symbologies supported, this tool is an excellent tool for use in retail, logistics and last mile delivery. It can read up to 500 barcodes each minute and even gather data from damaged or partially obscured barcodes.