Hello guys! Today I will be sharing my experience using a product that I think every car rental host should have for their fleet. A one-time investment in a hardwired GPS unit can potentially save you from headaches and a lost car down the road. Looking back at when I first started my Turo business, this would probably be the first thing I bought!
Have you ever worried about where your car is during a rental or experienced anxiety when a renter is late to return your vehicle? Your fears will be alleviated by purchasing a GPS unit. Take a look at this photo from the command dashboard and see how easy it is to have an overview of where your car is and the most visited spots.
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The realtime tracking will allow you to determine if a renter is tracking your car, using the vehicle for rideshare purposes, and other various prohibited acts.
A lot of carshare hosts will install a GPS unit like Zubie or Automatic to accomplish the same goal, but they fail to consider to ease of removal of such devices. These GPS units are great when they are working, but most of them plug into the OBD2 port, which can be removed by the renter with ease.
The MyTrueMiles device can be hardwired into multiple spots in a car that will be hidden to the untrained eye. You can even add a kill switch to the vehicle to make sure the vehicle isn’t driven once their authorized rental ends. Disabling the car is as simply as pressing a button on your phone!
When you purchase the GPS unit you will be given access to a command center like thone above. It’s very easy to use and will allow you to access the various features of the GPS.
In the image above you can see what the “vehicles” page looks like. It gives you a nice overview of your fleet and will allow you to navigate to each individual car in your fleet with ease. A neat feature is the “distance” column will give you a rough idea of how many miles your renter has driven and will allow you to inform customers of when they need to take the car into service.
An example of when I used this product to protect my car was when I rented a vehicle on Hyrecar. The driver had been unresponsive and was overdue on their rental. I disabled the vehicle once it was not in motion and then drove to the location to confront the renter. If I had not had a tracker, who knows when this renter would return the car, having the ability to protect your investment will allow you to sleep better at night. As you can see in the image above all you need to do is press the button with the key that is dashed out and you will send a signal to the unit to disable the vehicle. To enable the car you would just click the key to confirm.
Another great feature of the MyTrueMiles device is the ability to set up a geofence that will alert the owner should the car be at an impound lot, track, or other user set parameter. For Turo and other car-sharing hosts this can be used as evidence should you submit damage claims for renter abuse. I know many hosts who have had mechanical issues from hard driving covered because they had records of abuse. If you don’t have evidence to support a damage claim you may have to pay for the damage out of your pocket.
In addition to having real-time knowledge of where your car is at you can also check the heartbeats of the car. In this case, you can quickly determine where a renter lives so you can go out to repossess the car should it be necessary.
The MyTrueMiles device can be purchased for $69 and a kill switch can be added on for an additional $5. You will need to find an installer to put in the device (unless you can do so yourself) which would bring the cost to around $100-150 total with NO MONTHLY fee. I believe this is a small price to pay to secure your assets worth thousands of dollars. I know the GPS unit has been beneficial for my fleet and as soon as you use one I am confident you’ll agree.
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