Enterprise Travel Direct (ETD) has attracted more than 43,000 individual users after only 14 months of operation.

The past six months alone have seen nearly 7,000 car club journeys and more than 88,000 daily rental transactions carried out through the online compliance and demand management platform from Enterprise.

Launched in the UK in October 2018 and in Germany in October 2019, ETD is now being used to manage business travel by more than 1,600 public and private sector organisations across both countries.

Enterprise claims it is the only journey assessment and booking system that enables customers to compare the cost of daily rental, hourly car club, pool car and grey fleet travel based on a planned journey and real-time vehicle availability.

Employees can compare the actual cost of a specific journey at a specific time, depending on whether they use a private car, a car club or daily rental.

Users can choose and book the best option based on the company’s travel policy. This could be based on a number of variables including lowest cost or most sustainable vehicle.

The policy is programmed into the system to ensure 100% compliance and control for every journey.

It also shows the rental cost and the location of the nearest available vehicle in real time, up to a predetermined distance from the employee’s location.

Furthermore, it allows employees to book international daily rentals in any of the 100-plus countries where Enterprise has branches.

Ryan Bushell, head of public sector sales at Enterprise, said: “ETD technology enables Enterprise to provide detailed journey planning and management consultancy to businesses, enabling travel and fleet managers to rethink their entire approach to business mobility.

“Drivers can quickly choose the best option for a trip and know the vehicle will be available when they need it. This has enabled organisations to confidently place rental reservations in the hands of empowered employees rather than relying on a centralised booking team, resulting in further savings in admin costs and time.”

ETD requires employees to log details of every planned journey before the trip is taken, including trips planned in a private vehicle, to assess whether daily rental or automated 24/7 access from Enterprise Car Club could offer a more cost-effective option.

This gives businesses control as grey fleet travel is usually only recorded after it has happened, when employees reclaim their expenses.

ETD also requires employees to confirm that their private vehicle is suitable for business use including correct insurance and maintenance, so permitted grey fleet trips are risk-assessed before workers travel.

As the platform captures all journey data, over time, organisations can map employee travel patterns and work with Enterprise to identify even better solutions, it says.

Bushell concluded: “Long term, regular analysis of ETD data allows fleets to continuously improve their efficiency. This has led to significant drops in travel costs, CO2 emissions and also in business mileage, as ETD is able to highlight unnecessary journeys.”

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