The volume of “self serve” daily rental – where fleets both book and manage their own rental requirements online through dedicated sites created by rental providers – has grown by 10% in the last 12 months.

The figures come from epyx’s 1link Hire Network daily rental e-commerce platform, which is used by hundreds of fleets to transact online with short and long term rental providers and their partnered rental suppliers.

In self-serve scenarios, daily rental providers use 1link Hire Network to brand dedicated microsites in the names of their customers, allowing the end user to directly control bookings, management, reporting, driver access and other important aspects of rental in a familiar environment online.

David Wallace, sales and business development director at epyx said: “Self-serve is very much the key growth trend in online daily rental at the moment. It is a win-win situation for both the end client and the rental provider.

“The fleet gets closer, easier and faster control of their rental bookings while the rental provider can cut overheads because there is a reduced need for central reservations resource. In parallel, this ability also strengthens the rental provider’s proposition, supporting further growth.

“We have some daily rental providers using 1link Hire Network that are now receiving more than 95% of their daily rental bookings from fleets through this route. It is proving to be very effective.”

Wallace added that the growth in self-serve was only possible because the technology behind 1link Hire Network allowed real-time integration to rental supplier data, providing a genuine real-time means to access and meet essential rental information requirements such as P11D or Motor Insurance Database reporting.

He said: “1link Hire Network has been one of our fastest growing platforms in recent years and the way in which it can be used to create self-serve microsites has been a central element in this growth.”