Should You Open a Corporate Account or Have Your Employees Book Their Own Hire Cars?
Posted on: 26 July 2017
If you have a staff that travel and need to hire cars in their travel destinations, you have a couple different choices. You can have your employees hire cars individually and you can reimburse them, or you can sign up for a corporate car hire account. It may sound easier to just let your employees handle booking and payments, but there are actually compelling reasons to consider corporate car hire.
1. Corporate Rates
When you let your employees hire cars as individuals, they pay as individuals. In contrast, if you sign up for a corporate account, the hire company knows that you are likely to book several vehicles over the course of a year, and as a result, the company is more likely to offer you special discounts and corporate rates.
2 Great Add-ons
While the add-ons vary from company to company, most hire companies offer special perks for corporate clients who book numerous vehicles. That may include access to a priority counter where there's a shorter queue. Some hire companies even offer arrive-and-drive services where your employees can skip the lines and basically jump right in the hire car.
3. Easier Record Keeping
When your employees pay for the cars themselves, there are generally a lot of accounting steps that have to be involved. First, your employees may have to submit a purchase order request, which you or your accounting team has to approve.
Then, your employee has to use his or her card to pay for the hire car, and finally, your employee submits the receipts and wait for the reimbursement for you. That is time consuming, and it also puts pressure on your employees to have access to cash that they may not necessarily have.
In contrast, if you pay for the hire cars through your corporate account, the process can be a lot more streamlined. Whoever is authorised to use your account can book the car. Then, the invoice is sent directly to you, or the hire company charges your business card on file. There's no jumping through reimbursement hoops.
4. Insurance Considerations
Finally, when deciding between having your employee pay or opening a corporate account, you may want to think about insurance considerations. Generally, when you hire a car, the car comes with some insurance, but personal insurance may be needed as well. When you run everything through a corporate account, you can ensure that all the right coverage is in place, and you don't have to worry about relying on your employee's personal vehicle coverage.
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