#Hertz Business with Andrea Auer
Is also well-informed about car subscriptions: comparis.ch mobility expert Andrea Auer
As a mobility expert at the comparison service comparis.ch, Andrea Auer increasingly analyses car subscriptions. Car usage for a monthly all-inclusive rate is primarily popular in the private sector but the trend, according to Andrea Auer, should also increasingly find enthusiasts in the business sector too. Auer believes that companies that use them correctly could save a lot of time and money with car subscriptions.
Andrea Auer Comparis
Conditions of insurances, mortgages, mobile subscriptions and much more can be compared at comparis.ch. Although car subscriptions are not an automatic field for comparison, they are regularly a topic for comparisons: "As a leading online comparison service, it is our task to monitor current trends. For consumers, we have therefore also analysed offers for car subscriptions," explains the comparis.ch mobility expert Andrea Auer. That there is not yet any interactive comparison opportunity is due to the fact, among others, that the providers and offers currently still differ greatly from one another.
In actual fact, the individual subscription offers do indeed differ strikingly from one another. Whether in the minimum subscription duration – depending on the provider, it is between one and 48 months – the kilometres included – the range extends from 500 to 400 a month – and not least the available models: every subscription is different. But the basic principle is the same for all: They offer mobility at a monthly fixed price which usually covers all maintenance costs. From insurance and services to tyres appropriate for the season, everything is included. And nor do subscribers have to worry about underlying costs such as loss in value – car usage could not be calculated in a more transparent way.
For Andrea Auer, car subscriptions also offer a major plus point: huge flexibility. "After a certain minimum term, you can simply return a vehicle. Particularly in today's volatile times, it is a decisive benefit not to have to be tied to things that cost a lot," she emphasises. The mobility expert is thinking not only of private customers here but also of companies: "Specifically for smaller and medium-sized companies where the vehicle fleet can suddenly become a cost factor that cannot be eliminated overnight when the order situation is volatile, flexible mobility solutions make sense."
According to Andrea Auer, a car subscription may not necessarily mean saving costs. "With long-term vehicle usage, a car purchase or leasing is usually cheaper," she says. But with business fleets, in addition to costs, the operational expenditure also counts: "Somebody ultimately has to deal with the entire fleet management, and depending on the company's size, it is not worthwhile to employ somebody specifically for this task. But if nobody is recruited for this task, an efficient fleet management is often neglected. However, neither time nor specific know-how is required to quickly subscribe to a car or to return it."
Do car subscriptions therefore tend to be interesting on a small scale, i.e. in the private environment and at companies with a manageable size such as start-ups or SMEs? There is no general answer to that, says Andrea Auer. Firstly, flexibility is extremely valuable in all companies, irrespective of their size. Secondly, there are always vehicles, particularly in large fleets, that are not used or not used enough. "For instance, if an employee leaves the company and is not replaced immediately, a substitute use for his or her company vehicle is not always found immediately. In addition, many sectors have a divergent workload, depending on the season or project. That is why it can well be the case that a company below the line will find it cheaper or more economical to opt for subscriptions," says Andrea Auer in summary.
