Author: Ibrahim Alhassan
Columbus Yellow Cab has recently been working on new technologies to make renting a car a breeze for drivers. They have worked with OpenFleet, a universal shared mobility solution for fleet supervisors, to develop a system where drivers can easily reserve and rent cars with a touch of a finger. Drivers can look up the location and availability of the vehicle, as well as the cost to rent for however long they would like at any time of the day. They can now say goodbye to traditional check-in windows which will save time and money. Drivers will no longer need to visit a check-in window to reserve a vehicle, which in turn eliminates the cost of hiring individuals to manage the check-in. Once a reservation is made, drivers can unlock cars from the OpenFleet app and begin driving. OpenFleet also takes security to a whole new level. Once a vehicle is unlocked, drivers have up to 45 seconds to remove the key and start the car. If the driver fails to do so within the allotted time, the vehicle will not start regardless of whether the driver has the key or not. They would have to lock the car from the app and restart the process of unlocking it again, a feature that helps in preventing car theft.
For Columbus Yellow Cab, OpenFleet allows them to manage and track their entire fleet effectively. They can see the location of the vehicle as well as the driver operating it in real time. With this system, it is easy to see which cars are reserved as well as available cars for drivers use. Additionally, service alerts on the vehicles such as maintenance alerts or vehicles that have exceeded their reservation can be seen. The duration of all rentals as well as the mileage driven on each of the vehicles during the time it was reserved can be managed effortlessly. At any time, Columbus Yellow Cab mobilize or immobilize vehicles if needed
