The industry’s average fleet size showed a healthy increase of 19,34% due to an increase in customer demand.
But fleet utilisation slid 2,3%, indicating the sector may have overcatered for customers in some regions.
And with theft and related costs up 39% and the accident rate up 22,4%, the industry remained at risk, said analysts. Accident repair costs rose 31%.
Val van den Bergh, GM of the car rental section of the Southern African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, said the industry remained as competitive as ever.
“A core focus for the association’s members is to improve on service levels by investing in staff training and skills transfer programmes, hence our recent participation in a process to identify scarce and critical skills’ shortages through the tourism, hospitality and sport education training authority,” said Van den Bergh.
The association would conduct a pay survey to ensure that staff were paid in line with other industries.
The association continued to work with institutions such as banks, Business Against Crime and the Tourism Business Council of SA against crime.
