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Self-Serve Car Rental
abb_road writes "Claiming 'Web2.0 values meet Brick and Mortar,' BusinessWeek is reporting on an entirely self service car rental company. Zipcar customers make all reservations online or using a cell phone, then use a card-key to pick up their car from the parking garage--no attendants needed. According to the article, one of the other important attractions of the system is transparency; the reservations system allows you to see exactly what cars in the area will be available at what times, and then reserve or adjust your plans accordingly. From the article: 'If the nearest Mini convertible is booked until 3 p.m., the customer might postpone plans by an hour to get it -- or decide the Mazda with a sunroof on another lot will do.'"
And after we wipe out all those folks that used to earn a living by doing those jobs we'll tell each other ten years from now that they were jobs that Americans just didn't want.
So what happens if something is "wrong" with the car (broken, doesn't run, is damaged, 3rd gear doesn't work, etc)? What redress do you have to fix the problem? Do you really believe they can solve problems remotely? All problems? What about the missing passenger mirror? Somebody has to fix that eventually, don't they? How about changing the oil? And right now - they rely on the kindness of their customers to wash the car, keep it clean, gas it up, etc. That works great until you get a tragedy of commons situation. And it will happen.
That is just some of the 10,000 reasons I think this is a bad idea and won't fly. There is nothing I hate more than "self service" that doesn't take into account ALL situations the customer might have. Self service is great for simple businesses. But renting a car (and everything that comes with it) is not simple. Things can and do go wrong sometimes. Unexpected situations arise. When you pump your gas, it's a pretty well-defined process. Yes, there are things that can go wrong. But if you break it down step by step, the transaction is simple. That works great for self-service. Now compare that to renting, running, maintaining, managing, moving, and parking a large fleet of highly valuable vehicles. MUCH more complex to run a car rental business than a gas station.
Its the same reason I absolutely fucking hate the stupid self serve checkouts at grocery store. In simplest terms: they are ALWAYS half-baked solutions that are not ready for primetime and I wind up wasting MY time trying to make the simplest transaction happen (pay for my G**DAMN food and go home!). It rarely works smoothly and a solid 50% of the time, some "assistance" is needed. Yet they have no one stationed there to assist you. Brillant!