Skurt is trying a new app-based model for car rentals. (Image: Skurt)
It’s not new for rental car companies to offer a car delivery or customer pick-up service, but it may involve a trip back to their office to handle the paperwork. Now a new entrant in the business is offering a no-paperwork, app-based service that lets renters go directly from the airport terminal into the driver’s seat with no intermediate stops.
It’s called Skurt (www.skurtapp.com), and the only airport where it’s currently available is Los Angeles International. The company recently secured $1.3 million in venture capital financing, and it is targeting San Francisco International as its next location.
Here’s how it works: When a customer who has booked a car with the app arrives at his destination airport, a company rep will be waiting in the arrivals area holding up a sign with the renter’s name on it, and will take the customer right to the car nearby and hand him the keys. To return the car, the customer drives to Skurt’s LAX location near the airport entrance to pick up a rep who will ride back to the terminal with them and take the car from there.
The company said customers can use their phone to scan the barcode on the back of their driver’s license, verifying their eligibility to rent; the license information is stored, making it easier to book additional rentals in the future. The minimum age requirement is 21, and Skurt promises roadside assistance if necessary. The Skurt app is currently available only for iPhones.
Skurt doesn’t own its own fleet. Instead, “We currently partner with independent rental car companies to help maximize overall fleet utilization. Our partners consider it another distribution platform for them which allows them to earn on units sitting without potentially affecting their brand,” said Skurt co-founder John Mangel on the website Producthunt.com, which highlights new and innovative companies.
Would you use an app like this to avoid that pain point of a business trip between your airplane seat and your car seat? Please leave your comments below.
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Its a decent idea to cut down on wait times, but even more importantly avoid the hassle of the hard sells by the rental agents especially on Insurance.
However I think there are lots of logistical issues as the service has been described. For example, 1- What happens if Im dropping the car off after a family vacation and the car is full with my wife and kids, or after meetings and the car is full with co-workers, or friends, or ….. etc.
2- What if I get a staffer with bad breath or BO sitting next to me? this would certainly turn me off using Skurt again.
I think the better option is to consider having something like a valet drop-off concept, or have the customer park the car in the closest airport car parking and once the customer scans the code to indicate drop-off, Skurt staff get notified and can go drive the car to where it should be parked. I think the cost of parking for 10-30 mins until a rep is free to pickup the car from the car park, will be far less then the cost of staff needed to ride along with the customer to the airport.
If they can get this business model to work, good for them, and I hope they rake in the money. But predicting the return times for rental cars can be very tricky. I never return a rental car at exactly the time my rental agreement specifies. I’m usually early by an hour or two, and my return time cannot be predicted exactly. If a bunch of Skurt customers all return at the same time, won’t it deplete the pool of company reps who are needed to ride with the customers back to the airport? Seems like this model could go off the rails unless the company can precisely control pick-up and drop-off times.
Nevertheless, I can see a niche for companies like this. All the big car rental companies are often a nightmare unless you are a member of their express clubs that bypass the paperwork. The wait in line can be 20, 40, even 60 minutes or more at big airports during peak times. My most hated experience in life is flying coach for 5 hours, waiting in a rental car line for over an hour as the agents chat leisurely with customers and move like molasses, and then having to fight, sometimes bitterly, with a rental car agent who tries to sell you every upgrade and feature under the sun before you get the keys. Disruptive models that erase hassle are the most successful, even if they charge more.
Several rental car companies already do something very similar to this. eg, Hertz Platinum. They aren’t cheap, but I’m guessing this won’t be either…
From that picture, looks like the LAX waiting area has dramatically changed since I was there last in February.