Member Article

Yorkshire vehicle-hire firm invests £100K in digitisation of booking process

Yorkshire’s largest vehicle-hire firm, Arrow Self Drive has invested more than £100K into a new paperless process system which will see the company reduce their paper usage by more than 70%.

Testing of the new system began at Arrow Self Drive’s Wakefield office in March 2019 and the new process is now ready to roll out to each of the other seven depots.

Workshop area manager Chris Brian has led the development of the new system, which will see drivers at each of the eight depot’s rental desks, being given a tablet to use at every part of the customer booking process. This includes hirer declaration forms, vehicle checks, ID checks, photos and the final booking forms.

Training on the new system has already taken place in some depots and will continue across all eight depots throughout the coming months.

The new technology will support Arrow Self Drive’s Yorkshire-focused expansion plan for 2019, which includes the opening of a new depot in Sheffield later this year.

Founded in 1988, Arrow Self Drive is a family-run business which supplies the region with hire vehicles including small economy cars, vans, MPV’s, minibuses and trucks.

Commenting on the new system, managing director James Hill said:

“The new technologies that we have adopted at Arrow Self Drive are crucial to the business’s future. We have identified the need to become more digitally advanced, to remain competitive and benefit all levels of the business. It’s of upmost importance to us to provide outstanding customer service to the people of Yorkshire and this new way of operating, will mean a smarter way of working for everyone.

“It’s also essential for us to be as environmentally conscious as possible and the new system will drastically reduce the amount of waste we produce. This is especially important to recognise as we approach Earth Day this month.”

Chris Brian added:

“It has been almost two years in the making, but finally we are ready to launch the new digitised rental system in all of our depots, starting in Wakefield and then Barnsley. The new bespoke paperless process has been designed and developed in partnership with The ICT Practice based in Birmingham. We have had a paperless workflow in operation in our workshops for almost a year, now we are ready to implement this newly written system for our rentals teams.

“Going forward, our customers can benefit from greater accuracy and accountability as well as more streamlined process that is integrated into our vehicle booking platform. Amongst other benefits this system will increase productivity and improve security in regard to GDPR.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jennifer Ogden .