Transfercar blog - from A to B for free

Video presentation, out now!

Hot off the press, here is the first [business:Transfercar] video introduction, made for [network:Startup]:

Transfercar introduction from Espen Grimstad on Vimeo.

I put it together this afternoon, and even if the sound is crappy and the light changing, I’m pretty happy with it. Look out for more to come!

Transfercar joins Made From New Zealand

A great new initiative for New Zealand businesses has begun to emerge; Made From New Zealand has grown out of the people behind [network:Silicon Welly] and [network:StartUp] and it is a web based community/networking/linkbuilding/promotional-tool, and I believe we have only seen the start of it yet.

I have already been posting a some articles to the Start-up blog over the past months and so through that I have been in contact with [person:Patrick Macfie] and [person:Tim Norton]. It is very cool to see what have come out of it (so far).

So for any kiwi individual or company that have something to contribute to the NZ business scene, be it entrepreneurs, investors or customers, check out Madefromnewzealand.com!

PS: From today the [business:Transfercar] blog will be plugging in to the Made From New Zealand blog network so these posts can be read there as well.

Keep it up guys!

Transfercar continues to increase in popularity

The Transfercar website continues to increase in popularity, much thanks to your increased number of links to us.

In January we increased visitors with over 10%. The number of rental car relocations increased even more, which indicates that the function changes we made in December (more information on each rental car relocation listing, individual rental car company terms & conditions) have worked.

Transfercar relocated 33% more rental cars and campers in Januray than in December.

This is great for us and means that even more of you were able to find a free rental car.

We look forward to February’s figures! 🙂

New and Improved site

Here at Transfercar we would like to make your visit to and use of our site a breeze. So from Monday the 1^st of December on you will find a couple of new features implemented on the Transfercar site.

For example, there will be more relevant details on hand of the available rentals. As you know, the allowed amount of km’s and days was already specified with your free rental. However, to find out more about the vehicle you had to request it and then find out afterwards. But times have changed! Now you’ll be able to get the rental car company’s specific terms and conditions, more details about their requirements of you as a driver, and a price list of ‘optional extras’ like for example how much extra days or a baby seat costs.

If you are looking for a specific route, destination or date, and –fair enough- you don’t have time to check our site every day, then there is now the option of receiving email notifications. So get notified right away when your ‘ideal’ free rental becomes available, so you’re sure not to miss out.

And what about this-if you see a free rental listed that friends, colleagues or family really could use, you can forward this listing to them in the form of an email through our site.

Go to the site and check it out!

The eclipse of human behaviour

Slowely but surely ‘it’ is coming- and New Zealand won’t be far off I bet. From fingerprint identification that is. Your thumb -or any finger on your two lovely hands for that matter- will be your most precious asset when renting a car or campervan in the near future.

Yup, it looks like we have finally arrived in the era where your authorising signature -and with that your word-is not sufficient anymore. The dawn of a new age where a photocopy of your identification doesn’t do it anymore like it use to in the ’80’s and ’90’s is upon us. And what about the good old creditcard? Nope, you will be needing ‘the goods’: Your passport or driverslicense, you prettiest signature and your fingerprint in order to secure a rental vehicle in -for now- The Netherlands and England.

As it turns out, these overseas rental companies suffer substantual losses of around the €350.000 anually. Why? Because people apparently feel the need to thrash the rental car they are using or simply steal it to be never seen or heard of again. And despite the fact the offenders sign a rental agreement and have their passport or drivers license copied- they are untraceable when it counts. Particularly when they are overseas visitors. In England this annual ‘damage’ figure is, thanks to the introduction of the fingerprint identification system, slowely reducing. However, this number is still persistently on the rise in the Netherlands. And so ever since October this year, Schiphol Airport has joined the fingerprint identification-team as well. No thumb-no car in the Low Lands and the country of the famous stiff upper lip.

Will this fingerprint identification march for New Zealand?-perhaps. After all, rental cars get thrashed here as well-or conveniently pinched if that suits the ‘program’ of the traveller better. And that’s a shame. Because this globally spread human behaviour is truly an embarrassment and a quite unnecessary one at that. And with the current global economy an investment like this will be the last thing rental companies are waiting for. Especially since the tourism industry is already noticing a decline in tourists visiting the country.

So come on you rental car users, play nice, play fair-don’t thrash (or steal) your rental.