Fri, Apr 23, 2010, The New Paper
By Lester Ho and Danson Chong

SOME people like their rental cars so much, they do not want to return it. In one case, a customer even attached fake licence plates to his rented Toyota Vios to mask its identity.

A check with six rental car companies here showed that it is not uncommon to encounter customers who do not return their rented cars.

They said they each have five to 10 such cases every year.

The manager of a rental car company, who gave his name only as Mr Wong, told The New Paper that a customer rented a Vios for $70 a day on April 9.

The 41-year-old, who was supposed to return it after three days, called to ask for a one-day extension. But he did not return the car when the time was up. He also did not answer calls from Mr Wong, who then mobilised his staff to keep a lookout for the missing grey car. Some of them came across the car at a Sultan Place carpark last Wednesday.

Mr Wong, 32, said: “We saw someone who looked a lot like him (the customer), but we did not approach the car then.”

What threw them off was that the number plates were different. But they suspected it was the right car as it had similar scratches.

A staff member showing the fake and original license plate.

…

That same day, Mr Wong’s company lost a BMW 5 Series after a customer failed to return it.

…

Mr Wong agreed to rent out the car(BMW) for $800, with a deposit of $500, but only under the condition that the car be returned by 8pm that day.

…

Mr Wong: “Losing a car is a major inconvenience for us.”

“Firstly, we still have to pay for the instalment of the car. Secondly, we’re not getting any income which can be generated by renting out that car to a paying customer. Thirdly, there’s someone out there using the car for free.”

$2,000 reward
That is why one rental car company is offering a $2,000 reward for information on one of its cars, a Toyota Axio. It placed a newspaper notice on Friday.

…

Mr Jeffrey Ee, 54, the general manager of Alpine Car Rental, said the car had been stolen while it was rented to a customer on a long-term contract basis.

…

Mr Ee: “The police told me the car didn’t even go under any ERP gantries. Usually, if hirers don’t return the car to us, we can try to track them down from the summons. But this time there’s been nothing.”

Mr Ee claims his loss is about $30,000.

“The customer would have to take some responsibility, but it’s unlikely we’re going to recover the full cost,”

“If there’s no news I’ll put up another notice this week. I’ll gladly pay the $2,000 to get my car back.”

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Personnel Management - People are the most valuable assets
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Asset Tracking

Designed for businesses with movable assets as well as individual vehicle owners. Vehicle is installed with a small device which talks to a central server logging all movements. Movement logs are available through our portal which provides real time information and past records. Controls and monitors your vehicle remotely with our trackers’ Input / Output functions. Proven to protect your asset and ensure that your driver and vehicle is at their best performance.

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Personal Tracking

Designed for personal use to safe guard your family and friends. Whether you are just checking in or allowing others to monitor your movements, we will give you the edge to letting others know where you are when you need them to. Suitable for businesses to monitor their human assets that are constantly on the move. Movement logs are available through our portal which provides real time information and past records. In case of any emergency, the tracker will be able to launch an alert to all your friends, family and to your nearest authority.

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Fleet Management

Management solution for your fleet of movable assets. Our fleet management solution includes cost analysis, vehicle maintenance, vehicle telematics (tracking and diagnostic), driver management, fuel management, and many other customizable requirements. Fleet management is proven to minimize risks associated with vehicle investment, improving efficiency, productivity and eliminating unnecessary transportation cost. Our hardware capability provides several remote control features to the vehicle which ensures that it runs at optimal and provides an edge against unlawful actions.

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RFID Solution

RFID asset management is now a mature technology and has been adopted and indeed mandated as compulsory requirement for organizations such as US Department of Defence (DOD) and Wal-Mart, two of the world largest logistics operators. The range of applications that take advantage of RFID is large and continues to grow as advances in technology and a falling RFID costs enable more applications to become viable. RFID solutions are now commonly applied for personal and access control, manufacturing automation, logistics and automation, retail, maintenance and service, security (anti-tempering, product authentication, theft, etc).

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Operating in an area with low cell-network coverage? Then satellite solution is your answer. Satellite solution allows you to track your assets virtually anywhere in the world. Our tracking systems works with any hardware provided by the major satellite communication providers and tracks your assets through our portal.

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