Company Name: Pace Car Rental

Location: South Africa, Africa

Industry: Long and short term car rental, car leasing and fleet services

Established: 2006

Company Size: >250

Odoo Users: >100

Hosting Type: Online

Apps: Manufacturing, Sales, CRM, Project, Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, Website Builder, Email Marketing, Surveys and Helpdesk

Implementing Partner: AP Business Software

Founded in 2006, Pace Car Rental is an automotive business based in South Africa that encompasses multiple subsidiaries to serve various needs within the car rental industry. The company aims to create innovative solutions tailored to the needs of South African clients, with a focus on customer satisfaction, affordability, and reliability across its various services. The group’s businesses often cross-collaborate to provide comprehensive automotive services, from car rental and leasing to tracking and fleet management services. Therefore, there was a critical need of centralizing all the data within a software updated in real time. 

In nearly 20 years, Pace Auto Group has grown significantly to include the following key subsidiaries: 

1. Pace Car Rental: Focusing on short and long term car rentals, the business offers a wide range of vehicles, from economy and luxury options, to leisure and business clients (including industries that require specific vehicle types like bakkies, panel vans and minibus rentals). The company is known for its strong emphasis on customer service, being proudly South African, and providing flexible payment options, including cash car rentals.
2. SA Motor Lease: Specializing in the Rent to Buy market, SA Motor Lease assists individuals who are blacklisted, are under debt review, or have a low credit score. The company offers immediate mobility solutions, allowing customers to obtain a car quickly, even if they are unable to access traditional car financing. 
3. Pace Tracking: This part of the business focuses on vehicle tracking solutions, with products and services for individual vehicle owners and fleet management. It provides advanced tracking technology, including a patented INTELI-CUT solution for immobilization in case of theft or unauthorized removal.
4. Pace Fleet Services: This branch of the group is all about corporate leasing and owner-driver schemes. It is also a significant partner to Uber in South Africa, as well as a preferred partner to Takealot for their owner-driver program, having played a pivotal role in helping drivers become self-employed through these programs.
5. Pace Car Sales: Focused on selling vehicles, this subsidiary handles both new and used car sales, offering a range of options for customers looking to purchase a vehicle.

Before making the decision to implement Odoo’s management system, Pace Car Rental was using disparate tools, relying on paperwork and following non-formalized process flows. This brought multiple challenges to the company, which was experiencing fast-paced growth.

Firstly, the lack of integration between the disparate systems meant that information needed to be manually entered into each platform. This was leading to data inconsistencies, errors, time loss and delays in information processing.

Secondly, the absence of formal process flows often resulted in a lack of clarity but was also making it difficult to track progress and accountability and make informed decisions. It reduced operational efficiency and impacted the overall effectiveness and responsiveness of the organization to market demands or internal changes.

Pace Car Rental thoroughly analyzed different solutions before deciding to opt for Odoo’s management system in 2021. The implementation occurred in a structured and phased manner, with the valuable help of AP Business Software, a local Odoo Silver partner:

• The initial phase started with implementing Inventory and Accounting apps and developing a custom workflow in the Odoo Services app in order to manage the entire process of booking in and out vehicles (including overseeing repair progress, indexing customer satisfaction and invoicing). 
• The second phase was implementing the CRM app to have a comprehensive lead management solution for the SA Motor Lease business unit. The idea was then to streamline the customer acquisition process, making it possible to handle everything in one single platform, from website applications to document submission, compliance management and lead acquisition. 
• The third phase was to ensure a cohesive workflow from customer acquisition to contract fulfillment, making it possible to manage vehicle delivery, deposit payments, recurring billing and contract signatures. 
• The fourth phase focused on the  subsidiary Pace Tracking, including website design, inventory management, recurring bills, and tracking device fitment. The Helpdesk module has also been installed to manage events and repair activities and provide enhanced service delivery and customer support as well as handle each parallel process in accident repair and third-party recovery. 

APIs have also been deployed to automate the car rental billing process and the debit order collections.

Tailoring the company management system to fit the diverse needs of an automotive services conglomerate was key. Indeed, the level of customization and integration required by Pace Car Rental was quite high. The company invested heavily in building an internal team dedicated to the management system adjustments to make it a good fit to fulfill their needs. This internal team is now focused on making the most out of Odoo’s solution, while making the right tweaks and keep learning all about the system's capabilities and updates. 

Combining using Odoo’s software and building a powerful internal team to master the apps and integrations allowed Pace Car Rental  to benefit from a robust solution, aligning the interface with the business needs as well as allowing for a scalable and flexible system evolution. 

“Odoo has played a pivotal role in transforming Pace Auto Group's operations, addressing many of the initial challenges the company faced through its comprehensive suite of business applications and customization capabilities.” 

Murray Price - Pace Tracking Director

Moving forward with centralizing data and processes within one single platform offered Pace Auto Group many advantages:

 300% increase in sales performance: Implementing Odoo has driven a substantial increase within lease and rent-to-buy sales, thanks to improved processes, enhanced customer relationship management and more efficient contract workflows. 

 Unified business management solution: From standalone systems lacking integration and causing inefficiencies and data discrepancies, the company went to a full integrated solution. Centralizing all departments from all subsidiaries has streamlined workflows, improved data accuracy and enhanced operational efficiency.

​​​ Tailored system to meet the requirements of each subsidiary: The group needed a highly customized system able to cater to the unique needs of each subsidiary. And that’s what Odoo Studio allowed the company to do, creating specific workflows that helped scale the operations effectively. 

 Enhanced customer experience: The CRM and Services apps have revolutionized the way the group manages customer interactions and workflows, enhancing management processes, improving response times, and offering a more personalized experience. Additionally, 50% of customers are now utilizing the self-service portal, freeing up time for employees who can now focus on service quality. 

 Better overview on finance: Sales, inventory and purchasing apps offer real-time visibility on financial operations. This helped to  create more accurate forecasts, budgets and financial decision-making. The accounting has been facilitated by detailed records, compliance reports, and transparent billing processes. 

 Improved communication and collaboration between employees: Sharing information and coordinating tasks easier allowed to greatly improve teamwork and cooperation between departments. 

 80% improvement in vehicle repair time: Downtime for repairing vehicles has drastically reduced thanks to smoother workflows, making customers happier and operations more efficient. 

In other words, adopting Odoo’s solution has helped Pace Car Rental  benefit from a customizable, integrated, and scalable management system that supports efficient operations and strategic growth. Operational issues have been solved while transforming the organization in an efficient systems-driven structure making decisions based on powerful insights provided by reports. The mindset of employees has also evolved toward pro-activity, with the way paved towards a dynamic and forward-thinking operational and strategic culture.