Speaker 1: All right, throwaway everything you know about renting a car,
Speaker 1: because Silvercar does it differently.
Speaker 2: What's going on. I'm Richtemiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech Daily and joining me today
Speaker 1: is Courtney Lol. She is with Silvercar and you're here
Speaker 1: to tell us all about how Silvercar is different when
Speaker 1: it comes to the car rental process and also what
Speaker 1: you get.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean when's the last time that you said
Speaker 4: I can't wait to rent a car?
Speaker 2: Probably never, pretty much never. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: So my thing about rental cars, number one is that
Speaker 1: they never have a sunroof. Yeah, every Silver car has
Speaker 1: a sunroof.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean every the thing about silver cars. We
Speaker 4: really set out to solve the two biggest pain points
Speaker 4: for the industry, which is never knowing what you're gonna
Speaker 4: get and what we call the hassle. With Silver Car,
Speaker 4: we really take all the headache out of that and
Speaker 4: make it fun so you get an Audi every time
Speaker 4: those Audis have silver have sun roofs. You also don't
Speaker 4: have to wait in line or fill out paperwork and
Speaker 4: do that same process that you go through with all
Speaker 4: of the Trudition car players because we are delivering it
Speaker 4: all via a mobile app.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you sign up on the mobile app, you
Speaker 1: rent it from the mobile app, then when you get
Speaker 1: to the location, you just scan a QR code on
Speaker 1: the front of the car.
Speaker 4: Exactly and you wait for that to unlock. Your trunk
Speaker 4: pops open, and away you go.
Speaker 2: So tell me who is Silvercar for.
Speaker 4: So, Silvercar is really for anyone who enjoys a great
Speaker 4: travel experience. So, whether you're going for business, you want
Speaker 4: to make sure that number one time is valuable to you.
Speaker 4: You want to go from the plane to the car
Speaker 4: to you're meeting quickly, or you're going on a family
Speaker 4: trip or a girls' weekend or a guys weekend, and
Speaker 4: you want to have a really cool car to be
Speaker 4: able to do that.
Speaker 3: Silvercar is that for you?
Speaker 4: I think we like to say Sobercar is car rental
Speaker 4: for the modern traveler.
Speaker 1: And I feel like most of your users are very
Speaker 1: deliberate in seeking this brand out right now right. It's
Speaker 1: not like you just go to like a aggregator and
Speaker 1: get a Hurtz or whatever the other companies are out there.
Speaker 1: These are people that sort of hear about it and
Speaker 1: want to use the service, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, And you know there's no there's no value
Speaker 4: you can really put on word of mouth. We really
Speaker 4: do rely a lot on our customers to tell other
Speaker 4: people about their experience because that's what we we leave
Speaker 4: with experience. So whether you found out from a friend
Speaker 4: or you saw it on a you know, ad on Facebook,
Speaker 4: it definitely something that you seek out. But once you've
Speaker 4: found it, I will say, you very rarely ever go back.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about the cars. Audi purchased the
Speaker 1: company in twenty seventeen. So this was a startup Yep,
Speaker 1: that just did silver Audi's to start with, and then
Speaker 1: Audi was like, hey, this seems like a good business,
Speaker 1: let's just buy them since we're using our cars anyway.
Speaker 2: Yep, that happens. And what did that mean for the company?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's been really big things. So since
Speaker 4: the acquisition, which was completed in late twenty seventeen, we've
Speaker 4: opened eight new locations.
Speaker 3: We used to only.
Speaker 4: Have Audi A four's, which are their sedans. We've in
Speaker 4: January we released the Q five SUV, which really opens
Speaker 4: up a world of new opportunities and options for people
Speaker 4: with families or those that want.
Speaker 3: To go off roading.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's really just meant a lot more
Speaker 4: growth and a lot more offerings. We like I said,
Speaker 4: we're opening about a new location every month and show
Speaker 4: no signs of stopping there.
Speaker 1: And the cars are all kind of fully loaded, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, tell me some of the things you get
Speaker 1: Wi Fi, GPS, GPS.
Speaker 3: Serious radio.
Speaker 4: And then in certain locations, so for example, if you're
Speaker 4: going to Denver or Salt Lake City and you want
Speaker 4: to go on a ski trip, we offer ski rocks
Speaker 4: for no extra cost, or San Diego we have surf
Speaker 4: racks for no extra cost.
Speaker 3: So we offer you a lot of that.
Speaker 4: Usable technology, but also the things that you need to
Speaker 4: just make it a more epic trip.
Speaker 1: Also, baby seats, like car seat rentals, you now have
Speaker 1: like included basically.
Speaker 4: So we actually so we offer car seats at no
Speaker 4: extra charge. And this mother we actually announced a new
Speaker 4: partnership with Italian car seat maker Peg Parago.
Speaker 3: It's a really high end luxury car seat.
Speaker 4: We did a study that showed that around seventy percent
Speaker 4: of people are not comfortable with the car seats that
Speaker 4: they get from normal car seat providers, a normal rental providers,
Speaker 4: and they're charged twenty five dollars a day to do that,
Speaker 4: so we wanted to offer something that again improves the experience,
Speaker 4: and we don't want to charge you for it.
Speaker 1: And it's all I see the theme, the luxury theme,
Speaker 1: kind of the well premium theme.
Speaker 2: I guess is really what it is.
Speaker 1: Absolutely okay, So you said why FI get the navigation
Speaker 1: the satellite radio. I thought this was interesting too because
Speaker 1: two things I recently tested A ride in this thing,
Speaker 1: took it up to San Francisco for the week weekend
Speaker 1: maybe I think it was, and I didn't. I forgot,
Speaker 1: actually forgot to fill it up on the way back. Ye,
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh gosh, how much am I
Speaker 1: going to be hit with? And the fuel charge was
Speaker 1: actually very reasonable, So tell me about that part of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we don't hit you with that terrible nine
Speaker 4: dollars per gallon charge that you'll get at a lot
Speaker 4: of the other location of the other competitors. We have
Speaker 4: fair fuel pricing, so we just charge you for the
Speaker 4: price at the pump. So if you're in a hurry
Speaker 4: and you need to drop off the car, you don't
Speaker 4: have to worry about two weeks later getting a two
Speaker 4: hundred dollars bill for half.
Speaker 3: Of a tank of gas.
Speaker 2: It was like I think five dollars for the fill
Speaker 2: up or some Yeah, we.
Speaker 3: Had charge you a five dollar convenience piecee for.
Speaker 2: This thing, and it was it was committed.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing is that I went through
Speaker 1: a toll, which I have sworn off with other car
Speaker 1: rental companies because I did a toll one time in
Speaker 1: New Jersey and it was like a five dollars toll
Speaker 1: became like thirty dollars.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I mean, those are the things that we find that
Speaker 4: competitors really nickel and dime you on. We just like
Speaker 4: to lead always, as I said, with customer experience and
Speaker 4: what's the fair thing to do, what's the right thing
Speaker 4: to do. And so you only get charged the tolls
Speaker 4: that you go through, and the amount of those tolls
Speaker 4: you don't have to charge get charged extra for a
Speaker 4: transponder or any of that stuff.
Speaker 2: That's surprising, though.
Speaker 1: I will say you probably could have charged me an
Speaker 1: extra buck to five dollars for that convenience and I
Speaker 1: would have been fine with it, right, But I.
Speaker 2: Only got the four dollars charge. I was like, this
Speaker 2: is pretty good, and I bet.
Speaker 3: You'll rent from Silvercar again, right.
Speaker 1: Probably the goal tell me about the prices for Silver Car,
Speaker 1: So what is it for an A four, What is
Speaker 1: it for a Q five.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So while we do talk about being a premium
Speaker 4: car rental company, we're really pleased with the fact that
Speaker 4: we can offer very competitive prices. So A four's are
Speaker 4: going to start at about fifty nine dollars a day.
Speaker 4: Q five, which is the suv, is going to start
Speaker 4: at about seventy nine dollars a day, which if you
Speaker 4: look at you know, all the things that you get
Speaker 4: and not that nickel diming. It really is comparable to
Speaker 4: kind of that mid sized car class at a lot
Speaker 4: of the competitors.
Speaker 2: And where are you? Where Where is Silvercar located?
Speaker 4: So we are in twenty three locations. Those are really
Speaker 4: some of the biggest airport markets in the country. So
Speaker 4: you think about all up and down the coast of California,
Speaker 4: New York, Miami, we just opened up a Dulles location.
Speaker 4: We're in Texas and Chicago. The easiest way to figure
Speaker 4: that out though, is once you download the app or
Speaker 4: go on the website, it shows you all of our
Speaker 4: locations as well as some that are coming soon.
Speaker 2: And the name is Silver You actually only rent Silver.
Speaker 3: Cars, so you literally always know what you're.
Speaker 2: Going to get, and what was that?
Speaker 1: So that was the founders, I guess they just thought
Speaker 1: that was neat that they did that, Like you're getting
Speaker 1: the same car every time, no matter where you rent,
Speaker 1: which is kind of nice as a if you're a
Speaker 1: frequent business traveler, it's kind of nice to like, I mean,
Speaker 1: they stay in the same hotel, get the same car.
Speaker 3: You kind of like like that familiarity. Yeah, exactly, absolutely.
Speaker 4: And you know, one of the interesting things was when
Speaker 4: we looked at silver, it was something that appealed to
Speaker 4: both genders, and it was something that gave you sort
Speaker 4: of a premium feel more so than.
Speaker 3: A bright red car or a black car or a
Speaker 3: blue car.
Speaker 4: So we did a lot of research into why we
Speaker 4: chose silver, but ultimately, yeah, there's that familiarity and you
Speaker 4: always know what you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Get and who is your customer.
Speaker 4: So we like to say our customer is the modern traveler.
Speaker 4: So we've got families for leisure as well as business travelers.
Speaker 4: I think one of the interesting things when you almost
Speaker 4: look at what we call utilization, how many cars are
Speaker 4: out we have utilism, the amount of utilization for the
Speaker 4: weekday and the weekend, and then you kind of think
Speaker 4: about that in terms of business versus leisure travel. So really,
Speaker 4: no matter what your need is, there's a Silver Car
Speaker 4: for you.
Speaker 1: Now. I remember at one point back in the day
Speaker 1: when I rented from Silver Car, they picked me up
Speaker 1: like curb side. Can you tell me kind of at
Speaker 1: the different locations how you get to this, because it's
Speaker 1: not always in the rental car facility per se exactly.
Speaker 4: So one of the things that we jokingly say internally
Speaker 4: is once you've been to one airport, you've been to
Speaker 4: one airport. So they're all a little bit different in
Speaker 4: what their requirements are. But so some of our locations
Speaker 4: like Austin or John Wayne, which we recently opened in
Speaker 4: we pick you up.
Speaker 3: Kurb side in an AUTI.
Speaker 4: Others, when you open me app, it'll show that you
Speaker 4: go to a shuttle and that drops you off with
Speaker 4: the location. The nice thing is is that you're able
Speaker 4: on the website to take a look at what that
Speaker 4: process is beforehand. You're also able to see it on
Speaker 4: the app. And most importantly, we have a concierge who's
Speaker 4: in touch with you from the time you land until
Speaker 4: the time you get to your car never on your own.
Speaker 1: All right, Silvercar, Courtney, Lol, thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 1: How can folks learn more about Silvercar?
Speaker 4: Just go to silvercar dot com and then that'll take
Speaker 4: you to all the different locations that you need and
Speaker 4: the way to download the app.
Speaker 1: All right, there you have it, Silvercar. I've done this
Speaker 1: several times. It is quite the experience. In a world
Speaker 1: where travel can definitely be stressful and rental cars are
Speaker 1: generally known to be not the best cars in the world.
Speaker 1: Silvercar really does feel like you're kind of taking a
Speaker 1: premium car on the road. It's a nice aspect of
Speaker 1: your business trip or your vacation, whatever you're using it for.
Speaker 2: So check it out. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you like the podcast, go ahead and leave a
Speaker 1: review in Apple Podcasts. That way more people discover it.
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Damiro. You want links to everything to talk
Speaker 1: about here.
Speaker 2: Just go to Rich on tech dot tv. I'll talk
Speaker 2: to you real soon.