A corporate car hire account does one thing above all else: it takes the payment step out of every individual booking. Instead of an employee putting a hire on a personal card and chasing reimbursement, or an office manager entering card details for the fourth time this month, bookings go against the account and the business gets one invoice. Everything else a corporate account offers, agreed rates, nominated drivers, a named contact who knows your business, follows from that.
This guide is for whoever ends up owning vehicle bookings in a Perth business, which is usually an office manager, an executive assistant or a operations lead rather than anyone with fleet in their job title. It covers what an account actually changes, what to ask before setting one up, and how to work out whether hiring is the right structure at all.
What does a corporate account actually change?
Payment moves off the individual
This is the main thing. Without an account, someone in the business is fronting the cost of a hire and reclaiming it. That means expense claims, receipts, a delay before they get their money back, and a small amount of friction every single time. With an account, the booking is made and the business is invoiced.
The effect compounds. Once the payment step is gone, the person making the booking does not need approval to use their own card, which usually means bookings get made earlier and availability is better.
Booking gets faster
Repeat details stop being re-entered. The business name, the billing arrangement and the usual contacts are already known. For a business hiring several times a month, this is the difference between a two minute task and a ten minute one.
Records get cleaner
Consolidated invoicing gives your bookkeeper one document to reconcile rather than a scatter of individual receipts across several people’s expense claims. If your accountant needs to substantiate business vehicle use, having it in one place matters. Ask what invoicing format and frequency are available, and whether you can have a cost centre or purchase order reference on each booking, because that is what makes the reconciliation easy at the other end.
You get a person
A named contact who knows what your business usually books is worth more than it sounds when something goes wrong at 4pm on a Friday. With a local Perth operator this is a real advantage over booking through a national call centre.
When does hiring beat owning or leasing?
The honest answer is that it depends on how constant your need is, and it is worth being clear eyed about this rather than defaulting to whichever option you used last time.
| Your situation | Usually the better structure |
| A vehicle in use most working days, same type, for years | Ownership or lease |
| Need that comes and goes, or peaks seasonally | Hire on demand |
| Vehicle type changes between jobs | Hire on demand |
| A defined project with an end date | Hire for the project term |
| Covering a vehicle that is off the road | Short term hire |
| Growing and not yet sure what the fleet should look like | Hire while you find out |
| Visitors, contractors or interstate staff needing a vehicle | Hire, every time |
The test that cuts through it: if a vehicle you owned would sit idle for weeks at a time, you are paying for capacity you do not use. Registration, insurance, servicing and depreciation continue whether the vehicle moves or not.
The reverse is also true. If you would be hiring the same vehicle continuously for years, hire is not the efficient structure and nobody should pretend otherwise.
What businesses in Perth actually use corporate hire for
Fleet overflow
The most common reason by some distance. A business with its own vehicles hits a fortnight with one more job than there are vehicles. Hiring to cover the gap is faster and cheaper than buying an asset for three weeks of use a year.
Visiting staff and contractors
Interstate colleagues flying in, a specialist contractor on site for a month, an auditor for a week. None of them should be driving a vehicle the business owns without thinking about it, and none of them need one permanently.
Client and inbound groups
Moving a group between meetings, site visits or events. This is where a people mover matters more than a sedan, and where being able to book different vehicle types on the same account is genuinely useful.
Project and site work
A job with a defined duration in a defined location. Hire for the project term and hand it back. For work outside the metropolitan area this often means a ute rather than a car, which is again a case for an account that covers the whole fleet.
Replacing a vehicle that is off the road
Accident, breakdown, extended service. The need is immediate and temporary, which is exactly what hire is for.
Executive and client facing travel
Where the vehicle is part of the impression, a standard fleet sedan may not be the right choice. Being able to book a different class occasionally, without owning one, is one of the quieter benefits of an account.
Matching the vehicle to the job
One of the quieter advantages of an account is that it covers the whole fleet, so the vehicle can suit the task rather than the task having to suit the vehicle the business happens to own. Most businesses in Perth end up drawing on four or five classes.
- Compact and economy cars. Single person travel around the metropolitan area, short client visits, staff running errands. Easy to park in the CBD, which matters more than anything else on a two hour booking.
- Family sedans and SUVs. The default for longer drives, for carrying two or three people with bags, and for any trip out of the metropolitan area where comfort over distance matters.
- Site work, deliveries, equipment moves, trade use. If your business does any physical work at all, this is the class that gets booked at short notice and is hardest to find late.
- People movers. Client groups, visiting teams, airport collections where several people arrive together. Eight seats in one vehicle solves a coordination problem that two cars do not.
- Luxury vehicles. Client facing travel where the vehicle is part of the impression. Occasional need, which is precisely the case for hiring rather than owning.
- Electric vehicles. Increasingly relevant where a business has a sustainability commitment it reports against, and worth trialling through hire before committing to a purchase.
The trailer is worth a separate mention. For equipment moves, site clear outs and anything bulky, a vehicle plus trailer is usually cheaper and more practical than a larger vehicle, and it can go on the same booking.
When the need runs into months
There is a middle ground between a few days and a multi year lease, and it is the part of the market most businesses do not know exists.
Long term or monthly hire suits a defined period of extended need. A contractor engaged for six months. A project running through to the end of a financial year. A staged fleet replacement where vehicles are being retired faster than the new ones arrive. A new office opening where you do not yet know what the vehicle requirement will settle at.
What it gives you that a lease does not is the ability to stop. If the project finishes early, or the requirement changes, or the business decides it needs a different vehicle type, you are not carrying an obligation for the remaining years. What a lease gives you that long term hire does not is a lower cost per day over a genuinely long horizon.
The practical test is the same as before. If you can say with confidence what vehicle you will need in three years, lease it. If you cannot, hiring buys you the option to change your mind, and for a business that is still working out its shape, that option has real value.
What to ask before setting up an account
Most of these questions never get asked until something goes wrong. Ask them at the start instead.
- How are drivers nominated, and how quickly can we add one? This is the most important question on the list. A driver not on the agreement may not be covered.
- What is the invoicing cycle and format? Weekly, monthly, per booking. Can it carry a purchase order or cost centre reference.
- What are the payment terms?
- Who is our contact, and who covers them when they are away?
- How far ahead do we need to book for each vehicle class? People movers and utes are always the tightest.
- What happens if we need to extend a hire mid-term?
- What is the damage excess, and what are the options for reducing it? Ask for this in writing.
- Is there a distance limit, and what is the policy on unsealed roads? This matters enormously for site work outside the metropolitan area.
- Can vehicles be delivered and collected, and within what area?
- What happens with fines and infringements incurred by our drivers?
- What is the after hours process if a vehicle has a problem?
- Can we book different vehicle types on the same account?
The one to write down. Damage excess and driver nomination are the two things that turn a small incident into a large problem. Get both in writing before the first booking rather than after the first incident, and make sure whoever actually makes the bookings has read them.
Getting the internal process right
The account is the easy part. What determines whether corporate hire runs smoothly is the process inside your own business, and it takes about twenty minutes to set up properly.
- Decide who can book. One or two named people, not everyone. This is the single biggest driver of clean records.
- Keep a current list of approved drivers with licence details, and have a standing way to add someone at short notice.
- Agree what gets booked for what. A simple rule such as sedan for client visits, ute for site work, people mover for groups removes most of the decision making.
- Set a booking lead time. Two or three days for a standard car, longer for utes and people movers.
- Standardise the handover. Photograph the vehicle at collection and at return, every time, and store the photographs somewhere the business can find them.
- Give the driver the details before they collect, including the booking reference, the return time and who to call if something is wrong.
- Reconcile monthly rather than at the end of the quarter, while anyone can still remember what a particular booking was for.
The mistakes that cost businesses money
The unlisted driver
Someone else drives the vehicle for a short leg because it was convenient. If anything happens, the business is exposed. This is the most common and most expensive mistake in corporate hire, and it is entirely avoidable.
Booking too late
Specialist vehicles are a small proportion of any fleet. A business that books a people mover the day before a client group arrives will sometimes find there is not one.
Not photographing the vehicle
Two minutes at collection and two minutes at return. Without it, a dispute about a mark on a panel is a matter of recollection, and recollection is not evidence.
Hiring the wrong class to save money
A sedan booked for a job that needed a ute results in a second vehicle, a second trip, or damage to the vehicle. The saving evaporates immediately.
Nobody owning the account
When bookings are made by whoever happens to be free, details drift, drivers go unlisted and invoices stop matching anything. Assign it to one person.
Common questions
Do we need a minimum volume to open an account?
Requirements vary between hire companies. Smaller local operators are frequently more flexible about this than the national chains, which is worth knowing if your business only hires occasionally.
Can we book a vehicle for a visitor who is not an employee?
Generally yes, provided they are properly nominated as a driver and meet the licence requirements. Confirm the process, because it is a common need and it is better sorted before the visitor lands.
What about long term hire?
Long term and monthly arrangements sit between short term hire and leasing, and are worth asking about if your need is measured in months rather than days. Burswood Car Rentals offers both short and long term hire.
Can the vehicle be delivered to us?
Burswood Car Rentals offers free delivery and collection to Perth city hotels and Crown within 20 kilometres of the depot, which is useful for businesses in and around the CBD and for visiting staff arriving at a hotel.
What if we need a vehicle at short notice?
This is precisely what an account is for. The details are already held, so the booking is a phone call rather than a form. Availability is still availability though, and a specialist vehicle at short notice will always depend on what is on the lot that day.
Setting up an account
If your business is hiring vehicles more than occasionally, an account is worth the twenty minutes it takes to set up. The saving is not only on rates, it is on the administrative time that currently goes into every individual booking and every individual expense claim.
Burswood Car Rentals is a Perth owned family business operating from a single depot at 16 Teddington Road, Burswood, on the airport to city route, and offers corporate accounts across its fleet. To discuss what an account would look like for your business, call (08) 9362 4777, email rentals@burswoodcarrentals.com.au or send a message on WhatsApp to 0438 757 909. For an individual booking in the meantime, the Instant Quote on the site will give you availability and a rate in a few steps.