Revolution Releases

EIT is pleased to announce Cross Agency Traffic in Revolution Release 1.14. This exciting new program is designed to assist CRX agencies in maximizing the benefit of visitors to their websites, by arranging rentals across the country with preferred partner rental agencies. A full program description is found at distribution network - cross agency traffic. Some of the highlights are:

Cross Agency Traffic:

• Traffic Source Agencies have loyal customers, who may wish to rent a vehicle outside the source agency’s geographic area.
• Some simple mods to the quick rates and rate search on the Source agency website allow visitors to search for rentals across the country.
• These rentals are only available from preferred partners, based solely on the selection by Source Agencies, so the quality of rentals are ensured.
• There is a new Revolution Manager page which allows Source Agencies to select traffic recipient agencies, by simple point-and-click, from a list of all potential agencies.
• All Traffic Exchange agencies are eligible to receive Cross Agency Traffic.
• Rental agencies may see their Cross Agency reservations in the Reservation Reports
• Billing is setup: Rental agencies pay an effective rate of 13% of billable revenue, the same as for Traffic Exchange. Source Agencies receive half of the fees resulting from their traffic. This is credited through Aria based on pickup date.

We look forward to promotion of the Cross Agency Traffic program and building a national network with substantial new visitor and renter traffic to all participating agencies.

Revolution Release 1.14 is comprehensive and includes many improvements in various programs and at Car Rental Express to improve overall reservations there, and in Revolution Manager (our user interface). These are all summarized below.

A Mobile Version of www.CarRentalExpress.com is in active development.

This will be released in the near future. When a person uses a smart phone, like an iPad, Android or BlackBerry device to access the CarRentalExpress.com website, they will automatically see a simplified mini-search, slim results listing, and mini-rental center, which is easy to use on the small screen. As well, renters will be able to check-in, and retrieve their existing reservation detail, after landing at the airport, or at any time.

Global Traveler - GT

No-show reporting has been modified to ensure all date ranges are captured. Each month no-shows are reported for the first to last day of the month by pickup date. Agencies have another 15 days, to the middle of the following month, to complete this report. Thereafter, billing data must be sent to our GT business partner, and no further no-shows may be reported.

GT Cancellations can only be made by renters through an e-mail link, or in our GT program partner systems. Cancellations cannot be initiated by CRX agencies.

Car Rental Express - CRX

Agency Location by Map: A map with all the agencies and locations has been created. There is a link below the search box on the main page at CRX. The visuals and navigation are easy-to-follow. Site visitors should have no trouble locating agencies at their selected destinations.

August CRX Road Trip #1: 14 days from Los Angeles to New York City. This adventure has been captured in a photo journal, which can be seen in the Tips section at CRX, and through link from the main page.

More CRX improvements:

• Consistent currency names and symbols are now shown in step 2 search results and for individual vehicle rates and descriptions in step 3 of the rental process
• Distance from agency locations to airports are now shown, with shuttle or in-terminal messages, to help visitors find the best deal
• Search results will now return motorcycles, in places like Phoenix for example
• Comparison search is now offered at some CRX locations. Visitors are able to see prices at Hotwire and CarRentals.com. Most visitors choose to search for vehicles at CRX only. Those who choose comparison search, continue to rent with CRX agencies with the usual frequency
• Signing up for the contest after Rating your Reservation no longer uses WildFire and has moved back to the Revolution system. This is expected to restore higher levels of Renter Ratings and contest participation.

Reservation System

• All non-USD currencies are converted real-time to USD when reservation is made, making the billing data more correct
• Sending e-mails for new registered members is improved
• Performance or speed improvements have been made to the reservation system

Revolution Manager (UI)

There are lots of great Manager improvements listed below, which will help Agencies and EIT Support staff alike. Take full advantage of the new and improved features. New developers have been active in program development and continuous improvement to our systems.

• CompareCar was removed from Pay Per Click network, which now lists as the “Direct Connect Network”. The network continues to include KAYAK traffic.
• Company Profile page now lives under General menu, instead of Network
• Inquiries Report has been updated with new features, such as:
  - Viewing emails after replying to an inquiry
  - Status column added which displays “Printed”, “Replied”, etc.
  - Print feature added when viewing inquiry information window
  - Statistics of Total Number of Inquiries added

• Calendars in Manager have been updated and switch Years and Months more easily. When viewing reports, the dates for which reports are built are highlighted on the calendars
• Floating table headers were added to the reports, to display the table header as you scroll down the long reports, making them easier to read
• Updated the handling of the Extra Product save mechanism, to set default values for non-filled in rates, and save the form submitted
• Reservations Report shows who cancelled the reservation (renter, EIT admin or agency) and on what date
• Members Editor is updated and now allows to enter free-text values for City, State and Country values

Revolution Private Labels at Agency Websites

• QuickRates Age dropdown display has been corrected
• Location’s email addresses are now displayed on Locations page
• In the rental center, Inquiries work at the personal data entry stage (step 4) even if Age Range is not displayed on Rate Search or QuickRates (step 1)