of new contracts 14 in France in three months

The world of the company vehicle is the focal point of a tingling of economic actors, industry, services and finance. All these actors are bound to each other to meet a basic need of companies, that of mobility. Banks finance vehicle builders that purchase and rental, maintain networks of builders and specialists, that protect the insurers that troubleshoot gain, etc. This stack of very diverse actors creates comparable to those of a termite complex links by his underground activity in "B to B". In the heart of this pyramid are actors very special, aggregators of all basic services to vehicles, long rental period or, i.e. soft version of the funding, the providers of "fleet management".

The interdependence of all these actors is evident in the crisis in the economy because the wheels are jammed. According to the Observatory of the company vehicle (OVE), if the automobile market overall retreat of 7 to 10 in 2009, companies could decline by 20. The actors seem frozen in time: "no rental fights to lower the rent or no constructor to increase its discounts and tender yield no result," said Hervé Jouannic, President of the Agora of the leaders of vehicle fleets (Arfa). Companies have to slowed their investments and limit the size of their fleets as possible.

Loss of benchmarks

Some banks have had difficulties to bring credit subsidiaries of longstay needed to finance new vehicles that they were renting. "Since six months, the market has lost its bearings." "All the usual indicators are disturbed," said Xavier Bénard, Aon car, which "economic models developed over the past 20 years to rebuild."

Today, rental especially destabilized by the collapse of sales of vehicles (VO) ( 5 to 20 according to the marks), because the success of new cars (VN), cheaper and low emitting CO2, is reflected on the price of the opportunities of the previous generation. At the same time, manufacturers cannot too quickly revive sales of VN rental subject to grow waves of occasions exceeded dealers already congested of VO unsold.

Surrendered by the rental end-of-contract opportunities, normally sources of real profits in good times, thus become for them a cause of sensitive each resale losses. From the value estimated at the outset of a contract to fix the rent (the "residual value"), the actual price obtained for resale at the end of contract led to a loss estimated between 500 and 2,000 euros per vehicle according to several experts in the sector. The impact is much stronger that the rental had all bought the same models at the same time.

All the floors of this machinery, the actors are impacted, but their level of resistance is uneven. If the behemoths of the automotive industry and networks stumble and major banks have phagocytosed by others, long rental period appear to be resistant, for the moment. "Their commercial activity is less cyclical than builders because companies prefer leasing and outsourcing in times of crisis," said a leader of the sector.

They found a temporary parade downward market VO: they extend, most often about a year, their locations that were formerly sets over three years. An appropriate solution to customers because it reduces rents in 5-10 based on the mileage while a new contract for a new car would be reassessed by 10 to 20 due to the VO market risk. Contract extension allows at the same time the rental to make the bet to wait. Hoping better days on the VO market. I.e. back down to better jump in some way. "The prospects for crisis come with the resumption of the VN market which will automatically result in a reboot of the VO, the weakest link", summarizes Jean-François Chanal, President of the Union of the hire of industrial vehicles (SNLVLD).

"The automotive market is a whole." "Cannot dissociate the VO VN and their mutual dynamism is linked," says Philippe Brendel, Director of the OVE.

Relative protection

These stretched one-year rental contracts stabilize managed parks (and thus the basis of rents and rental turnover) despite the net slowdown "updates to the road", i.e. of new contracts ( 14 in France in three months). Bart Beckers, CEO of Lease Plan France, said the rental are relatively protected from knocks of conditions compared to other occupations, since two thirds of their turnover is known at the beginning of year given that the contracts are signed, the average for three years. At the same time, explains Pascal greenhouses, Associate Executive Director of ALD International: "For rental, the possibility of amortizing a year they can mechanically restore their financial situation since the depreciation of the VO is less rapidly between the 3rd and 4th years then the slope of depreciation is linear."