NEWSROOM

Fleet leasing services constitute one of the most important expense items after the salary payments of the companies. The founders of Filo Broker, women entrepreneurs Okşan Öztürk and Oytun Gül Malkoç, convey the picture of the sector with these words: "Companies are focusing more on how to save money on fleet rental services with the pandemic."

*** This release is originally published in Turkish.
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ISTANBUL (TR) - Operational vehicle leasing, which started in Turkey in the 2000s, has grown rapidly, especially in the last 15 years. Companies that used to be able to own vehicles only by purchasing them have recently started to benefit more from the advantages of leasing a fleet. According to the data published by TOKKDER (Association of All Car Rental Organizations) on the subject, the operational car rental industry added 33,400 new vehicles to its fleet in the first half of 2021. This figure corresponds to 10.8% of brand new cars sold in Turkey in the same period. Expectations from the sector, whose asset size reached 46 billion TL as of the first 6 months of 2021, changed with the pandemic. Okşan Öztürk, Founding Partner of Filo Broker, said, “Almost half (48.4%) of those who rent operational vehicles sign contracts of 30-42 months. However, fleet leasing is not a one-time purchase, it is a process that has the potential to create extra expenses or savings areas every day. At this stage, significant savings can be achieved by analyzing the usage habits of company vehicles very well, creating flexible contracts and constantly monitoring the data of each vehicle, especially the mileage limits. With the pandemic, many companies have discovered this savings area.”

In the early years of fleet leasing, customers weren't asking the right questions

Oytun Gül Malkoç, who worked as a sales manager in the fleet leasing sector until 2014: “In the first years, companies that could not allocate a budget to purchase vehicles or that were inclined to rent globally preferred leasing services. Afterwards, leasing became indispensable for companies that saw the convenience of operational vehicle leasing. However, they were so focused on renting a car at the cheapest price in the beginning that some other details in the contract were ignored. For example, over the high limit, high extra payments were encountered. Although the mileage limits were increased to prevent this situation, it was not possible to establish a sustainable and efficient fleet in this way. Seeing this need, we established Filo Broker 7 years ago and started consulting. At the point we have reached today, we manage a fleet of more than 5 thousand vehicles belonging to our customers.”

The “saving priority” with the pandemic changed everything

Emphasizing that they established Fleet Broker in 2014, knowing that they would abstain when they say that they provide fleet consultancy services to companies that are just getting used to car rental, Okşan Öztürk said: "Why should I get fleet consultancy service in the sector, I already have purchasing experts.Moreover, I do not have hundreds of vehicles, I cannot save.But the approach has changed as we reveal the data, the reports and the savings we provide to our customers. The focus of companies on savings opportunities in every field after the pandemic also changed their perspectives completely. Especially this year has been the year we met the highest demand due to the pandemic. Moreover, we provided convenience to companies by digitizing the process with the FiloCep application.”

Signature of female entrepreneur in car rental

Stating that there are not many women entrepreneurs in the automotive or car rental sectors, Oytun Gül Malkoç said: “Our passion for cars and data analytics turned into a business idea 7 years ago. We know that women who enjoy cars, long drives or Formula 1 races exist everywhere. Analyzing the data and seeing the positive results of the decisions made gives us indescribable happiness.”