The rising road traffic continues to be one of the ongoing challenges that major urban centers in the Netherlands are facing. The alarming rate of rise in the number of owned cars increases accident risk, fuel consumption, and CO2 emission into the environment. The adverse impact of road traffic across the country is changing customer behavior and habits; for instance, the consumer attitude toward owning a car. Notably, the transition of customer preference in the Netherlands from personally owned vehicle toward the adoption of rental service is reducing the road traffic in the country. The adoption of car rentals or car-sharing enables a reduction in the volume of vehicles in urban locations, along with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Interestingly, studies conducted in the Netherlands show that the provision of car rental services led to a considerable reduction in the number of privately owned vehicles by about 30%, reducing the number of kilometers driven by 15–20%, further reducing the exhaust emissions. Notably, the Dutch government is taking several steps to prevent climate change through goals and measures laid down and agreed upon in the Climate Act and the National Climate Agreement. Therefore, the rising need of the hour to reduce road traffic and the consequent problems associated with it, coupled with the policy support of the Dutch government, is driving the growth of the car rental service market in the Netherlands.
The COVID-19 crisis affected the industries worldwide, and the Netherlands economy witnessed severe impact in 2020 and 2021. The pandemic disturbed car rental services businesses across the region. It is estimated that the Dutch economy contracted by 4.1% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the related restrictions significantly affected tourism, hospitality and mobility sectors of the country. Following a nationwide lockdown in the first half of 2020, the Dutch economy started regaining momentum from the third quarter of 2020, which was interrupted by the second and third wave of COVID-19 infections during 2021. The consequent reintroduction of containment measures and the progressive restrictions on movement since October 2021 has limited the economic activity in hospitality and tourism. This led to an unstable demand for car rental services, and the market slowed down to a large extent. However, in case of unavoidable travel to the Netherlands, there is a rising consumer affinity toward rental car on arrival at the country’s airport since it is a relatively safer mode of transport as compared with public modes of transport. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the tourist volume in the Netherlands, creating a scarce demand for car rental service. The market is, however, expected to regain momentum with the removal of restrictions, subject to a successful implementation of vaccination drives and growing consumer preference toward rental cars over public modes of transport.
The Netherlands car rental services market is driven by the growing number of car rental services in the region, emergence of new market players, and increased spending power of people, as well as changing lifestyles. Growing tourism activities and government investment in the sector have supported the growth of the car rental services market in the Netherlands. Players in the car rental services market are focusing on offering advanced technology-driven solutions to their customers with an intent to offer improved customer service. There is a growing demand for integrated software solution capable of enabling travellers to split rental charges between personal and business credit cards, as well as other additional features.
Based on rental location, the Netherland car rental services market is segmented into non-airport and on-airport & train station. In 2020, non-airport accounted for a larger share of the market.
The players operating in the car rental services market adopt strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, and market initiatives to maintain their positions in the market. A few developments by key players are listed below: