Drive.SG is Singapore’s first and largest car rental online marketplace. This platform markets and sells car rental services to drivers in Singapore. Users can conveniently browse, compare and book available models across different car rental agencies, often benefiting from discounts. As users select the type of car, as well as collection and return dates, Drive.SG’s online portal reduces chances of human error. Users can also transparently view extra costs, such as delivery/ recovery of the vehicle, GPS system or ability to drive into Malaysia.

Some 30 car rental agencies island-wide have partnered with Drive.Sg, including local and international brands. As many of Singapore’s car rental agencies are small “mom-and-pop” businesses, they do not have online marketing, booking or e-commerce capabilities. Leveraging upon Drive.SG’s platform enables these companies to modernise operations, as well as tap upon back-end administrative and accounting solutions.

“We started using Drive.sg’s online booking platform in 2012 and were very happy to see a 10-15% increase in business, as the platform helps to market our cars. In addition, it has helped me to boost my productivity, as everything is automated. This has allowed me to expand the company, and we have recently added more cars to our rental fleet,” said Kino Neo, who runs Neo Rental and Resources.

To make it easier for users to access the website portal anytime or anywhere, Drive.SG launched a mobile app, on both iOS and Android platforms. This includes a geo-location feature, which recommends the nearest care rental agency for convenient car pick-up and drop-off. With the surge in Singapore’s mobile usage, some 60% of their customers access Drive.SG from a mobile phone.

A typical Drive.SG user includes local drivers who rent a car for occasions such as trips to Malaysia or during the holiday season. Drive.SG also caters to overseas visitors who rent a car for easy transport around Singapore. Currently, Drive.SG sells about 2,000 car rental days per month. The company targets reaching 5,000 car rental days by end 2014.

Drive.SG’s entrepreneurial journey

The idea for Drive.SG was conceived in 2010 by Adrian Lee and Paul Tan, who were then students at the NUS School of Computing. As drivers themselves, they encountered the high costs of owning a car in Singapore, where in addition to COEs, they had to worry about servicing the car, taxes and monthly instalments. Realising others would be faced with the same problem, the idea for Drive.SG was born. Upon graduation from NUS in 2011, the duo founded the company. They have grown the company rapidly to a team of 14 supported by NUS Enterprise and NUS School of Computing incubation services, such as mentorship, business clinics and funding assistance. To date, they have raised a total of $250,000 from their own investments, government agency grants and business angels.

“We are motivated to provide the best service we can by our loyal customers. When we first launched the beta site, feedback from the car rental community in Singapore guided our development work. During the first year, Paul and I personally looked through each and every booking, because we wanted to ensure our service had a strong human touch. Moving forward, we plan to expand across the region. Even as we grow, we remain committed to providing our customers with the best user experience, when they come to Drive.SG,” said Adrian Lee, co-founder Drive.SG.

More: www.drive.sg