Hire agreements e-signed before pickup for van hire firms

Saturday morning at a van hire counter is a queue of people filling in paper agreements while the vans sit outside. At about 15 minutes of paperwork per pickup, a firm doing 100 hires a month spends 25 hours at the counter, and a customer who gives up waiting drives to the next firm.

Booqable creates quotes, contracts and invoices from each order, and its Grow plan adds e-signatures on quotes and contracts. Custom fields at checkout collect what your agreement needs, such as driver details and license number. Send the contract with the booking confirmation so the customer reads and signs it at home. At the counter you check the license, take photos of the van and hand over the keys.

A van hire firm in Bristol with 12 vans and two counter staff does about 100 hires a month, half of them collected on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. They move to Booqable Grow and send every agreement for e-signature when the booking is made.

About $339£255€303A$490C$479 a month in counter time: 17 hours saved at an assumed $20£15€18A$29C$28 an hour. That is against $69 (about $69£52€62A$100C$98) a month for Booqable Grow billed yearly, or $87 (about $86£65€77A$125C$122) monthly, which also covers online bookings and staff logins.

1. 1Move to Booqable Grow and upload your hire agreement as the contract template.
2. 2Add custom fields at checkout for each driver's details and license number.
3. 3Send the contract for e-signature with every booking confirmation.
4. 4At pickup, check the signed contract, the license and the driver's identity before handing over keys.
5. 5Ask your insurer whether e-signed agreements meet the policy's conditions.

• A signature doesn't prove who signed. Check the driver's license in person at pickup.
• Your terms must be fair to consumers; charges for damage, fuel and late returns need to be clear before they sign.
• Grow is priced in US dollars, so the sterling cost moves with the exchange rate.