Car carrier transport is one of the most cost-controlled ways for rental companies to move vehicles between branches. It delivers cars with almost no added kilometres, removes driver travel costs and moves many vehicles per trip. For car carrier fleet relocation in South Africa, it usually wins over long distances and in batches, while driving vehicles between nearby branches can still make sense.

Why Rental Fleets Need to Be Relocated

• Seasonal demand: December holiday demand pulls fleets towards Cape Town, the Garden Route, Durban and other tourist destinations.
• One-way rentals: customers who drop a car at a different branch leave imbalances that have to be corrected.
• Airport branches: major airports such as OR Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town International see peaks that need rebalancing.
• New fleet delivery: new vehicles must reach branches from dealers or manufacturers.
• Fleet disposal: vehicles reaching the end of their term move to auctions or dealers.
• Branch openings and closures: these shift capacity from one location to another.

Driving vs Carrying: What Does Each Really Cost?

Driving looks cheap because there is no carrier invoice, but the real costs add up:

• Mileage: every relocation kilometre goes on the odometer and can reduce resale value.
• Driver costs: wages, accommodation and the return trip home.
• Wear and risk: tyres, service intervals, fines and fatigue-related accidents.
• Downtime: vehicles are out of rentable service while they are being driven.

Carrying flips most of these. Vehicles arrive with near-zero added kilometres, several travel per trip, and they are tracked and insured in transit. As a rule of thumb, carriers tend to win when moving batches over several hundred kilometres, while short hops between nearby branches can still be cheaper by road. The fair comparison is the full cost per vehicle, including driver return travel.

How to Plan a Relocation Programme

1. Forecast demand by branch and season so relocations are planned rather than reactive.
2. Batch the moves by consolidating vehicles heading the same way so each carrier runs full.
3. Move ahead of peaks, not during them, so vehicles are ready to rent when demand arrives.
4. Prepare the vehicles by refuelling or charging to the agreed level, cleaning, checking tyres and removing personal items.
5. Document condition with photos and a check-out report at departure and a check-in report on arrival.
6. Hand over correctly: keys, licence discs, tracker details and fuel or charge level should all be recorded.

Planning at this level is part of wider fleet control, and this article on why fleet management matters in logistics explains how the pieces connect.

Documents and Details to Prepare

• a vehicle list with registration numbers, VINs, makes and models
• pickup and delivery branch addresses with contacts and operating hours
• key or fob arrangements at each end
• the policy on licence discs and registration documents
• tracker or telematics status for each vehicle
• confirmation that goods-in-transit insurance covers the vehicles

Should Relocation Be Outsourced or Managed In-House?

Some larger rental groups run their own drivers, while others outsource. Outsourcing shifts capacity risk to the provider and makes it easier to scale up for peak periods, but it means less direct control over scheduling. This discussion of the pros and cons of outsourcing logistics in South Africa is a useful framework for the decision.

Metrics Worth Tracking

• cost per vehicle relocated
• days from pickup to ready-to-rent
• damage claims per 100 vehicles moved
• kilometres avoided compared with driving
• utilisation at receiving branches before and after relocation

Providers that handle both one-off and scheduled moves are covered in this overview of vehicle delivery services in South Africa, including what to expect from booking to handover.

When Driving Between Branches Still Makes Sense

Carrying is not always the right answer. Driving can be the better option when:

• branches are close together and a driver can complete the move in an hour or two
• a shuttle vehicle already runs between the sites, so the return leg costs nothing
• only one or two vehicles need to move and no carrier is scheduled on that route
• the vehicles are older, high-mileage units where extra kilometres matter little

The point is to decide vehicle by vehicle and route by route, rather than defaulting to one method for the whole fleet.

An Illustrative Peak-Season Scenario

Consider a rental operator that needs to move 40 vehicles from Gauteng to Cape Town ahead of December. Driving them means 40 drivers, plus return travel and accommodation for each, and 40 vehicles logging around 1,400 kilometres each. A multi-car carrier moving eight vehicles per trip covers the same volume in about five loads, with a handful of drivers, near-zero added kilometres on the fleet, and one tracked consignment per truck. The exact numbers will differ for every operator, but the structure of the comparison stays the same.

Common Relocation Mistakes

• leaving relocations until demand has already spiked
• sending part-empty carriers because loads were not consolidated
• skipping the check-out report, which makes damage claims hard to prove
• forgetting to record fuel or charge levels, then arguing over them at handover
• ignoring tracker and key handovers until the vehicle is already at the branch

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a car carrier cheaper than driving rental cars between cities?

For batches over long distances it usually is, once driver wages, return travel, added mileage and accident risk are counted against the carrier fee.

How many rental cars can be moved at once?

A multi-car carrier typically moves six to ten passenger vehicles per trip, depending on the carrier configuration and the size of the vehicles.

When should a rental fleet be relocated?

Ahead of demand peaks such as the December holidays, so vehicles are in position and ready to rent when bookings rise.

Can electric rental vehicles be moved on a car carrier?

Yes. They travel on the deck like other vehicles. Check the manufacturer’s guidance on transport mode and charge level before loading.