Existing Online Car Rental Systems

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

3.1 INTRODUCTION

"Primary research is the process of collecting data from people directly connected to the topic being discussed." It involves use of techniques and methods in order to collect data from different categories of people. It is necessary to collect data from these groups of people in order to get accurate information about the system to be built. The reason behind it is to know as much as possible about the liking of the users going to use the system and the precise requirements. Primary research is conducted in order to gather information for further analysis.

In this research, questionnaire has been used to interview the public going to use ORAC and interviews were conducted with experts of the field (businessman and IT consultants).

3.2 QUESTIONNAIRE/SURVEY

A survey is a means of gathering data when the amount of responses required is big and the questions to be asked are simple and direct. Since the questionnaire was meant for the public, they were kept short and concise, to facilitate the process.

3.2.1 Customer Opinion Survey

The Customer Opinion Survey conducted contained the following questions:

SECTION A: General Information

Which category do you belong to?

Do you have a driving license (local/international)?

Do you/your friends/colleagues/family often rent cars? If yes, which way?

SECTION B: Existing Online Car Rental Systems

Please view and rate generally some car rental websites you have come across on the following characteristics

Interface Design

Features

Security

Flexibility

SECTION C: An Online Car Rental System for a New Safer Generation

Do you think that by asking users to provide their license copies during booking reduce the risk of accidents to a great deal?

Does it eliminate risk of spams if users are asked to verify their hand phone numbers through SMS?

If a secured payment gateway, such as Paypal is provided to you with authentication, would you still hesitate to make transaction for payment online?

If you are given a list of advanced technologies that are commonly used nowadays, which ones would you opt for in maximising both features and security?

SECTION D: Personal Opinion

If you have any suggestion/idea that would help, you may propose:

Please rate the survey on a scale of 1(lowest quality) to 5(highest quality).

3.2.2 Objectives of Questions:

The objective of Section A is to get to know the background of the people who use the internet often for booking purposes. If a person does not have knowledge on the subject area that is being researched upon, the results won’t be accurate.

The objective of Section B is to find out more about users’ perspectives on current car rental websites. It helps to have an idea of how the current websites are different from the users’ choice.

Section C is aimed at finding out how the current Internet users accept technologies being introduced and what are their insecurities about the new technologies. The last question of Section C is to find the rate of acceptability of technologies in the current society.

Section D is more related towards user views and opinions and what they wish to see more in a car rental websites and whether the survey was understanding and helpful to them.

3.3 INTERVIEW

Interviews are normally conducted with experts in the subject area, both technical and domain in order to gather more information about the technologies and the domain requirements. Interviews are required to understand clearly the requirements from the domain experts so that the system can be designed properly, with the right specifications.

For the main interviews, three persons were chosen to give more details on the system. The domain experts interviewed were the President of "SAM Motors" company named Mr. Sam Thise, a specialist in car selling and renting and the manager of Malaysian Car Rental Company, Mr Ng Kien who chose to keep the company name unstated due to the fact that the company is a recognised brand in Malaysia. The Technical Expert who was interviewed is named Mr. Amirsh Annia, certified Masters in Computer Applications. Video Conferencing Interviews were carried out with Mr Sam Thise and Mr Amrish Annia while the Manager of The Malaysian Car Rental Company was met at the site of the car rental company on appointment.

3.3.1 Interview Questions

Questions for Mr Sam Thise:

What are the basic functions for a Car Rental System?

What are the normal technologies used in your car rental website?

Based on the actual technology trend, which features do you want to integrate in the system?

What features do you think will help you enhance you and your clients’ security?

Questions for Mr Ng Kien:

What are the problems often encountered with the clients who pre book cars online before coming to pick up?

What do you think will help you reduce this problem?

Based on you current experience, about how many per cent of people has rented cars without license?

Do you have any suggestion for avoiding this problem?

Any specific complaint lodged by any client for the functioning of the actual website?

Questions for Mr. Amrish Annia:

What are the basic factors to consider before choosing the appropriate programming language, database and architecture for the website?

In your opinion, which one out of PHP and C# would you suggest to use?

Using RAD Methodology, will PHP be a proper programming language to use?

What are the other suggestions you would like to recommend in building up the system?

3.2.1 Objectives of Questions

The questions for Mr. Sam Thise have been carefully chosen, as he already owns a website and it is not ethical to criticise an existing system from a successful company. The aim was to gather as much as possible information about the functioning of a car rental system so that the website has the precise information required. Secondly the aim was to be able to get the personal opinion of the owner on the website he is hosting about the security and features. Questions about current problems haven’t been asked to him because he is not an on-site person and cannot really know what is happening there every day.

Since Mr. Ng Kien is more on site as a Manager of company, he was in a better position to be asked questions about current problems as he has to address all the problems faced. This is why all the problems regarding the actual website were asked to him. The aim was to gather more information on the gaps that can’t be fulfilled by the current websites.

The technical questions to Mr. Amrish was to find out the most stable platform in order to set up the system and to understand the complexities of each of the platforms so that no obstacle is encountered in the middle fo the project.

3.4 SUMMARY

This chapter was based on the survey and interviews conducted with general public and experts, to get a better and clearer view of the system and the processes involved. Based on this information acquired, the developer should be able to finalise requirements and start design of the system. The next chapter will analyse the data gathered from the questionnaires and the survey combined with the requirements elaborated.

CHAPTER 4.0: ANALYSIS

4.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS

The Online Customer Opinion Survey obtained 95 responses which are analysed in the following sections.

4.1.1 Section A

Question 1

Figure : Number of people who took part in the survey

(Source: Author)

Analysis: The survey consisted of 23% tourists, 23% Malaysians and 51% of international students as most of the population who rent cars in Malaysia, are international students.

Question 2

Figure : Number of people with driving license (Source: Author)

Analysis: This question reveals that 72% of people have driving license among the 95 persons who filled up the survey.

Question 3

Figure : Number of people who have rented cars in the traditional way or online

(Source: Author)

Analysis: From this question, it can be seen that from 95 persons who participated, 69% have rented a car in Malaysia and only 12% of the latter have ever rented a car from a website. This shows the disinterest of the people who do not wish to rent cars from online websites.

4.1.2 Section B

Question 4

Figure : Average rating for actual car rental websites

(Source: Author)

Analysis: This question is aimed to find out what do the users think about the features of existing car rental websites of Malaysia. It has been found that the average rating was on average 2.84 out of 5 for all the aspects of the websites. People do not really like the existing features of the websites being at their service. This means that interface, features security and flexibility of the websites should be enhanced to their likings.

4.1.3 Section C

Questixcon 5

Figure : Number of persons who prefer to provide a copy of valid license/passport

(Source: Author)

Analysis: 93% of the respondents agree that passport/IC and license copies should be provided at the time of booking itself so as to prevent frauds. Most of the reasons stated by the respondents were related to the safety and security of the general public. Therefore, the document upload feature for the license and passport upload will be integrated.

Question 6

Figure : Number of people who are willing to provide their phone numbers

(Source: Author)

Analysis: Since 82% agree that phone numbers of registered customers should be verified, the SMS Verification code feature will be included in the software. For the 12% who disagreed, the main reasons stated were the spam messages and the advertising calls who they want to eliminate. In order to remove this insecurity, the users will be informed that all their credentials will not be disclosed.

Question 7

Figure : Number of People who agree to make payment online

(Source: Author)

Analysis: 92% of the respondents agree that a secure online payment system if integrated, will be accepted by the population. It is not shocking to know that hacking is very common in Malaysia and in order to stay safe, the people prefer not to give away their credentials. With a secure online payment system, this will remove the fear of the people to rent cars online.

Question 8

Figure : Percentage of acceptance of different technologies to be considered

(Source: Author)

Analysis: This question aimed at finding out the percentage acceptance of technologies to be integrated in the system. Since more than 50% of the people have accepted the technologies, it can be said that these are wanted features for a proper car rental system.

4.1.4 Section D

Figure : Survey Rating (Source: Author)

Analysis: According to the suggestions given, the users want a simple understanding user interface which will help them to book cars as quickly as possible and they want to be able to book cars within a delay of two hours before receiving the car. This will be implemented in the system by the use of real time notification for booking on the spot. The survey rating got an average of 4.2 starts out of 5, which means that the people like the idea of having a new generation of online car rental system.

4.2 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS

4.2.1 Interview with Mr Sam Thise

The interview with Mr. Sam Thise was carried out via video conferencing, where he was answering all the questions. Mr. Sam clearly stated that in order for a car rental system to work, the only information required is the details of the vehicles, customers and staff. One of the functions of the car rental system is to remind the staff of the cars to be rented each day so that the vehicle is already prepared before delivered to the client. Mr Sam’s business doesn’t consist of delivery locations and the customers have to come and pick up the car from the showroom itself. There, the papers of the customers are checked before handing the vehicle to them.

According to Mr. Sam, his website doesn’t have any advanced features as only reservation can be made and payment is made at the showroom. He also mentioned that he finds it safer this way because it is not easy to know whether customers have valid licenses and are not crimimals.

During the discussion, Mr. Sam also stated that he would not mind changing to more advanced technologies if the system proposed to him would meet the gaps that actual websites aren’t able to meet. This would be security in a payment system and verification of user’s authenticity.

When the Document Upload feature was proposed to Mr. Sam as a measure for authenticating a user, he suggested that it is a very good idea to verify the details of the license and passport copy via such a feature.

Analysis: Mr Sam wasn’t too much knowledgeable about the technologies, unless explained to him but provided enough information for the processes of the system. It was a pleasant discussion where it was clear that existing websites do lack features to enhance and tighten security for the company and customers.

4.2.2 Interview with Mr. Ng Kien

During the interview, on the site of the showroom where customers have to come and collect their booked cars, Mr Ng Kien talked about how the day a person came to fetch the car he reserved two days before and when he was asked for the license papers, he didn’t have any and a big problem was created in the office and the police had to come to solve the issue. He also mentioned that it is a must to check for the validation

Of the clients’ papers from the website itself before any trouble is caused to the company staff, which endanger also the staff of the company.

Second thing mentioned by the manager, was that when customers were contacted on phone many times, the numbers were not reachable, and this is often happening that the user reserves a car online but never comes to collect the car. This is a loss for the company as the car can’t be rented out to any other customer for that period of time.

When Mr Ng Kien was asked for his suggestion, he immediately said if a safe payment system is integrated online, the company will not face any loss even iff the customers do not turn up to collect the vehicle. Moreover, he was really keen to know if a feature to authenticate the user’s identity could be integrated and a blacklist option for those who are not eligible for booking any car.

The interview with Mr Ng Kien was very interesting as a lot of information was gathered and he was very knowledgeable about the system.

Analysis: Mr Ng Kien, on the contrary of Mr Sam, provided more details on the system lacking and the problems encountered while using the actual website for the company he works. It also showed the need of integrating the new technologies for increasing the security level of the actual system. He also promised to remain in contact during the development in order to provide any domain help.

4.2.3 Interview with Mr Amrish Annia

Mr Amrish’s interview was conducted through video conferencing, whereby he shared his view as an expert in the field of web applications. Firstly, Mr Amrish clearly explained that in order to build the website, it is compulsory to understand the level of skills that the developer has in order to do the system. He also suggested that for a fresh programmer, it is better to use an open source software which provides help at every stage of development.

Under the current situation, Mr. Amrish suggested to use PHP as a programming language as it is one of the most popular open source software being used for websites. This is because PHP is secure, easier to understand, simpler and online resources and tutorials are available in case help is required.

Mr Amrish also mentioned that RAD is a good methodology to work with PHP. The Model View Controller (MVC) Pattern that has recently been introduces has simplified PHP to such an extent that coding is very simple in PHP.

The other suggestions given by Mr. Amrish were to have a simple but attractive interface with not much of information and a pleasant welcome page for users of the system.

Analysis: The discussion with Mr. Amrish was purely technical and all his advices will be used during the course of his project and he also extended a helping hand in explaining the difficult programming concepts if there is the need. After talking to Mr Amrish, the programming language to be used was finalised to PHP and the database on MySQL Workbench.

4.3 SUMMARY

This chapter is about analysing the data gathered through surveys and interviews which drives to the conclusion that the technologies to be integrated have been warmly welcomed by the users of the systems and it has been agreed upon that this car rental software will bring a big change to the car rental industry while covering up the gaps of the similar systems. The next chapter introduces the design of the new system and the diagrams associated to the methodology.