Anuário Brasileiro do Setor de Locação de Veículos | 2021

21 2021 Anuário Brasileiro do Setor de Locação de Veículos Brazilian Vehicle Rental Sector Yearbook government’s assistance program.” In the South, in April and May 2020, encouragement came from corporate customers. “In rent to individuals, there was an 80% retraction,” says Eduardo Andreotti Ignácio, director of ABLA in Santa Catarina. “Even so, the rate of layoffs in rental companies in Santa Catarina remained low, with most choosing to demobilize vehicles to obtain the necessary resources at that time.” In the Southeast, Luiz Felipe Coser Nemer, director of ABLA in Espírito Santo, says the main impact of the pandemic has been a shortage of vehicles in the market. In 2020, he says car rental for leisure tourism was down, contracts with banks had to be renegotiated and it was hard to get new credit for working capital. In São Paulo, director Daniel Ribeiro Huss confirms that the sector felt the impact of the sudden change, but recovery of the business was rapid. “In the second half, demand was up from both private individuals, who are reluctant to buy their own cars, and from corporate clients and app drivers.” Without significant cancellations of contracts and avoiding layoffs, obstacles did arise when it came to renegotiating debt with banks and matching credit requirements. It is worth remembering that the leasing and rental sector in São Paulo faced aggravating factors, such as the end of the 50% discount on road tax, in addition to increased ICMS tax on used cars. In Paraná, leasing and rental com- panies had support from agribusiness customers, a sector that did not shut- down activity and continued to de- mand leased and rented vehicles in the state. Cláudio Rigolino, director of ABLA, explains that in accounting for almost 34% of Paraná’s GDP, agribusi- ness contributed to the sector’s num- bers not falling drastically. “Fleet out- sourcing suffered less, but requests for renegotiation of contracts, revision of lease values, a lack of monthly fees and more elastic payment deadlines were common.” Adriano Donzelli, director of ABLA in Goiás, says fleet outsourcing, responsible for 75% of the business in the region, fell by no more than 20% at the beginning of the pandemic. In rental, the effect was drastic. “The tourism segment, and app drivers, were at zero.” According to Donzelli, in September 2020 demand from app drivers rose to higher than before the pandemic. In addition, fleet outsourcing increased to serve agribusiness and companies in the areas of sanitation and electricity. In Minas Gerais, the losses were significant in car rentals, according to the director of ABLA in the state, Leonardo Soares. On the other hand, in corporate leasing the impact was minimized, with fleets outsourced by mining, agribusiness and construction businesses. “In Belo Horizonte, our business was considered essential in the first lifting of restrictions and we worked in the office, not from home.” He also mentions dissatisfaction among entrepreneurs in the sector over the difficulty in obtaining new credit. “The solution was to renegotiate pay- ments with the banks and adopt mea- sures to protect cash, including cutting expenses,” concludes Soares.