The mobility and car rental sector faces a double pressure: offering a seamless customer experience while protecting high-value assets from fraud.
At rental counters—especially in high-traffic locations like airports or train stations—every minute counts. Yet the identity verification process, in many cases, remains stuck in the past: manual, costly, and highly vulnerable.
A Silent Risk with a Real Cost
Visual verification of identity documents such as ID cards, passports, or driver’s licenses is still a common practice—but also a critical weak point. Agents inspect documents with the naked eye and manually transcribe data into the system.
This process not only consumes time—around four minutes per customer in offices that handle tens of thousands of people each year—but also relies on human judgment to spot increasingly sophisticated frauds.
A study by Louisiana State University, cited by Xataka, found that manual facial comparison in ID checks produces error rates between 10% and 20% even under ideal conditions. In real-world environments—with queues, fatigue, and time pressure—those margins are even higher.
A global leader in the car rental industry experienced the direct impact of this blind spot: a single identity fraud case could result in the loss of a vehicle worth over €20,000, with little chance of recovery or full insurance coverage.
The Challenge: Efficiency, Security, and Customer Satisfaction
The issue wasn’t just financial.
- Operational inefficiency: Agents spent a significant part of their day on repetitive, low-value tasks. In industries with similar registration processes, such as hospitality, the average operational cost per user exceeds €2, highlighting the massive cumulative impact that manual verification can have in high-volume businesses.
- Fraud risk: Manual verification simply cannot detect forged or stolen documents.
- Customer friction: Long waits led to frustration and dissatisfaction at a key stage of the service experience.
Together, these factors directly affected profitability, brand reputation, and customer loyalty.
The Solution: Digital Identity in 30 Seconds
The answer came through automation and AI.
By integrating optical character recognition (OCR) and advanced document validation, the verification process became fully digital. Now, agents only need to scan the document: the system automatically extracts data, validates authenticity, and detects any sign of fraud or tampering within seconds.
The results were immediate: a 90% reduction in verification time, dropping from four minutes to just 30 seconds per customer. This improvement freed up thousands of work hours annually and virtually eliminated the risk of human error.
The Results: More Security, Lower Costs, Better Experience
By digitalizing identity verification, the benefits became visible within the first year:
- Complete prevention of document fraud
- Significant savings in labor costs
- Improved customer satisfaction and perception of innovation
- Full compliance with AML and KYC regulations
The combination of these factors delivered a return on investment of over 200% in just 12 months, proving that automation not only protects the business—it also makes it more efficient and competitive.
A Sector-Wide Challenge
Manual identity verification is a structural issue that affects the entire mobility ecosystem—from car rental to car-sharing and moto-sharing. Every company faces the same equation: balancing security and user experience.
Today, technology makes it possible to achieve both. Automating identity verification not only prevents high-value losses but also turns a point of friction into a competitive advantage, with a direct impact on profitability and customer trust.
