Car Rental

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Rent-a-car, Car Hire

Category

Transportation, Transport Facilities, Travel, Tourism

Message / Function

To indicate the location of car rental/hire facilities

	Source	Description
	France IISR	Hand holding chain with car attached, accepting hand below
1)	ICAO	Hand with key, side view of car
2)	ÖNORM A 3011	Hand with key, front view of car
	UIC 413	Hand in outline with key, front view of car
2)	ON Testdesign	Hand with key, front view of car
	BS 8501:2002	Side view of car with currency sign above
	Parks Canada modified	Side view of car with clock and currency sign above
	Parks Canada	Front view of car with clock above
	Eco-Mo Foundation	Front view of car next to vertical line with letter R at top
	D/FW	Key with tag showing side view of a car
1)	S/TA	Side view of car with key and tag above
	BAA	Front view of car with key and keyring on the right
	AIGA	Front view of car with key above
	KSA	Front view of car with key above
2)	UIC 413 b	Front view of car with key above
	Fiori R	Front view of car with key above
1)	Port	Front view of car with key above
	ISO 7001	Front view of car with key above
1)	O'72	Front view of car with key on the right
	Unknown	Side view of car with key above
	ZRH 1978	Side view of car with key in outline above

Discussion

The collection shown above is only a small selection of the wide variety of pictograms used all over the world to indicate the location of car rental/hire facilities. It gives a good impression of the diversity of variants and image contents available. No single stereotype seems to exist to express this message.

Studies from several countries present research covering many pictogram variants in use:

Among the pictograms for Car Rental studied by Mackett-Stout & Dewar (1981, marked with 1)), the variants from Seattle-Tacoma Airport (S/TA) and the one of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) performed best, but non reached good comprehension scores.

An examination of larger sets of variants in Appropriateness Ranking Tests conducted in Austria (Brugger, 1984) and Sweden (Gärling, 1985) showed that pictograms like the O'72 variant were mostly judged as inappropriate. Variants based on a hand offering a key in combination with a side or front view of a car like the solutions of ICAO, ÖNORM and UIC reached top rankings. The pictogram from Seattle-Tacoma Airport (S/TA) performed well, too. Pictograms showing a front view of a car with a key above were ranked in the middle. These outcomes confirm the results reported by Mackett-Stout & Dewar (1981). In a later study based on the Comprehensibility Estimation method the results described above also were confirmed (Brugger, 1995).

More recent concepts are the one shown in the example from the British Standard BS 8501:2002, which uses a currency sign to signify the rental aspect, and the variant of the Eco-Mo Foundation. The latter was examined in a Japanese study to propose domestically unified graphical symbols based on scientific methods: this pictogram variant seems to be poorly understood with a comprehension score of 15.3 (Eco-Mo Foundation, 2001). It also should be noted that a similar concept based on a currency sign as followed by the British Standard, is used in other regions like in Québec, for example, to indicate to users a toll road, a highway facility that requires payment of a toll.

The variants marked with 2) were examined in a Comprehension Test conducted in Austria (Brugger, 1995) and non of them reached good comprehension rates. Wrong responses were related to parking, especially Guarded Parking, as well as Parking Garage. Missing information about the driving experience of the subjects who participated in this study is a serious shortcoming. When Fiori (2008) examined a map symbol similar to the pictogram labeled Fiori R in the table above, only 43.0 % of the answers were classified as correct. Among the 42.6 % wrong responses were answers like Key Ring, Workshop, Garage, and Parking. So misinterpreteations were similar to the ones reported in the Austrian study (Brugger, 1995).

In a Matching Test with a set of 29 symbols (Zwaga & Boersema, 1983) the variant from the Dutch Railways, an older version showing a hand with key and a side view of a car and a small size text 'rent a car', reached 75 % correct responses. While young respondents almost never ignored the text, resulting in 92 % accurate answers, a significant amount of confusions happened among the older sample with 57.5 % correct responses only.

According to the Parks Canada Identity Program Standards and Guidelines (2007) the pictogram labeled Parks Canada did not pass the required comprehension rate of 60% or higher, so this variant is marked as 'Retired – failed comprehension testing'. It should be noted that the Parks Canada pictograms for Bicycle, Canoe, and Kayak Rental passed the required comprehensibility limits. These pictograms not only show a clock as rental symbol, but also a $ sign. Therefore we added a modified variant following this scheme, labeled as Parks Canada modified.

Recommendation

We suggest to conduct further studies (Comprehension Test or Matching Test) comparing the variants France IISR, BS 8501:2002, and Parks Canada modified with the AIGA and the ÖNORM A 3011 concepts, all including sufficient context information and data about driving experience, so a clear decision concerning a specific recommendation can be reached.

Tests of pictograms of referent Car Rental

Brugger, Ch. (1984): Reihungstest 1984. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated 1984-10-15, Vienna.

Brugger: Ch. (1995): ÖBB / ON Testserie 1995, Teil 2 Verständnisschätzungen nach ISO 9186. Report to ÖBB GD 02 (Austrian Railways) dated February 1995, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1995): Verständnistest 1995 - Im Auftrag der ÖBB und des ON - FNA 133. Vienna, November 1995.

Eco-Mo Foundation (2001): Test data of public information symbols in Japan - Procedure for the testing of public information symbols by the Study Committee. ISO: ISO/TC 145/SC 1 N 329.

Fiori, S. R. (2008): Mapas para o turismo e a interatividade - proposta teórica e prática. Tese de Doutorado - Depto. de Geografia, FFLCH-USP.

Gärling, T. (1985): ISO Appropriateness Ranking Test 1985 - Redovisning av genomförande. Report to the Swedish Standards Institute dated 1985-07-24.

Mackett-Stout, J. & Dewar, R.L. (1981): Evaluation of Public Information Signs. Human Factors, 1981, 23, 139-151.

Parks Canada (2007): Parks Canada Identity Program: Exterior Signage; Standards and Guidelines.

Zwaga, H.J. & Boersema, T. (1983): Evaluation of a set of graphic symbols. Applied Ergonomics, 14, 1, 43-54.