Agent #1424 ramped up faster than any other partner on this blog. One rental shop, one location, no advertising — and 355 confirmed sales in eight months. It is also the only case on this blog where we can show you the bank transfers, so it is the one to read first if you are sceptical.
If you rent out cars, scooters or bikes, you know the shape of the problem. Margins are thin, competition is local and relentless, and the obvious way to grow — buy more vehicles — costs money you would rather not tie up. The interesting question is whether there is anything left to earn from the customers you already have, without buying anything at all.
Here is one answer, with the numbers attached.
Who this is
A small scooter rental near Colombo, Sri Lanka. One location, not in the capital. No chain, no franchise, no marketing department. They registered as an IDA partner on 31 March 2025 and we measured their results on 4 December 2025 — a little over eight months.
They work as a referral partner: they show the client a QR code, the client orders from us directly, and we pay them a share. They never handle money or set prices.
What eight months produced
All figures below are as of 4 December 2025.
| Referred leads | 637 |
| Confirmed sales | 355 |
| Cancellations | 4 |
| Conversion | 55.7% |
| Cancellation rate (of sales) | 1.1% |
| Paid out to the partner | 1,943,907.42 LKR (about $6,325) |
Normalised, so you can compare it to your own shop: roughly 44 sales a month, earning roughly $18 per sale and about $780 a month.
We can show the payouts because they came out of our bank account: the screenshot below lists every transfer we sent to agent #1424. This is the part we cannot show for our reselling partners, whose income is money their own clients pay them, not money we send.
The number that actually matters
Not the total. The conversion rate.
More than half of everyone this shop pointed at us became a paying customer, and barely one percent of those asked for their money back. That tells you two useful things.
The first is that the effort is not wasted. A 55.7% conversion means the QR code on the counter is not decoration — it converts at a rate most advertising never approaches, because it reaches people at the exact moment the need is real. They are standing there renting a vehicle in a foreign country.
The second is that the clients are satisfied after the fact. Four cancellations out of 355 is what it looks like when people get what they expected. If the offer were a stretch, the refunds would show it.
What was not special about this shop
It is worth being precise about the starting position, because it is unremarkable:
- one location, outside the capital;
- a standard scooter fleet, no luxury vehicles, no recognisable brand;
- no prior experience with referral programs;
- no advertising spend at any point.
What they did have was a steady stream of travellers and a natural moment in the conversation to mention the document. They reached the 43% rate on the ladder in eight months, so every new referral now pays them more than it did in April.
An honest look at the size of it
About $6,300 in eight months is not life-changing money, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. For a small rental shop outside Colombo it is a meaningful addition — margin that arrived without new vehicles, new staff or ad spend, on top of a business that was already running.
Whether it scales for you depends on your traffic, your season, and how consistently the offer gets made. A busier operation in a more touristed spot would plausibly do more. A quieter one will do less. The mechanism is the same either way.
Two ways to earn, one ladder
Partners work with us in one of two ways. They pay differently, and it is worth knowing which one you are reading about before you compare numbers.
Reselling. You buy the document at your discount and charge your client whatever you decide. The difference is yours. You invoice the client; IDA never pays you anything. Your income depends on the price you set, so two resellers with identical volume can earn very different amounts.
Referral. You share a link, a QR code or an embedded form. Your client orders from IDA directly and pays IDA’s price. We then pay you a share of it. You set no prices and handle no money, so the income per order is fixed — and lower than a reseller’s markup usually is.
Both use the same ladder, and your position on it is set by how many orders you have placed:
| Orders | Your rate |
|---|---|
| 1st | 15% |
| 2nd-10th | 30% |
| 11th-30th | 33% |
| 31st-50th | 35% |
| 51st-100th | 37% |
| 101st-300th | 40% |
| 301st-500th | 43% |
| 501st-1,000th | 47% |
| 1,001st onward | 50% |
For a reseller the rate is a discount off the price you pay us. For a referral partner it is the share of the order we pay you. Same percentage, different direction.
One consequence worth stating plainly: reselling pays more per order than referring. In the one case on this blog where we know the reseller’s price, the margin is close to $99 per document; the referral partner in our Sri Lanka case averages roughly $18 per sale. Referring is far less work per order, so the right choice depends on whether your constraint is time or client flow.
Three ways to put it in front of your clients
At the desk. A QR code on the counter, a link in WhatsApp, a line in your confirmation email. The client orders on their own phone. Least work, and it survives staff turnover because nobody has to learn anything.
On your own website. Either a plain referral link, or our widget — an order form embedded in your own page. The client fills it in and pays on your site at IDA’s prices, and the order arrives tagged to you. You generate the snippet yourself in your agent dashboard; one key is tied to one domain, and you choose the language and currency it displays. Some of our partners run comparison and booking sites and place it exactly this way.
You submit for the client. You fill in the application yourself in your dashboard, using the documents the client has already handed you. This is the most work per order and by a wide margin the most reliable: every partner in these case studies with a near-zero cancellation rate works this way. Clean data in, no refunds out.
Partners who run their own systems and sustained volume can also integrate with our API directly. That runs under a separate agreement rather than as a self-service feature — if your volume is there and you want your own booking or CRM system to create orders, write to us and we will talk it through.
How the money actually reaches you
If you resell, there is nothing to wait for: you have already charged the client, and your cost was settled with us at your discounted rate.
If you refer, the money comes from us, and the timing has rules worth knowing before you start:
- An order is credited to you roughly a month after the client pays — not on the day of the sale. Credits are processed in a daily batch.
- You will see each order move through Not paid → Waiting for credit → Waiting for issued in your dashboard, so nothing is hidden from you.
- A refund reverses the credit. This is why the partners with the lowest cancellation rates earn the most predictable income.
- The cookie lasts 30 days. If your client clicks your link today and orders three weeks later, it still counts as yours.
- Payouts go out by PayPal, by bank transfer in 60+ currencies, or in USDT.
One limitation to know in advance, because it surprises people: you are credited for new clients only. If someone already has an IDA account that is not linked to any partner, their next order does not become yours, even if they reach us through your link. In practice this rarely bites — most of the people you refer have never ordered from us before — but you should hear it from us rather than discover it in your dashboard.
Who this fits
This works if you are renting out cars, scooters, bikes or ATVs, running a tour desk or a hotel reception, or in any other way talking to travellers every day before they get behind a wheel.
You do not need a website, extra staff, technical setup or stock. You need a steady flow of clients, one natural moment in your process to mention it, and the discipline to use that moment every time.
Getting started
Registration is at https://idaoffice.org/agent/register/ and takes a few minutes. There is nothing to buy, nothing to install, and no minimum volume.
Once you are in, you have a dashboard with your orders and balance, your referral link and QR code, the widget generator if you want the form on your own site, and your current rate — which moves up the ladder by itself as your order count grows.
What this needs from you is not effort so much as consistency. Every partner in these case studies does the same unremarkable thing: they mention it every time the moment comes up, not only when they remember to.
Evidence
Screenshots from the partner’s dashboard and from our bank account, with personal data removed.
More partner case studies
- A travel and visa agency in Saudi Arabia: 555 documents in four years, without a single cancellation
- A recruiting office in Malta: 720 documents over five and a half years
- A multiservice office in Kentucky: what the program looks like at three orders a month
FAQ
Can a rental business really add revenue without investing anything?
Yes, and that is the whole point of the referral route: no stock, no staff, no setup cost. You share a link or a QR code as part of the rental conversation you are already having.
How much would my rental make?
Take your monthly rentals, estimate how many of those customers are driving abroad on a foreign licence and would actually buy the document through you, and multiply that by roughly $18 if you refer. The shop in this case converts about 44 sales a month out of a single location’s walk-in traffic.
My customers are already standing at my counter. Is a QR code really the best way?
For a rental desk, usually yes — it takes seconds and the customer completes it on their own phone while you finish the paperwork. If you would rather handle it for them, you can submit the application yourself instead and resell at your own price, which pays substantially more per order. See the two models above.
Do I need a licence or a special legal status to do this?
No. You keep operating as the business you already are, acting as an agent or reseller for IDA documents. Local rules on invoicing and tax are yours to follow as with any other service you sell, so if anything is unclear where you are, check with a local accountant or lawyer.
What exactly is the document my client receives?
An International Driving Permit issued by IDA: a translation of the details on your client’s national driving licence into a standard multilingual format. It is carried together with their national licence, never instead of it, and acceptance differs from country to country. Tell your clients this plainly — partners who set expectations correctly are the ones with no cancellations.
What happens if a client asks for a refund?
The order is reversed and so is your credit. This is the single strongest argument for checking applications before submitting them rather than after.
How much can I realistically make?
Multiply your own numbers rather than ours: how many clients a month plausibly need this, times your margin per document. The cases on this blog range from roughly 3 orders a month to roughly 44. What they have in common is not volume — it is that the offer is made every time, as part of the routine.
I have more questions.
Write to us before you register if you would rather. We would much rather answer them now than have you discover something in month three.
Published December 04, 2025 • 9m to read
