Posts Tagged ‘Hertz’

Hertz trying for odor free rental cars

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

In a move to eliminate stinky cars from its rental fleet, Hertz will begin using the Fresh Wave IAQ, a high tech odor eliminator, in all of its cars.

The program is being launched in the US and Canada at major airport locations. In the UK the program gets off the ground at Heathrow and Stansted car rental locations.

Stinky cars make for complaining customers and customer complaints can cost millions in lost car rental revenue. Customers who are put off by bad odors often want replacement vehicles. Worse yet, smelly cars can lead to a loss of good will as customers spread the word to one another. Hertz wants to keep their customers coming back.

OMI Industries manufactures the odor eliminator using natural plant extracts. The product is biodegradable and nontoxic which keeps environmentalists happy. OMI won the Hertz contract primarily because of the “greenness” of its product. Hertz needed assurances that the product would be safe for both customers and employees alike.

It has been reported that the product is so safe that the OMI sales team sprays it into their own eyes during demonstrations.

“We wanted to take a progressive approach toward odor neutralization by finding an innovative partner that provides a green technology to help us meet these demands, and Fresh Wave IAQ was clearly the best choice,” commented Kent Seavey of Hertz.

Thanks to www.greenbiz.com for the above quote. For more information on this story please visit their website.

Positive surprise for car rental companies

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Although many sectors of the travel industry are reporting losses this quarter, it seems that car hire is on the increase once more. The figures from the forecast quarterly profit for companies such as Hertz and Enterprise Rent-A-Car are in and seem to be far above market estimates.

Mark Frissora is the chief executive of Hertz. In a recent interview he announced: “We’re surprised, frankly, at the strength of the travel season. Car-rental demand in the U.S. and Europe has stabilised and we are experiencing better than anticipated summer-peak reservation build in both markets. We are adding fleet as a result.”

One of the reasons for this rise in car hire is that instead of travelling abroad for holidays, people are saving money by hiring cars and exploring the UK and U.S. instead.

“Most of what we see of demand is in the leisure market,” Frissora said. “That market has really improved a lot”.

Hertz have capitalized on their good fortune by purchasing 16,000 new cars in the past six weeks to replace their older cars, which they have now sold.  The company expects car hire figures to continue to rise over the coming months.

Thanks to www.eyefortravel.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

Avis car rental set to reopen in Barrow

Monday, July 20th, 2009

In a major coup against rival Hertz, Avis car rental has secured a three-year contract with BAE Systems valued at £20 million.

In order to service the contract, Avis will reopen the Barrow branch which was shut down last year because of problems involving the Marina Village development. The council needed the land for the development and forced the previous franchise owner off the premises.

The new operation will provide three full-time jobs and three part-time jobs at the Barrow location. Vehicles that will be made available include the Ford Fiesta, the Focus, and the Mondeo.

Avis is currently operating out of a lot in back of the Hertz rental site.  Avis plans to build a brand new building on the site.  Besides servicing BAE systems, plans also call for car hire to be made available to the public at the location.

In addition to the Barrow location being reopened, eight additional Avis stations will be opened in other parts of the UK in order to service what is a national contract.  Barrow intends to rent more than 1600 vehicles over the course of the three years.

“Bringing on 1,600 new Ford vehicles, opening eight new stations and implementing our Avis Preferred programme across 5,000 users in five weeks has been a great result.” said Avis Sales Director, Anthony Ainsworth.

So far, three car hire stations have been opened under the agreement.  Besides Barrow, they are located in Southampton and Leicester.

Thanks to www.nwemail.co.uk for the above quote.  For more information about this article, visit their website.

Car hire on the increase in Spain

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

www.hertz.com

If you’re heading to Spain in the next few months and plan to rent a car, make sure you book in advance. This summer, finding car hire in popular areas might be more difficult than usual.

Victoria Rent a Car have been telling their customers that car hire might be in short supply in areas such as Madrid, Murcia and Alicante. (more…)