One thing that I believe remains a constant in running a rental car business is the importance of AC

What do you know now that you wish you knew 25 years ago? Two weeks ago we created a poll with this question in our ongoing commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Auto Rental News . You can see a compendium of results in the Mar/Apr issue of the magazine.
If you have any tenure in the car rental industry then you know Ken, whose career in car rental scans more than five decades as a Thrifty licensee, association board member, industry award winner and dispenser of sage advice.
Chris that s a tough question for me because by 1987, I already knew all there was to know about car rental. We knew calculators were much better than adding machines, 800 numbers were so cool, automatic car washes were too expensive for small operators and Japanese manufacturers wouldn't cut deals with independents or small franchisees.
And most importantly, get involved with trade/training associations pacific beach hotel hawaii like ACRA (American Car Rental Association), where networking, making friends and hearing from expert speakers will provide the best education available, pacific beach hotel hawaii not to mention speaking with a common voice to government pacific beach hotel hawaii issues. We all owe a debt of gratitude to folks like Fred Mudgett and Michael LaPlaca founding pioneer predecessors of the present ACRA.
In the early 80s, probably less than 20% of the population had ever rented a car. Much of our growth can be attributed to reaching brand-new customers. Continuing future growth will depend on making car rental a larger part of the whole transportation system.
One of the major difficulties in car rental is that too many variables are beyond a small operator's control. There is not much one can do if a couple major catastrophes collapse the insurance market. What happens if interest rates go to 18%? Have you been there when a manufacturer didn't want to sell you new cars? And so on.
Earlier, I suggested buying land only if it was cheap. Now, I would advise to pace your growth to enable you to buy quality real estate. Ask most any retired car dealer and they will tell you that they made a decent pacific beach hotel hawaii living selling cars but they retired on their real estate.
In the late 60s/early 70s there were basically pacific beach hotel hawaii three players in car rental. Rates were very expensive pacific beach hotel hawaii partially due to airports skimming 10% off the top line. The big three and the airports were cozy with the near monopoly. Rates and profits were high. This created unintended consequences of allowing Budget, Dollar-a-Day, Thrifty, Alamo and later Enterprise, etc. to slip in under the radar. The race for market share was on. Rates dropped, and (surprise, surprise) volume grew and grew. All the car manufacturers figured out they could balance their assembly lines production by selling to (or even subsidizing) car rental firms.
In order to negotiate the best fleet deals, and to minimize operating and fleet costs, mergers pacific beach hotel hawaii began making sense. pacific beach hotel hawaii So did buying back franchises. That consolidating movement has brought us full circle. Today, again the pendulum has swung back to the Big Three.
One thing that I believe remains a constant in running pacific beach hotel hawaii a rental car business pacific beach hotel hawaii is the importance of ACRA in keeping current on trends, programs and just plain networking with old friends and meeting new friends. If you are as lucky as me, when you get old, you will find some of your dearest friends are ones you met at an ACRA meeting.
Ken, as always, hit all the high points of the past and present. I have always said that the associates and the contacts I have made through ACRA are some of the best people I have been given the privilege to call friends, Ken Elder is high on my list.
Chris Brown is the executive editor of Business pacific beach hotel hawaii Fleet Magazine and Auto Rental News for Bobit Business Media. Through these publications, online newsletters, trade events and associations, Chris covers all aspects of the fleet world, including fleet management, manufacturer fleet activities, the fleet leasing industry, vehicle remarketing, rental industry news, car rental taxation and legislation as well as automotive environmental initiatives and trends.