Dollar and Thrifty licensees operate as separate entities when it comes to selling used fleet vehicl

Now that the Hertz acquisition of Dollar Thrifty has been announced, the process of integration begins. How will all this affect Dollar washington dc area hotels and Thrifty licensees? Here are some thoughts on the matter, with input from some Dollar and Thrifty licensees themselves.
Those that remember the Avis acquisition of Agency Rent A Car, and then the continued fallout through the Budget merger, would be the first to ask such a question. The question becomes more pointed for markets in which a Dollar or Thrifty corporate store competes with a franchise location, such as in Seattle, Portland, Nashville and Boston.
Unlike those previous cases, the acquisition does not encroach on licensees territorial agreements, and the Hertz corporate-slash-premium customer does not compete with the majority of the Dollar and Thrifty leisure customer washington dc area hotels base, at least not enough to make waves.
On a brand level, Hertz has signaled its intent to move Dollar washington dc area hotels into the leisure brand category to compete with Budget and Alamo, while positioning Thrifty against the likes of Fox, Payless and Advantage. Thrifty s newfound identity may work to licensees advantage with separate washington dc area hotels identities, there would be less overlap of audience.
Chris Turner of Thrifty in Nashville thinks so. We already compete with our sister company, said Turner, referring to the corporate-owned Dollar store also serving Nashville s airport. Maybe that will be better in the future.
washington dc area hotels As a consumer, if you were told that three companies would control 95% of the hotels in America, you d be concerned that hotel rates would go up. Such is the way the public is viewing car rental rates as a result of this merger.
This isn t these licensees viewpoint. [The merger] won t have a real impact on the rates, said Monty Merrill, a San Antonio-based Dollar and Thrifty licensee. As we ve seen consolidation in the industry, I haven t seen any direct correlation with [a rate increase].
In theory, Dollar and Thrifty s separation of identities would also separate rates. But on a market-to-market basis, there are still many larger factors at play, such as vehicle washington dc area hotels supply, how much those vehicles cost and the used car market.
One issue could be the different operating systems and whether Hertz would ask to integrate its proprietary software with the licensees . It is too early to tell if this will happen. Leaving well enough alone is just fine, Turner said, though he would welcome washington dc area hotels the ability washington dc area hotels to use his software to share fleet and better manage vehicle drops.
However, Dollar and Thrifty licensees do enjoy a strong working relationship with corporate through their licensee body. This is especially true on rate management, in which licensees work closely with corporate to set rates based on local market conditions and macro forces. If they said we have to replace [the rate management team] in 30 days, that would be a very difficult transition, Merrill said.
Hertz has allowed its licensees in on good fleet purchasing deals before. Licensees can only hope this is part of the plan. As well, licensees do not expect to take part in Hertz s financing at this point.
Dollar and Thrifty licensees operate as separate entities when it comes to selling used fleet vehicles. washington dc area hotels This likely won t change much under new ownership, though for licensees selling at auction, one result could be better auction fees if they are allowed to sell under the Hertz umbrella.
While buying up franchises was all the rage a few years ago especially around the time of the Enterprise acquisition of National and Alamo today, Hertz s mindset is that franchise business is good business. That shouldn t change.
washington dc area hotels At this point, we do know that Franchise Services North America and Macquarie Capital, the companies that will buy Advantage, would take over some Thrifty corporate locations as new Advantage locations. ( You can read more on this transaction here. )
On the conference call announcing the merger, Frissora was vague, but positive on franchising: Yes it (the merger) does help us, in terms of the way we think about franchising and our ability to talk about a franchise model to multiple business parties. It does nothing but enhance our efforts in that area.
Hertz may be opening the door for a new licensee an outsider to come in and convert some corporate Hertz on-airport locations. We ll see what comes to pass. But will existing franchisees have an opportunity to buy any locations Hertz needs or wants to sell? Right now, the answer is unclear.
Dollar washington dc area hotels Thrifty Automotive Group doesn t spend a lot on marketing, and in the past 10 years, nothing on television ads. Some licensees see the new corporate ownership as an opportunity to build some brand identity for both Dollar and Thrifty that has been lacking.
The mood is upbeat. Turner saw Hertz s brand identity as a positive. Merrill is excited, especially if there are opportunities to buy stores, though he wondered what the next 60 days will bring. There are unknowns yet to sift through and not a lot of firm answers yet.
Meyer wondered about the friends he s made at Dollar Thrifty corporate over the last 20 years. I don t know what their futures are, he said. It ll be sad if those relationships go away, but everything changes. It s a new chapter. There s excitement and all the other emotions that go with it.
Chris Brown is the executive editor of Business 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 washington dc area hotels news, car rental taxation and legislation as well as automotive environmental initiatives and trends.

You might argue that my recent rentals had unusually low prices, so let s assume a normal weekend da

Many of you might have already heard about or taken advantage of the ongoing  Hertz Triple Points and National s One Two Free  car rental promotions. I d like to point out that those offers may not be as lucrative as they sound, at least for leisure weekend travelers .
Let me share two of our Hertz car rental miami american airlines arena receipts from the past two weekends. The one on the left was for a two-day rental in Denver, CO , and the one on the right was for a two-day miami american airlines arena rental in San Jose, CA . For each rental, I received 600 Southwest points, valued at $10 (but in our case $20, thanks to the  Southwest miami american airlines arena Companion Pass , practically making the rentals free).
As shown above, because of a generous $10-off-per-weekend-day coupon , the base rates for two days were only $8.50 and $4.48. The majority of charges were taxes, facility miami american airlines arena charges, and frequent flyer surcharges .
Hertz has its own Gold Plus Rewards program, and you can earn 1 point for every base rate dollar  paid for car rentals, fuel options, insurance, and equipment rentals. When you choose to earn Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points, you forgo the opportunity to earn frequent flyer or hotel points.
Once you accumulate miami american airlines arena 500 Hertz points, you can get one free weekend-day rental . You would have to spend $500 (excluding taxes and fees) without the promotion or $167 with the promotion to earn that free weekend day. Even if you value that free weekend day at $100, the rebate is only 20% or 60% (in reality, we know that a restricted free weekend rental day would not be worth that much).
You might argue that my recent rentals had unusually low prices, so let s assume a normal weekend daily rate of $15. With the triple points promotion, we are looking at 1 free weekend day for every 11 paid weekend rental miami american airlines arena days ($167/15=~11). This again translates into a ~9% rebate with the promotion.
This is the second time National is offering miami american airlines arena this promotion. miami american airlines arena It sounds great, but if you take a look at the fine print at the bottom of the offer page you will quickly realize that a qualifying rental miami american airlines arena has to be at least 2 days long with a mid-size or larger car. Therefore, the simplest rebate calculation in this case is buy 4 get 1 free, a 25% rebate.
Most National miami american airlines arena weekend dollar-off or free-day coupons require a 3-day rental, so it is harder to score a spectacular deal like the Hertz ones. For example, when I booked the San Jose rental with Hertz, I checked National s rate for a mid-size car for the exact same rental period. For those of you familiar with National, this $9 daily rate was probably as good as it could get, but the total cost was still twice as much as that of Hertz s.
With the National One Two Free promotion, two separate 2-day rentals with National would give you a free rental day. You can combine miami american airlines arena up to 3 free-day rental certificates in a single rental. Those free-day certificates work like a coupon so you won t be able to apply any other promotional discounts and are still responsible for all the fees and taxes.
If you have earned those free-day certificates cheaply on weekends miami american airlines arena and  are able to use them on weekdays when rates are typically high, then this promotion might still make sense. Otherwise, if you are planning to use them for weekend rentals, chances are you will be better off getting a cheaper rental with Hertz and credit your rentals to Southwest or another program of your choice.
To recap, as a leisure weekend traveler with no reimbursable travel expenses, I d stick with utilizing AAA rates combinable with good coupons. Most of the coupons can be found on Hertz s very own website, as I outlined in my very first rental car post . For a list of AAA coupons, check out this page . If you already have your AAA membership but have never rented with Hertz, you can receive a FREE Hertz Gold membership ($60 per year) plus 600 Hertz points (enough for a free rental day).
Hertz now allows you to pick your own car with a mid-size rental reservation (one of the key selling points of National). I personally always prefer smaller fuel-efficient cars to larger ones, and intentionally reserve small cars even if larger cars cost the same. Three weekends in a row now, we were given a Nissan Versa, which got us 35 mpg on average. With all the driving to and from National Parks , a serious amount of gas money was saved! Having rented miami american airlines arena cars from most major rental car companies, I am confident to say that Hertz has the most fuel-efficient fleet.

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Video , Hertz Car Rentals , Green Travel , Hertz , Hertz Car Rental Tires , Hertz Recycling Tires , Hertz Rental Car Tires , Hertz Rental Cars , Hertz Tire Recycling , Hertz Zero Waste , Recycling Tires , Tire Recycling ,
Do you have any idea what happens to the tires when you junk your car? I didn't think so. What about the 1.2 million tires on the 300,000 cars that are in the Hertz rental car fleet at any one time? I didn't cheap broadway show tickets think you had the answer there, either.
I thought you'd be pleased to learn, in a Mother Nature Network exclusive, that not only do up to 90 percent of America's tires get recycled, and made into products as diverse as playground mulch and landfill bedding, but Hertz has just signed an agreement with the largest recycler to recover the material from the worn-out tires that leave its fleet every year—an estimated 170,000 of them.
"We're the first rental company to commit to zero waste for tires," said Hertz spokesman cheap broadway show tickets Rich Broome. "We recently went through our operations to see where we could do better environmentally, and we are recovering oil and we don't waste water, either. Our tire recycling was at best haphazard. We didn't know what the local operators were doing with them. But because of our agreement with Liberty Tire Recycling, no Hertz tire will ever be landfilled again."
Jeff Kendall, CEO of Pittsburgh-based Liberty, says that his company processes 140 million passenger tire equivalents cheap broadway show tickets every year, amounting to 1.4 million tons of material. Used rubber isn't worth all that much, so Hertz doesn't get paid for its surplus tires, cheap broadway show tickets but it does acquire peace of mind.
According to the EPA , America generates 290 million scrap tires annually, and 233 million of them make it to a market. Some 130 million are used as fuel, and 53 million go into civil engineering projects. The EPA's graphic at right explains how it works.
Burning rubber. As one- or two-inch chips, used tires become Tire Derived Fuel (TDF), which can be burned as fuel at paper mills and cement kilns. "It's a substitute for coal that burns cleaner," Kendall said. "We can also shred it further and remove the steel wire and recycle that."
Make more mulch. Ground further, as one-eighth-inch chips, tires become mulch that is sold at Sam's Club, Costco and Walmart. Some 150 million pounds of it is created cheap broadway show tickets every year. Used in playgrounds, it has the advantage of not washing away and absorbing falls better than other choices.
Turf battle. Competing with artificial turf, crumb robber has a wide application. It can also be used to make welcome mats, undercarpet materials and other useful things. Carmakers, including Ford, use reclaimed rubber in parts, including floor mats.
Hertz has 3,000 locations, including both airport- and off-airport. That's a lot of tires. It's good to know they're going to a good home. This is not your grandpa's rental-car industry. It's greening with a vengeance, renting electric cars, adopting car sharing and more. Check out Enterprise Rent-a-Car's Driving Futures here .
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Greece s Finance Minister said the country has been granted a long-sought extension to meet the term

The bank announced Wednesday that its program state department travel warning to purchase covered bonds expired on schedule Wednesday. Covered bonds are backed both by another asset and then by the borrower's state department travel warning ability to pay if the asset doesn't cover any loss.
The bank had said it would buy (EURO)40 billion ($52 billion) of the bonds to encourage activity in a market that banks can use to raise operating state department travel warning funds. The bank only bought (EURO)16.4 billion as the market proved healthier than anticipated.
Spain is feeling less pressure to seek European financial aid in the short term because its state borrowing costs have dropped since the European Central state department travel warning Bank announced its offer to buy bonds, a government official said Wednesday.
Deutsche Bank saw profits state department travel warning slip 3 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, as higher costs for streamlining its business and from credit writeoffs offset better revenues from investment banking and trading stocks and bonds.
Greece s Finance Minister said the country has been granted a long-sought extension to meet the terms of its bailout state department travel warning program - but the claim was swiftly shot down as speculation by the European Central Bank and lead lender Germany.
Concerns about Spain s crippling financial problems flared again Friday as even news that the country had been given the final go-ahead for a bank bailout loan of up to 100 billion euro failed to take the sting out of a further round of bad economic news.
The Sun News allows readers to comment on stories as a privilege; the views expressed in story comments are not those of the Sun News or its staff. Readers are required to adhere to all commenting policies, and must avoid commenting state department travel warning behavior such as personal attacks, libelous posts or inappropriate remarks. Users in violation state department travel warning of The Sun News' commenting state department travel warning policies can have their comments blocked, removed, and/or ultimately see their account banned from the site. Some comments may be reprinted in the newspaper. Registered state department travel warning user names will be posted with comments.

"Great food, we will have music, we will have military exhibits and displays the recruiters will be

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - A Memorial Day Parade honoring past and current veterans made its way through downtown Myrtle Beach Saturday morning.  This was the first of many events scheduled for Saturday to kick off the holiday weekend.
"Great food, we will have music, we will have military exhibits and displays the recruiters will be there to have their folks with their equipment as well, and we've got some music from Back Fire and Austin Mowrey, and then there are a couple of inflatables that the kids will have a chance to enjoy and that's free," said Kruea.
Sons of Confederate Veterans Robert Shelley and John Fisher reminded us even those this weekend is considered the unofficial kick-off summer, with conflicts overseas we can't forget those fighting for freedom.
"There are so many people that have in the past and in the present, right now, we have different conflicts teton village vacation rentals by owner around the world, that are serving the country and it's important for us to take a day and set it aside to remember those folks, and the price they're paying for us," said Fisher.

Tonight’s Region 5-3A game at 1-5 St. James might be Wilson’s best chance in a while to do that. Aft

Tonight's Region 5-3A game at 1-5 St. James might be Wilson's best chance america west airlines in a while to do that. After starting 2-0, the Tigers have lost four straight to South Florence, Crestwood, West Florence and Myrtle Beach, getting outscored 169-50 in the process.
"The kids have worked extremely hard and I told them they're a lot better than the scores are indicating on the field," Eaddy said. "But it's time for us to ensure america west airlines that work shows up on the scoreboard. We've got to gang-tackle, get some timely first downs and we can't shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers."
There is some good news for the Tigers. Eaddy said they're as healthy as they've been in a few weeks. Quarterback T.J. Frederick is nursing a strained ligament in the pinkie finger of his throwing hand, but Eaddy said he believes his signal caller can manage the pain. Frederick did not play last week against Myrtle Beach.
And lineman Justin Evans, who was ejected last week for the second time this season and would have had to sit out this week, was reinstated for tonight's game after the S.C. High School League reviewed video of the play in question. Evans also was ejected at the beginning of the season in a game against Darlington.
Eaddy also thinks he might have found a gem in freshman receiver Christian Bruce, who was called america west airlines up from the junior varsity team last week when Raekwon McCall had to move to quarterback for the injured Frederick.
"The ability to have a set of receivers is far greater than having one good receiver," Eaddy said. "Defenses have to play you honest. They can't lean toward one side of the field or bracket anybody."
"We just kind of relayed the message to (St. James) that they've got our prayers," Eaddy said. "You can be opponents, america west airlines but at the end of the day, we're all one football family. We talked to our kids about it. Tomorrow's never promised. You've got to go out and play hard today. I think it really hit home with us."

At 7 p.m. ET, Sandy was centered about 20 miles south of Atlantic City and was expected to hit land

The storm drove torrents of water up the streets of Atlantic City, stretching for blocks inland and ripping up part of the vacation spot s fabled boardwalk. It spawned high winds and torrential rains from North Carolina to Maine, nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada and more than 2.2 million people were out of power across 11 states and the District of Columbia.
Sandy s eye was expected to come ashore along or near the southern New Jersey shore early Monday evening. Sandy had already wiped out a northern section of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, but most of the East Coast landmark was intact, Langford said.
At 7 p.m. ET, Sandy was centered about 20 miles south of Atlantic City and was expected to hit land within an hour, the National Hurricane Center reported. As it lost tropical characteristics, forecasters redesignated it a post-tropical storm and not a hurricane.
Sandy had already knocked out power to about 1.5 million electric customers in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Mass transit shut down across the densely populated region, landmarks stood empty and schools and government offices were closed. The National Grid, which provides power to millions of customers, said 60 million people could be affected before it s over.
Sandy formed last week and swept across the Caribbean, where it had already claimed at least 67 lives, 51 of them in Haiti. Another two people were missing at sea off North Carolina after the crew of the HMS Bounty, a replica of the historic sailing ship, foundered in the storm, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
In New York, forecasters projected nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet for lower Manhattan nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada s Battery Park, which could break a record set in 1960 with Hurricane Donna. Water depths could reach 6 to 11 feet along Long Island Sound and New York Harbor.
And New York s skyscrapers will be battered with higher winds the taller they are: An 80-mph gust at ground level becomes nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada a nearly 100-mph gust at 30 stories up. Far above West 57th Street, a crane snapped and dangled from the side of a luxury high-rise under construction; police closed nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada part of the street and evacuated several nearby buildings, including the Parker Meridien hotel.
The benchmark storm, the 1938 Long Island Express Hurricane, contained a low pressure reading of 946 millibars. Sandy had a minimum pressure of 943 millibars. Generally speaking, the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.
In Sea Bright, New Jersey, Yvette Cafaro scrawled a plea on the plywood that covered nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada her burger restaurant: Be kind to us Sandy. The seaside area largely dodged last year s Hurricane Irene, but Cafaro was not optimistic that Sea Bright would be spared Sandy.
Its arrival, eight days before nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada the U.S. presidential election, forced nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, to alter or cancel several campaign stops. Obama flew back to Washington from Florida, telling reporters at the White House that assets were in place for an effective response to the storm.
By Monday afternoon, 23 states were under a warning or advisory for wind related to Sandy. Thousands of flights had been canceled, and hundreds of roads and highways were expected to flood. And according to a government model, Sandy s wind damage alone could cause more than $7 billion in economic loss.
On the western side of the storm, the mountains of West Virginia expected up to three feet of snow and the mountains of southwestern Virginia to the Kentucky state line could see up to two feet. Twelve to 18 inches of snow were expected in the mountains nevada luxury sport car rental in nevada near the North Carolina-Tennessee border.