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Hi all,

As I’ve reported over the past year a couple of companies have lodged official bids to purchase Dollar Rent A Car who also own Thrifty Car Rental. As this process seems to have dragged on I thought it might be a good time to briefly speak about where this deal is right now and what the possible out come could be.

Originally Hertz were the first company to show an interest in purchasing Dollar Thrifty, Hertz required a leisure arm and Dollar Thrifty fit perfectly in to that bracket.  The offer was in the process of being presented to the shareholders when Avis Budget decided to enter in to the bidding. For Avis Budget the purchase would signify a massive boost in market share.

The Avis Budget bid was accepted in principle and both parties handed the details over to the FTC for approval.

The issues with any purchase of Dollar Thrifty with the FTC is, what is best for the customer, does the purchase of one of America’s most successful, and at present cash rich companies, reduce competitiveness within the car rental industry, reducing consumer choice and in doing so push up pricing?

In my opinion the Avis Budget deal would prove very hard to push through, and the amount of time the FTC is taking over deliberating on it seems to back my thinking.

With Dollar Thrifty seemingly preferring the Avis Budget deal, Hertz issued a statement stating they would concentrate on their low cost brand, Advantage Rent A Car…

Then on the 10th May Hertz came back to the party with an improved offer, they also seemed to have a plan on how to win the FTC over by agreeing in principle to sell on their own lesser brand Advantage Rent A Car.

Coincidently Avis Budget agreed a deal to buy out Avis Europe for £635 million practically taking them out of the running to purchase Dollar Thrifty.

Now from where I stand this leaves us with the following senario…

• Dollar Thrifty want to sell too Hertz but don’t need to.
• FTC want Hertz to sell Advantage.
• Hertz wont sell Advantage unless they know they will get Dollar Thrifty.

So we have a bit of a stand off at present… Rumour has it, and its only rumour, is that Fox Rent A  Car could be the company to purchase Advantage Rent A Car, I have no insider knowledge on this, I just saw it on a predominant car rental blog and other sites.

For me, I think Hertz will complete a deal to purchase Dollar Thrifty but I wouldn’t expect a quick sale. Advantage will have to be sold on to make this deal happen and to be fair there aren’t many companies who would have the cash or the know how, so Fox Rent A Car is as good a guess as any.

What’s your take on the this?

regards,

James

Hi all,

Today I have been sent the annual survey of USA car rental fleets, locations and revenue  provided by Auto Rental News.

The U.S. Car Hire industry is set to report a combined industry revenue of over 20 billion dollars up on 2009 figures.

The impressive point to this stat is that this year’s revenue total will be achieved with a smaller rental fleet, bringing average revenue per unit to $1,051 per month, a record high.

Alamo Car Hire

Alamo Rent A Car including Enterprise Rent A Car and National Rent A Car have an estimated 850,689 rental cars in service in the USA today covering 6178 locations. Last year’s total revenue was estimated at $9.5 Billion, this years revenue see’s an estimated increase to $9.8 Billion.

Budget Car Hire

Budget Rent A Car including Avis have an estimated 270,000 rental cars in the USA servicing 2100 locations. Last year’s total revenue was estimated at $4 Billion, this years revenue see’s an estimated decrease to $3.85 Billion.

Dollar Rent A Car

Dollar Rent A Car including Thrifty Rent A Car have an estimated 108,000 USA Hire Cars on the road spread out among 464 locations. Last year’s total revenue was estimated at $1.467 Billion, this years revenue see’s an estimated increase to $1.54 Billion.

Hertz Car Hire

Hertz Rent A Car including Advantage Rent A Car have an estimated 290,000 rental cars in the USA servicing 2300 locations. Last year’s total revenue was estimated at $3.95 Billion, this years revenue see’s an estimated decrease to $4.158 Billion.

Totals

Based on all the estimates there are 1,629,561 Rental Cars servicing 17,254 separate USA pick up points earning an estimated $20.551 Billion for 2010!

I am n0t entirely sure if these figures include the buoyant second hand car sales market, but the figures are an encouraging sign that the car rental industry is back on a secure foundation after what has been an extremely difficult few years.

Regards,

James,

Hi all,

Stumbled across a very interesting article about travel blogging and how some companies are now more fearful of blogs than mainstream media.

The one that really caught my eye was the story of Debbie Dubrow who posted a blog after Advantage rent a car, who have recently gone in to administration and subsequently been purchased by Enterprise Rent A Car, who own Alamo,?offered her an “aged, unclean, and in many cases broken” car seats for her child. The resulting blog post had a major effect which I’m sure not even the blogger could have expected.

“It eventually led ABC News to pick up and investigate the story,” she told?CNN.

“Its impact reached far beyond a single news broadcast, though.” Indeed, the company pledged to clean up its act, and California agreed to revisit its child safety-seat laws.

An amazing result and shows what can be achieved by a motivated travel blogger.

Do you feel strongly about anything our suppliers are doing at present either rightly or wrongly?

If you one of our customers, please feel free to send us a link to your blog and we will add it to our blog roll.

Happy motoring,

Gavin