Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Enterprise Rent-A-Car
	File:Enterprise logo.jpg
Company type	Private
Industry	Car rental
Founded	1957
Founder	Jack Taylor
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri
Number of locations	6,900
Key people	Andrew Taylor
Revenue	$9.04 billion
Number of employees	70,000
Website	enterprise.com

The Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company is a privately held St. Louis, Missouri-based rental car company serving customers in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the U.K.. They are also the owners of the Vanguard Automotive Group, operator of National Car and Truck Rental and Alamo Rent A Car in North America. According to Auto Rental News, their 2006 (fiscal year ending July 31) U.S. revenue was US$9.04 billion with a fleet of approximately 720,000 vehicles. The Detroit News reports that Enterprise currently purchases 7% of all new automobiles sold in the United States. As of 2005, they had 5,399 “local market” locations (91% of all transactions), and 419 airport locations (9% of all transactions).^{[citation needed]}

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the largest rental car company in North America, and has more than 6,900 offices. Enterprise is currently number 16 on the Forbes “500 Largest Private Companies in America” list. In June 2008, Enterprise Rent-A-Car placed 49th on the list of Most Respected Companies in the United States in a survey of U.S. consumers conducted by the Reputation Institute.

The company is named after the Yorktown class aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, on which founder Jack Taylor served in World War II.^[1]

Corporate Strategy

Enterprise’s primary focus is the local rental car market, specializing in car rentals to consumers who need a replacement car as the result of an accident, mechanical repair, theft, or who require a vehicle for a special occasion such as a short business or leisure trip. In the late 1990s, Enterprise Rent-A-Car also began expanding its operations to include the airport market, and now serves airports in the United States, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

The main television advertising campaign for Enterprise Rent-A-Car shows a car wrapped in brown paper, and features the slogan “Pick Enterprise, We’ll pick you up!” Enterprise has become famous for their offer to pick up customers and bring them to the rental office.

Enterprise will rent to all qualifying individuals 21 years of age or older, 18 if you are replacing a vehicle in the shop.

Customer service

Enterprise Rent-A-Car customer service has been recognized seven times by J.D. Power and Associates as highest in customer satisfaction for rental car companies at or near airports.^[2]

The company was named number 9 on Business Week's top 25 companies customer service list.^[3]^[4]

Enterprise Rent-A-Car repeatedly ranks number one on the Market Matrix Hospitality Index in rental car industry customer satisfaction.^[5]

Hiring of College Graduates

Unlike its competitors, Enterprise Rent-A-Car recruits college graduates with the offer that the positions are ideal to start their careers. Business Week ranked Enterprise 5th on the list of "Best Places to Launch a Career" in 2006.^[6] Enterprise employees also dress in business attire, including men wearing slacks, dress shirts and ties.

Employees actively participate in everything from sales and marketing and customer service to operations and finance. Some responsibilities may include: working the register, taking reservations, filing, driving cars to pick up customers, washing cars, ancillary sales as well as sales calls to dealerships, body shops, insurance agents and corporate accounts.

Criticism

Failing Enterprise is the online community for Enterprise Rent-A-Car customers and employees. Founded in December 2003 by a long-term customer, the site and its discussion board (100,000+ posts) provide a venue for discussing Enterprise policies and practices.

Critics of Enterprise on the site tend to point out customer service problems and dissatisfaction with both employment conditions and the company’s ethics, while supporters of Enterprise tend to question the skills and motivation of former employees and the intelligence and character of customers. Specific customer complaints include aggressive upselling of the expensive and often unneeded "insurance" products, dishonored reservations and long waits for cars. Specific employee complaints include high turnover, long hours, missed meal periods and breaks, and the treatment and compensation of lower-level employees.

Beginning in 2004, Enterprise began blocking access to Failing Enterprise from most internal corporate networks. The site now serves 30,000+ pages daily.