Enterprise Rent-a-Car
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1957 |
| Founder(s) | Jack Taylor |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Number of locations | 6,900 |
| Key people | Andrew C. Taylor & Pamela Nicholson |
| Industry | Car rental |
| Revenue | $9.04 billion |
| Employees | 70,000 |
| Website | enterprise.com |
Enterprise Rent-A-Car 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 Rental and Alamo Rent A Car in North America. The Detroit News reports that Enterprise currently purchases 7 percent 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]
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Awards
Enterprise 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 ninth on Business Week's top 25 companies customer service list in 2007[3][4] and fifth on its 2006 "Best Places to Launch a Career".[5]
[edit] 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 (140,000+ posts) provide a venue for discussing Enterprise policies and practices.
One of Enterprise's most commonly criticized practices are to lead the customer to believe that optional protection packages are necessary and the only way to fully protect the rental vehicle. Enterprise has also been criticized for upping the rate of vehicles without the customer's knowledge if the customer is unaware of the cost of the rental at the time of pick up. Other common criticisms include charging customers for pre-existing damage, charging credit cards on file without telling customers, lying about class sizes of vehicles available, and blaming lower level employees for occurrences to protect the higher ups.
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 insurance products, dishonored reservations and long waits for cars.[6] Specific employee complaints include high turnover, long hours, corporate disregard for branch staff lunch breaks and the treatment and compensation of lower-level employees.
In 2004, Enterprise began blocking access to Failing Enterprise from most internal corporate networks. The site now serves 60,000+ pages daily.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Enterprise Rent-A-Car frequently asked questions
- ^ "Enterprise Rent-A-Car ranks highest on J.D. Power survey" - St. Louis Business Journal
- ^ "Customer Service Champs" - Business Week - March 5, 2007
- ^ "The Customer Service Elite" - Business Week - March 5, 2007
- ^ "No. 5 Enterprise: A clear road to the top". Business Week. September 18, 2006.
- ^ "Enterprise muscles its way onto airport scene". USA Today. 2006-12-21. http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2006-12-21-enterprise-usat_x.htm. Retrieved on 2008-09-06.
[edit] External links
- Enterprise official site
- "No. 5 Enterprise: A clear road to the top". Business Week. September 18, 2006.
- Failing Enterprise Open discussion about the ongoing problems at Enterprise Rent-A-Car
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