Enterprise joins hourly rental business - Car Rental News
Enterprise joins hourly rental business
← Previous Article | Index | Next Article →
Car Rental News - 07/06/2012
US-based car hire provider said this week that it will soon launch an hourly rental business.
US-based car hire provider said this week that it will soon launch an hourly rental business.
The move by America’s biggest rental firm comes just weeks after rival provider Hertz Global Holdings said earlier this year that it was launching a new scheme to emulate Zipcar, Inc the pioneering US firm in the hourly rental market.
Enterprise officials said on Monday that the company would soon launch sharing and hourly rental offshoot Enterprise Car Share following the recent acquisition of New York- and Boston-based Mint Cars On-Demand as well as two smaller car-sharing firms earlier in the year.
However, experts say Zipcar will remain the dominant player in the market. Zipcar Inc launched its unprecedented service in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2000 and has grown to 500,000 members and now offers a fleet consisting of around 9,000 rental vehicles.
Hourly business head for Enterprise, Ryan Johnson, said that the company had a significant amount of catching up to do before becoming a “viable competitor” with Zipcar. However, he added that Enterprise’s vast current network would eventually give it the competitive edge in the new market.
Recent figures from research firm IBISWorld have shown hourly rentals compose some 6 per cent of the US car hire market, worth some $1.8 billion (£1.16 billion). However, it predicts that figure is likely to reach $3.3 billion (£2.1 billion) by 2016.
← Previous Article | Index | Next Article →