History of world car rental
It's hard to believe, but the car rental service has been around for over a hundred years. In many ways, he owes his appearance to Henry Ford, who in 1908 in the United States began the first large-scale production of an economical car FORD T.
The birth of car rental
Joe Sanders is called the first official founder of the car rental business. In 1916, he came up with the idea of lending his Ford to anyone who wanted it, charging only 10 cents per mile. For understanding: at that time, the average salary of an American worker was up to $ 50 per month. That is, the service was very affordable, while the cost of buying a new Ford car by 1917 was about $350.
Sanders' service proved so popular that by 1921, in addition to his home state of Nebraska, he had branches in more than 20 other states. The only thing that hindered the further development of the business was the Great Depression in the USA, due to which the demand for car rental dropped significantly.
First successful car rental business
Soon after Sanders, Walter Jacobs opened his own company with a fleet of twelve Fords in Chicago. It took him only 5 years to earn over a million dollars. And at the peak of his fame, he sold the business to the owner of a large transport company, John Hertz. At the same time, Jacobs remained its leader for a long time, bringing many innovations. Largely due to this, Hertz is successfully operating today, becoming one of the largest car rental services.
His pioneer was in Europe. So, back in 1912, Martin Sixt opened a rental company Sixt Autofahrten, for which he bought German cars. He worked successfully until the Second World War, when he went bankrupt and died tragically. Already in the post-war period, the son revived his father's business, and Auto Sixt has been successfully operating to this day. Its current fleet is huge and has hundreds of thousands of cars.
The Rise of the Car Rental Industry
The dark period of car rental in the United States was Prohibition, when rental vehicles became popular with criminal groups that transported prohibited goods in this way, tarnished their reputation. As for Europe, of course, the Second World War interfered. But in the post-war period, car rental flourished, which was facilitated by:
- economic boom;
- a breakthrough in air travel;
- development of the tourism sector.
Particularly interesting in this vein is Avis, today the second largest car rental company in the world. It was founded in 1946 by military pilot Warren Avis, who focused on providing rental cars at airports, and made the right decision. He started with three cars at the Detroit airport, and already in 1953 the company was successfully operating not only in North America, but also in Europe.
Car rental in the USSR
You will be surprised, but car rental as a service was also in the Soviet Union. This project was launched in 1956 and lasted about 10 years. At its peak, rental offices operated in more than 40 cities. The cost of the rental was small, and he was a success. It was not easy to buy a car, and in case of real need, Soviet citizens could well take a car for up to 1 month.