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BUDGET CAR RENTAL DEALS »
About Budget Car Rental
Australia
Most of us do not think a second time before we rent a budget
car for traveling from one location to another. We accept these
services as a part and parcel of our day to day life and never bother
to thing about their history. When we travel for leisure or when
we need a car for our business trip, we just pick up the phone and
ring up a budget car rental agency. These cars prove extremely helpful
when we visit another city along with our family. Who started these
services and who was the first to realize the great potential of
this flourishing industry?
While it is very tough to find out the exact origin of the budget
car rental services, their origins being enshrouded in the mists
of history, it is widely believed that the first such rental company
was founded by Joe Saunders. This gentleman started this industry
with his model T Ford car. This particular car had made automobile
transportation affordable to the masses. According to lore, Saunders
would rent out his cars to customers and would charge them 10 cents
per traveled mile. A special mileage tracking device was employed
to calculate the number of miles the car had traversed.
It is rumored that the first person to rent Saunders’ car
was a traveling salesman who used it to impress a local girl that
he was taking out to dinner. Whether there is any truth in the story
or not, the fact points out how useful these budget car rentals
prove to traveling salesmen. Within a short period of time, Saunders
found great success with his venture and started increasing the
same. By 1952, this gentleman had rental car depots in over 20 states
across USA. However, this success was short lived, and the economical
collapse caused by the great depression found Saunders struggling
to find sufficient business and eventually, he went bankrupt.
The initial success of Saunders made others take notice and it
was not long before another person, Walter Jacobs, started a budget
car rental service using the same model T ford car. Though Jacobs
too experiences success in this venture, he sold out his operations
to John Hertz’s owned Yellow Cab Company. Later on Hertz’s
company was purchased by General Motors and their investment capabilities
ensured that Hertz’s company survived. The era after the Second
World War saw many organizations coming out with budget car rental
services.
The close relationship between the rental companies and growth
in air travel ensured the success of this industry. Businessmen
traveling by air used to hire and use these budget rental cars in
the cities they traveled to. Anticipating the growth in air travel,
another entrepreneur, Warren Avis also started a Budget
Car Hire service and his operations were based within
the airports. Nowadays one can find budget car rental services in
nearly every major airport. What started as a humble and 10 cents
per mile rental service has grown into a giant today.
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