CNW's Spinella says this kind of fleet sales can be as good for a marque as the rental fleet can be bad.
If Hertz sees much of its rental fleet lying idle, it will cut its prices to better compete with Avis and Enterprise.
Brad Hutchinson, owner of Company Wrench, a Carroll, Ohio-based dealer for demolition equipment, has bought about a dozen Sany excavators for his rental fleet and also offers excavators for sale.
What about the 1.2 million tires on the 300, 000 cars that are in the Hertz rental car fleet at any one time?
Additionally, the U.S. car rental business came under pressure from fleet constraints and associated efforts by rental car companies to drive up pricing.
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Excluding sales to fleet buyers such as rental car companies, Honda is No. 1, said Mike Acavitti, senior vice president of marketing for American Honda.
Yes, the company's North American market share is down, but that was deliberate--Ford's CEO decided not to aggressively pursue virtually profitless sales to the rental-car and government-fleet vehicle markets.
Spokesman Nick Richards blames the slow growth on a cut in low-profit sales to fleet buyers such as rental car companies as GM tries to boost the brand's resale values.
Just in industries directly related to autos, trillions of dollars change hands each year flowing to and from auto insurers, auto financiers, service and repair shops, rental agencies, taxi operators, fleet managers, oil companies, transportation and logistics companies, emergency rooms, health insurers, medical practices, personal-injury lawyers, government taxing authorities, road-construction companies, parking-lot operators, and on and on and on.
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In addition to its other mistakes, Detroit's addiction to fleet sales, particularly of rental cars, has been a killer.
Retail sales recorded a healthy 9% increase, but a 16% drop in fleet deliveries due to a 21% fall in rental volumes was enough to tilt the balance, sending sales into the red for the largest U.S. automaker.
Because profit on sales to individuals, thin as it is, is much better than profit on most fleet business, the models you are offered at the rental agencies are the ones customers are not clamoring for.
Certainly, it seems better to have one fleet with two potential outlets for it (both the regular rental and the car sharing) than it does to have two separate fleets each with their own specific downtime.
Zipcar has thrown a monkey wrench in the traditional car rental business over the last few years, and it currently serves over 673K members with a fleet of over 9K vehicles.
Fleet sales, which account for 27% of monthly sales, fell one percent on weaker rental accounts, while sales to commercial accounts rose for a 15 consecutive month, up 31%. (Read Fiat To Take Chrysler Stake To 57%, Plans To Buy 6% From Treasury).
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