[hunterm4]

I worked for group 59 for 6 years and I must say there are a few valid points on this site. I will say there were tough times at times, but in my time there were great times as well and I made great friends for life and learned alot. Enterprise was a great stepping stone and would not be where I'm at today without that experience.

There are reasons or should I say roadblocks why Group 59 isn't as successful as many other groups. One being the MI economy; labeled as one of the worst in the nation, how can you grow when campanies large and small are leaving MI at a staggering rate. There is not a favorable tax structure there, creating a tough environment. Also there has been praise for tremendous fleet growth in New Orleans, California and other groups down south or out west. Unfortunately they seem to be hit my huge natural disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. In MI they get snow storms from time to time, and that is minimal at best. Last but certainly not least MI is a no-fault state when it comes to insurance. What that means if I smack your car, my insurance company pays for the damages to my own car and your insurance company pays for damages to your car, even though I smacked your car. The downfall for ERAC and other rental companies is that if the other person doesn't have car rental on their insurance policy, they are SOL. In an at-fault state the at-fault party's insurance company pays for all damages and for a car rental. What an at-fault state does for other groups is that gives gaurenteed business to ERAC in other states who have been doing great beacuse they have larger fleets. What happens is all costs and expenses are spread over a larger number of cars, therefore increasing operating profit. This has been an area of struggle for MI as long as I can remember. And these roadblocks that I mentioned in this message are a cause.

In my opinion, the Group 59 folks are some of the hardest working employees that ERAC has. Put these individuals in a different environment with different circumstances and they would shine. As for admin, these folks do a great job with what they have to work with. They work harder then anyone I have ever worked with in the past. I give accloades to Bill, Pam, most of the area managers and branch managers who do what they do every day and make most with what they have in their situation. As for professionalism at the top, they work extremly hard, but they can play hard too and I appreciated that while I was there.

Hunter