I agree that ERAC will never again be the sole company in what was once our unique market. ERAC must run tight in order to be profitable. If we are not profitable, we do not have a wealthy company like Ford to pay our bills for us. Please understand that I am not putting down Hertz in any way. People on this website hate ERAC because ERAC is one of the few companies left out there that actually demands that its employees perform. So many other companies (not just rental car companies) out there pay their employees to just show up and do not place any real emphasis on job performance. If you do well at one of these companies you move up quickly. If you do not do well, you become one of the non-productive masses that fill space in a cubicle. The fact that we run so lean makes it necessary for every employee to pull his or her own weight.

As far as accounts having the option to choose, I think this is a very good thing. Monopoly breeds poor customer service and lazy business practices.

As an analogy, I will compare ERAC and Hertz to the airline industry. ERAC is very similar to companies like Southwest and JetBlue. These organizations are set up to provide quick, inexpensive service to short haul customers that do not require many custom amenities. These organizations run very lean operations and rely on high utilization of their resources in order to remain profitable. Cost cutting and the elimination of wasteful spending is crucial to the success of these organizations.

Hertz on the other hand is comparable to companies like American Airlines and United. These organizations specialize in providing luxurious, long haul service to discriminating customers. Sky-high overhead and inefficient utilization of company resources what these organizations have become known for. Their inability to control their costs has forced the government to bail them out time and time again. Cost cutting is not a part of their corporate culture. These dinosaurs are constantly trying to cut costs to become more competitive but their proverbial guts have grown so fat that they cannot tighten the belt far enough to truly compete with Southwest and JetBlue.