Enterprise Rent-A-Car Is A Failing Enterprise!
Open Discussion About The Ongoing Problems At Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Reading, understanding, and agreeing to our Terms Of Use is a requirement before using this Discussion Board.
| | |
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Is A Failing Enterprise! | ||
Open Discussion About The Ongoing Problems At Enterprise Rent-A-Car | ||
Reading, understanding, and agreeing to our Terms Of Use is a requirement before using this Discussion Board. | ||
| |||||||
| Group 41 Region EE - South Miami To Florida Keys Discussion Threads For Group 41 Region EE |
 |
| | LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
 2008-10-07 | |||
| |||
 Re: Renzo's Hair Dear Independents, I really have enjoyed reading your website, and the forum, though the posters are very polarized, is a good resource when taken in the proper context. I am in a slightly different situation than 99.9% of your forum posters in that I was a Regional Manager with ERAC until a couple years ago when I left on my own accord, leaving the 6 figure income for the far less certain, daunting task of starting my own company. Yes, the "6-years 6 figures" was my life for about 4 years. I can say, without a doubt, that there is life after ERAC. For some who feel they are shackled with the "golden handcuffs" of the 6 figure income, the house, the 2 cars, 2 kids, and a dog, the opportunities to walk into another job with a similar pay scale in year 1 are harder to find. However, even making a few sacrifices to your standard of living are well worth it if you are burned out. I was able to parlay my experience with ERAC into a business in which my income tripled from even my best year at ERAC, in year 2! Granted, I was very fortunate to have a business plan that hit the right niche at the right time and just took off. But, it can be done, and it proved to me right away that ERAC was simply one avenue for a driven, sales-oriented person to make money. I really enjoyed the majority of my time with ERAC, and I truly thought I would miss the camaraderie of the people I had become friends with over the years. However, I still keep in touch with many of them, whether or not they work for the company. My personal perception of Andy Taylor and most of the corporate VP's is that they are great people, hard workers, and genuinely care about their employees and customers. However, they sheer size and decentralization of the company made it impossible to micromanage and handle many complaints personally. It was also impossible for Andy to visit a branch office without it seeming like a political rally, since he is so far removed from the daily rental operations and those employees. He was basically there to shake a few hands and thank a few people - but can you fault him for that? The CDW and other protection options that are sold to customers are, in an of themselves, simply another option to keep people from having to worry about deductibles, premium increases, and the hassle of an insurance claim for a vehicle they'll have for a couple days. Anyone who claims this is unnecessary needs to differentiate that from the fact that there are certain times it makes sense to purchase the additional protections offered. Judging an employee's performance on their ability to sell CDW, at the lowest levels of the company, is merely a way to gauge a persons sales ability in a short-term, over-the-counter transaction. However, don't confuse that with whether or not the product is valuable for certain renters or certain situations. The problem with CDW is when it becomes the thing that dominates the promotional process, rather than simply being one cog in the sales wheel, it often causes employees to push a little too hard or even lapse into unethical sales practices, which harm the customer. Offering a customer a larger, nicer vehicle (up-selling) is a valuable customer service if the vehicles are available in both the reserved size and a larger one. After all, why not offer a customer who normally drives a Chevy Cavalier the chance to drive a Cadillac Escalade for the weekend? Most people would jump at that opportunity. The one point on your website that I don't believe there is an easy solution for is the "reserved" vehicle. You obviously know by now from all the posts on your forum that for ERAC to consistently make money as a company, the average office needs to be utilizing about 88% of their vehicles at all times, ideally they would like to average 90%. If a branch office has 100 vehicles to rent, this means at any given time there are 12 vehicles available, less 3-4 that cannot be rented due to maintenance/warranty work, etc. This leaves about 8 cars to rent on average. There are a few options for the business: 1) raise all rates so they can afford to have more vehicles available, or 2) don't take the reservation unless you are 100% certain the car will be there, or 3) lose money None of the aforementioned options are really feasible. Here is why. In scenario 1 the customer ends up paying more money - not good for the customer or the company. Scenario 2 is almost impossible for a rental car company to achieve since the company cannot, with 100% certainty, know if a) the customer driving your car will return on time, b) the car will be damaged or break down, or c) YOU will show up for your car on time (or show up at all for that matter). There is not a single rental car company that can control these variables, even in a well-planned rental branch. This scenario would be great for the customer, but virtually impossible given those variables. Scenario 3 is not a win for the customer or the company, since a company that loses money for a long enough time is no longer viable, and the customer ultimately loses along with the company. Judging by the fact that, of all large rental car companies, ONLY Enterprise has been profitable month in and month out for the past 5 years - ALL the other large competitors are in the red - it's obvious the costs of operating a rental car company are large enough that there is a very slim profit margin. The inexcusable things that I saw happen with customers were when they received a dirty vehicle, a vehicle low on gas, or when they had to wait to be picked up for long periods of time - these are all attention to detail and planning issues that got lost in the shuffle too many times. As far as ex-employee complaints, I see validity in many of them. ERAC is a retail job until you are promoted past the "day-to-day" front line of the rental branch. If you never get that far, not only are you most likely not making the money you want to make, but you are also working 12 hour days, saturdays, cleaning cars, and dealing with stress of customer complaints. The job is NOT easy, and the percentage of people that make it to the "multi-store" capacity is VERY small. There is high turnover, and branches are many times understaffed, adding to the stress. Minority recruitment was always a fascinating issue to me at ERAC. There "diversity" efforts at the corporate level that spilled over into the groups, but it was mostly lip service. Not that it was difficult for a minority to succeed. It was paradoxical in that ERAC is a company that prides itself on "merit-based promotions", but in the group I came from, racial minorities and women were supported by upper management for promotion almost to a fault. When upper management found a good minority employee, they almost went overboard to keep them happy and moving through the system, even with average performance. It is still, and has always been, a company run by white men. Not that there is anything wrong with that, if they are the top performers. When I first started, there was a dearth of minorities at corporate. However, by 2000, there are minorities in a number of top positions throughout the country - and there was definitely no glass ceiling. The nature of the business makes it tough to be a parent, but especially those parents that would prefer to see their young children during their waking hours. And, god forbid the children are old enough to participate in after-school activities. Peak customer hours are from 7:30AM-9:30AM and from 4:00PM-6PM every day, so getting out early to see your child's soccer game was virtually impossible for a daily rental employee. Even ERAC's lip service to family values fall on deaf ears when there are customers lined up 3 deep and 3 abreast at 4:30PM on a Monday. It's tough to balance. I was fortunate to be promoted to a regional position before I even had a wife, let alone kids. In management, we always tried to work flex time around employees' family events, but it was tough. I can't imagine having young children that would be asleep when I left for work and asleep when I arrived at home, but I know for some of my employees it was a sad reality for which I really didn't have a solution :( The benefits package is sometimes looked upon as less than desirable. However, as a person who left the company with over 100K in retirement, I can see where the profit-sharing program would be a very nice nest egg for a person who put in 20 years with the company. In fact, when 401(k) was first introduced back in 1994, I remember the controller of our group showing a profit-sharing comparison after 20 years because some people were inquiring as to why ERAC would not match dollar for dollar like some companies. According to the corporate projections, a person who had maxed his 401(k) for that entire time would have been outpaced by the profit-sharing plan by a 4:1 ratio. That made good sense. The other benefits were all very comprehensive, and while some companies offered better health or better dental, overall, the ERAC plan was a great plan that covered almost every area. The "drinking" that you hear about is most likely no different than at most companies with a large percentage of employees no more than 3 years out of college. Unless you abhor being in situations where people are drinking (i.e. bars), this is nothing to worry about. I never knew an employee personally to be looked down upon for NOT drinking. Most people were glad to have the designated driver around. Annual manager meetings. Discussion of these seem to escalate every May with both sides weighing in. Yes, there is MUCH alcohol to be consumed there. Yes, there were amply opportunities to get in trouble from consumption of the aforementioned libations. Yes, the SAME information is discussed EVERY year (I went to 9 of them dating back to Atlanta in 94). Yes, spending an entire weekend either traveling or sitting in seminars and breakouts was tough to fit in between all the drinking. Yes, the more of them you went to, the more you knew you had "been there, done that". BUT... I still look back fondly on each one of them in hindsight. Conclusion: the annual manager's meeting is not as lame as the ex-employees want you to believe, nor is it as fun as current employees make it seem like it will be, and the law of diminishing marginal returns is applicable once you've been to enough of them. It is difficult to find an ex-employee who is not embittered to some degree, simply because a person either had to lose their passion and quit at some point or they were fired (except for the handful of retirees out there). That, in itself, makes finding balance on the forum difficult. However, if I had to make one overall conclusion I'd say this: ERAC can be great fun, you can make great money, and you can really build a solid business foundation. But...there are only 3 ways to leave - 1) you can be fired, 2) you can quit, or 3) you can retire. Of those, 1 is undesirable because you failed. 2 is undesirable because you could have invested that time in another company or venture, which ultimately would put you that much farther ahead by the time you made the decision to leave. 3 is desirable, but there were only about 10 people that retired from ERAC the entire time I was there - and by retired I mean with enough money to be able to live for the rest of their lives on what they had saved. The most common question I have been asked is this: do you miss it? My answer every time is this: "though I truly enjoyed my time at ERAC (up until about 2 months before I quit), I have not for one second of one day missed it". All that said, though I would not go back and do it all over again, I would also not give up the business experience, the friendships, and the achievements for anything. Sincerely, XRM  |
| 2008-10-09 | |||
| |||
| Re: Renzo's Hair Quote:
gay.com Style & Living |
| 2008-10-09 | |||
| |||
| Re: Renzo's Hair Quote:
|
|
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
| |
Linear Mode
