 from another message board
First off I post on here all the time but have never registered. So I took care of that this morning and here I am to help others and answer questions in my best opinion about my personal experience with ERAC. I was with ERAC for 2 and 1/2 yrs in a South East Group. I came into the company straight from college after being sold on the ERAC dream. The whole you control your future... So I went in with a full head of steam and really tried to set the woods on fire asap. My first month with ERAC I lead the entire group in all sales numbers. My City Manager pulled me in and told me I was on the fast track. Wow, here I am a fresh 21yr old and the boss is telling me I'm already jumping ahead of seasoned employees. I gave it all I had and within 5 months I had all my MA requirements achieved. The only problem is in my old group you have to be a MT for at least 8 months before you can grill. So I bitched a bit saying I was ready to grill hoping they would push me through since I was "the next great thing" (at least that's what my City Manager said). To no victory I had to wait a few more months. When the time came to grill I was all set, well it was hard not to be considering everyone and there brother has a copy of the grill. I went in and missed 2 questions on purpose trying not to throw any red flags. So here I am on top of the world thinking I'm well on my way to being in 6 figures quick. Two weeks later they did the typical ERAC shake up and moved a lot of people around and it opened up 3 AM positions. So 4 of us went in for interviews for 3 positions. One office was 15 minutes from my house, the other 35 minutes and the last was 1 hour and 15 minutes. So we interviewed and the last question they ask was which office I preferred... Being that I would be driving my own car and by this time I had figured out the big "Pay Increase" I was getting I told them I would like the closer office and I came out and told them the hour and 15 minute office was out of the question. So the next day I got a call stating hey congrats you are the new AM at branch ????, the one that is an hour and 15 from my house. I told my then future Area Manager, thanks but no thanks that was absolutley ridiculous to ask someone to even do that. Of course they were probably wanting to see my detication to the company, but from a personal business stand point there was no way. So for the entire day the Area and City Manager proceded to call and say have you changed your mind. I stood by my decision and at the end of the day I was told I didn't recieve any 3 position and because of my decision I may be passed on when other promotions come around. And my current Area Manager told me to never bother putting in for a position in the Area I said no too, because that Area Manager would always remember this and would never give me another look. So here I am 8 months in to the deal a MA that has lead the Group in sales 6 of the 8 months I was there. Time passed and within a month I was a Assistant Manager. Our branch was strong and we were consistently leading our area and group in all aspects. One day an opening came over the printer for a branch manager at a branch that was hour and half form my house. It was a starter branch with about 50 cars. I didn't put in for it. A week went by and the Area Manager pulled me into his office to ask why I didn't put in. I explained it would pretty much be a cut in pay and a killer drive. He then proceded to tell me I needed to take the position if I wanted to have any future with ERAC. So I decided to take one for the team and give it my best effort. It was the worst 5 months of my life, I was recently married and I would leave my house at 5:45am and get home at 8pm. Add it up and I was working nearly 65 hours a week counting my drive. I realize you have to sacrifice to make it with a company but I later found out I was approached for this position because no one else put in for it. I busted my ass and grew the fleet from 50 cars to 98 cars in 3 months. Long story short I went on to get promoted 2 more times to bigger branches withing 5 months. My final branch I was 24 yrs old and had a fleet of 310 cars. I also had 2 MTs, 1 driving and 1 car prep. Big staff right??? Throughout my time in college and ERAC I knew my ultimate goal was to own my own business and ERAC had provided me some decent training for that. Before I left ERAC everything really started becoming clear. The way they treated employees was damn near torture. ERAC was always good at telling you want you want to hear but never making good on the promise. We would have meetings, survey results etc... and they would always want suggestions I what they could do to make it better. We would talk till we are blue in the face. They would always say we will work on this problem... Nothing was ever done about anything. I sat back and watched my group lose nearly 10 of it's top performers to other companies. ERAC would always let them go and replace them with a newbie. ERAC would never do what it takes to keep the top class. My group had no problem seeing a star leave and replacing them with a flashlight. If they would ever pay the people what they are worth ERAC wouldn't have to worry about Hertz, Avis etc... They would big so employee strong they would kill all the others. I mean have you ever seen or talked to one of the turds that works at Hertz, it's a joke. I know we all rent cars but the potential is there for it to be a employee strong company with awesome retention. In my final weeks with ERAC I saw them start to take Areas with 7 branches and split them to open up positions and have more employee coverage to open up more growth. Great idea but when you area taken from someone you have to make up the lost$$$ some where. Approach ERAC with a concern if this happens to you and I bet you anything there response will be the patiented "GROW YOUR FLEET IF YOU WANT MORE MONEY." Bottom line is you can only cut the pie so many ways before there is nothing left. I now own my own company and couldn't be happier. Yes I still have some stress but it's nothing like ERAC. I'm making a great living and actually have time to enjoy life. We work to live, we don't live to work. I think ERAC wants it's employees to have the latter of the two. Therefore burn out, weight gain, stress, depression, drinking etc... is all to familar in ERAC. If you are thinking of work at ERAC please really think about the importance of life, family and happiness. If those things are more important to you than work than you may want to look else where. The people in the Level 3 positions aren't going anywhere. So not matter have fast they tell you you can advance don't believe it. Yes there are always Assistant and Branch manager positions available because of the burn out and tired of waiting BS. Look you are nothing to them and if you ever are stressing about making them mad if you leave, don't worry because they aren't. There is a fresh crop of grads coming in next year and your shoes will be filled with another young hungry canidate. Here we grow again!  | 
2005-10-26 
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