Tales from the car wash, my time behind the scenes at Calgary’s largest car rental co

[Manhattan]

How profitable is the car rental business? Seems like it must be doing pretty well given the number of locations in town. I've learned from my retail days that any job that involves dealing with the general public will shock and surprise (not in a good way).

[G-ZUS]

I miss my driving days at National

[TomcoPDR]

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I miss my driving days at National

I can picture you as one of those trippers that'd drive it like u stole it.

[ExtraSlow]

Easy to look up the profitability as the largest companies are publically traded.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/investor...-best-buy/amp/

[G-ZUS]

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I can picture you as one of those trippers that'd drive it like u stole it.

That's kind of why I am no longer there

[Manhattan]

Always seems funny to me how you can rent a 20K car for a whole day at about the same cost as renting a bicycle for an hour.

[ExtraSlow]

I'm constantly impressed how much personal stuff is left in cars. Got another passport today. Oddly nobody called for it. No idea how someone drives to the airport, and somehow doesn't realize that they don't have a passport. Boggles the mind.

[ExtraSlow]

Apparently it's the season to put more cars into the fleet. We have had 180 new cars delivered. Includes 25 Durango, 37 Elantra, 20 suburbans, 7 escalade and a mix of 13 BMW.

[TomcoPDR]

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Apparently it's the season to put more cars into the fleet. We have had 180 new cars delivered. Includes 25 Durango, 37 Elantra, 20 suburbans, 7 escalade and a mix of 13 BMW.

Yeah but how many units got depleted from turnback/leaseback/buyback/risk unit sold direct during month of oct, nov?

[ExtraSlow]

About 1200 disposed of over that time. So yeah it's not crazy to be buying a few before the Christmas rush.

[ExtraSlow]

All good things must come to an end. My contract is for really real done at the end of January. It's been pretty decent working here, although some of the little things drive me nuts. Because the administration office has very few staff, and they've all been here forever, it's pretty disorganized and handled by memory. There's no process documentation for anything, so new managers are constantly chasing thier tails.

Did spend a week training a new manager. Seems like a good guy.

Have had good feedback about my work ethic and helpfulness here, so that's nice.

[DonJuan]

Wow this takes me back. I used to work at Hertz too, 2000 to 2008 (I think). Mostly at the airport counter tho. First couple years were driving the cars around and I still think it was the most fun I ever had at work, by FAR! I have a feeling I know all you guys who used to work there as well. I still talk to all most the guys I used to work with, even in a fantasy football league together too.

[ExtraSlow]

well, it's all over. Handed the bosses a four page written report of suggestions and observations on my second-last day. Spent an hour going over it with them on my last day. They didn't ask for that, but they seemed interested in my opinion as an "outside" observer. Rewrote the training manual for a piece of shitty legacy software they use so the next joker can learn a little quicker. Shook a lot of hands during my last few shifts, got a few hugs and had two guys tell me they were praying I'd come back in the summer to help them. I assume that was some kind of bad English situation, as even with my high-self esteem, that seems like overkill. Handed back the iphone 6s with a smile, be glad to be using only my android device from here on out.

Made a few freinds, learned a few things, all in all, great experience.

[TomcoPDR]

The doors are always open in the car rental industry.


*disclaimer: Unless the alliance of Tesla self driving cars, Uber, Google funded/Google maps, Apple Pay, merges as a ride service.

[ExtraSlow]

There are some major drawbacks for the hours there for a guy with little kids. Evenings, weekends and summers.