One of the largest companies, Hertz, was founded by Walter L. Jacobs, at the age of 22.

Jacobs started his car rental operation in Chicago, USA. Within five years the business to annual revenues of around 1 million dollars... and that was back in 1922!

Jacobs was the man to start the business, but he was not the man to fuel the growth of it.

In 1923, John Hertz bought the fledgling car rental concern. Hertz was president of the Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coaching Manufacturing Company. Jacobs continued with the company as Hertz' top operating and administrative executive. But it was Hertz who literally put his mark on the business -- he gave the car hire company its famous name and its yellow color.

The tiny rental business started by a 22 year old boy was called Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System when it was acquired in 1926 by one of the biggest companies in the world, General Motors Corporation. In 1932, Hertz opened the first airport car rental location at Chicago's Midway Airport. Later, GM drove the company to expand internationally, and the first Hertz location in Canada is opened. Hertz continued to expand internationally and a location opened in France in 1936.

In 1953, Omnibus Corporation bought Hertz from GMC and gave it a new name -- The Hertz Corporation.

Hertz continued to build new and lucrative features into its business for customers and investors alike.

Seeking to consolidate the rental experience and further own the customer, Hertz opened its Worldwide Reservations Center and Data Center. Hertz was on-line, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all over the world.

Some recent innovations in the business:

Hertz Instant Return -- At the car return lot, the Hertz agent meets the returning customer with the Instant Return hand-held computer.

Hertz #1 Club Gold® Service customers -- the golden standard in fast service. Customers have no unnecessary paperwork at the time of rental and no long lines.

NeverLost® on-board navigation system

Today, Hertz is headquartered in Park Ridge, New Jersey. Customers can rent a car at approximately 7.000 corporate and licensee Hertz locations in 144 countries. The Hertz Worldwide Reservations Center handles approximately 30 million phone calls and delivers approximately 17 million reservations annually! It seems that the dream of a 22 year old businessman has truly come true.

Hertz launched hertz.com in 1997. At the time of this writing, the company is anticipating a new site design to refresh the www.hertz.com site. The Travelsites Editors promise to revisit and review it when it goes live. Check this space or the Internet Travel Blog to hear all about it.

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