We totally screwed up Icahn's pronunciation, and there's a long story behind that, but we won't bore you with it. Just dropping an apology and telling you we know its Eye-Cahn, not EEE-Cahn. Carry on.
The only thing your mini-documentaries are missing is a Trap Beat in the background. Nothing too annoying just something a little more upbeat than the current elevator music that plays now. Beyond That, you continue to do a Great Job.
its much easier to just look at the ceo of hertz and what he did. a rapidly expanding company can be a bad thing, but you can close down locations and restructure. In this case, the ceo wanted to run the company into the ground on purpose.
I once rented from Hertz. The website reservation said “Toyota Corolla or similar”, and when I arrived they gave me Chevrolet Aveo. To my question of that cannot possibly be “Toyota Corolla similar” they said that this is the car for the price I booked and I’ll have to pay more to get Corolla. Needless to say, I never rented from Hertz again.
Same happened to me. I reserved a Ford Focus or similar. A C class compact car. I got a Nissan Versa. A B class sub compact car. Not even in the same class. And proceeded to charge me the amount for the C class car. I refused. I walked across the terminal to National, got an upgrade for what it would have cost me for the versa. I have never rented from them again. The bate and switch took my by surprise.
Always rent the cheapest make/model they have on their website, as often as not they don’t have these small cars and they will then try their up selling routine at the car hire desk. Stick with what you booked and there’s a good chance that you’ll get an upgrade for free. Don’t think I’ve ever had exactly the car they propose to rent you, it’s generally the most desirable car in class. What they usually have is a vehicle from a less desirable manufacturer.
@@Myron90 the Versa was a downgrade. It is not even the same class of car. A larger C class Nissan Sentra is in the same class as the larger C class Ford Focus. The smaller B class Nissan Versa is in the same class as the smaller B class Ford Fiesta. It was a downgrade.
I worked for Hertz from 2001 to 2004 in their Car finance area - we had a team of 5 running all the finances, projects, and reporting when they were owned by Ford. The company was purely based on operations - all top execs had to have been at least a VP in the field for 2 years or more and most of them rotated through the department I was in during their tenure. They ran the company like a 1970s/1980s company and honestly considering how bad the competition was, they made money and were penetrating the local markets (non-airports), growing at a decent rate considering their size. Due to my position, I was always around the top execs and field ops folks - even the worst of them would be considered stars just about anywhere else. After I left, they were carved out of Ford as the author goes through - figured it would end in disaster, Frissora was a Al Dunlap level of corporate hack and what friends still with the company were telling me; the company was marked for death. The truth is that when you borrow like Hertz did to run operations in a commodity business, you will be out of business very quickly - just like the recent rash of retailers declaring bankruptcy this year. When the raiders want your company, plan your exit strategy ASAP.
They wanted employees to have bachelors degrees, to wash cars and go get oil changes. Talking about learning the job from the ground up. Man I didn’t go to school for 4 extra years to make minimum wage wash dead bugs off windshields.
As a former Hertz Manager I remember the 2005 purchase and how it negatively affected our culture and market expansion in the local markets. I remember having to pull many deals off the table because the new investors did not want to spend the money. Everything changed after that and the company did not feel the same. Thank you for bringing back these memories because it reaffirms I made the right choice by leaving the company in 2006.
@Agent J I'm saying that the CEOs and other high ranking executives don't care about the company, since they'll always be able to get their 6 figure paychecks by laying off other staff.
@Agent J It's a statement meant to highlight how unfair the situation is. Company is dying and employees are losing their jobs, but the executives don't care because they get their 6 and 7 and even 8 figure checks. Unless those executives are made accountable, they will continue to make these sort of decisions. In other words, you two don't actually disagree. You simply interpreted a sarcastic statement at face value.
HealthPlus of Michigan in 2010 was the 22nd best in the nation (out of 200+) and 2nd best Health Insurance provider in the state of Michigan. New management came in ran it in to the ground. They were even told not to pursue the costly business practices, didn't matter. Within 5 years ran it in the ground. Top people were picked up by other large companies, (6 figure salaries). Others did get a severance but no top job offers the execs received.
I was a manager. The amount of fraud in this company was staggering. Company stealing hours from employees. The employees being forced to modify contracts with coverage options to meet numbers while lowering price of total rental cost so patrons would not ask questions. These coverages would in turn cost the company money if the vehicle was involved in a incident.
USUALY TH MANAGER TRAINEES JUST LOWERED THE RENTAL PRICE TO $.01 AND ADDED THE DULL BOAT COVERAGE!!!!?!!! REMEMBER, AHH THOSE WERE THE DAYS, AND THE AREA MANAGER WOULF THEN TAKE THEM TO A BANQUET AND HONOE THEM FOR BEING A GOOD SELLER.
I worked for hertz corporate in 2012-2017 while i was in college, the people i worked with were great, and we all thought the upper management was beyond corrupt, especially when the FTC found out frisora was cooking the books for a few years. That really hit us hard; also customers really noticed we had the higher prices, but no better quality than the competition. Its sad to see the great people there mismanaged into oblivion.
It's always satisfying to see a corporate raider get the sharp end of the sword. He still has more money than his grandkids could ever spend. I'll never understand the psychopathic mindset of individuals such as himself.
@@Khaab00 Agree. The difference between him and other billionaires is that most other billionaires actually bring good to the world. Carl just sticks his nose in things and makes bad situations worse.
When will companies and shareholders learn that the moment an executive comes in and the first order of business is to pay him/her self a huge bonus, it's the beginning of the end?!?
Too true. In 2008 when the CEOs of Lloyds TSB, Barclays etc. were getting an annual salary of 1 000 000 pounds with bonuses of a whopping 10 000 000 pounds plus.
As one who rented cars a few times a year, I've noticed that Hertz was usually the most expensive, so I seldom rented with them. Years ago, when Alamo was the first to allow unlimited mileage, I rented with them exclusively for quite a while because i liked to "roam" around the country. In later years, I've been renting mostly with Enterprise. Now that I'm retired, I tend to drive instead of flying and renting a car, particularly because of all the extra fees and taxes that make the rental twice as expensive. I tend to rent compacts or rarely a midsize--I wonder how many people actually want to rent the expensive cars.
Whenever private equity gets involve, you should take pause. It usually means things are gonna get worse for the front line employees, and that the product/service is gonna be stripped down to improve profitability, so expect a lot of corner-cutting.
To compound on the debt mentioned in the video: Hertz sold a lot of Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) contingent on the value of the cars used in their fleet. When 2020 rolled around, the value of their fleet suddenly fell by ~12%, which meant they could not pay their debtors. This very similar to what caused the 2008 housing crisis.
If all executives leave then there would be nobody left to lead the company. The extra money is used to incentivise the executives to stay and help with the mess.
My family traveled almost annually and Hertz was just the one rental brand we never bothered with because their prices just weren't good enough. Sort of a saturated market either way, but sure doesn't sound like the other well known companies were doing this bad to begin with.
Because of a credit card I hold, I was given the highest status with Hertz and in the last two years I have made about 50 car rentals. Only once was Hertz in the ballpark when it came to the price and the one time they were competitive I regretted choosing them. The car booked wasn't available (no issue, it happens), they tried to give me a car at least two tiers below the one booked without any adjustment to price (after 30+ minutes they reduced the rate) and the car received was not as nice as the same model from competition. The vehicle in this case was a Yukon which was fine but a Yukon from each of their competitors has always been an upper model in the line while this was the base model. I always see the "extras" of the higher end models as a bonus and don't expect them but when you get them from all the others you kind of feel they went cheap when Hertz delivers a lesser product. This video was a great history of Hertz and some of the issues with the company but when a company delivers less product for more money, it doesn't surprise me when they go bankrupt.
There's enough to go around money isn't a limited quantity. You just have to find ways to get it instead of moping around about others having more, and how unfair everything is, and how you can't have something because others have it.
Good! They deserve it. I worked at the call center in Oklahoma City 27 years ago and quit after four months. They treat their employees like crap, and their employees tell on each other. I have since finished school, have a good job, and have never rented from Hertz.
All Car Rentals are Greedy ! I remember back then even last year 2019 prior to the pandemic .. those Employees had attitude problem. They forced you to buy insurance protection and any unnecessary stuffs and if you didn't want to do that .. they would give you BAD car. They also charged you insane amount of $$. I hope this coronavirus will teach everybody a lesson .. Don't Be Greedy .. because Karma will come back and bite you !
I hear you. But you must remember that these employees were only following orders from the company. If they strayed from the "program", they were fired. They had no choice, unless they chose unemployment. Sad, but true.
We were doing what we were told. We had to sell you all the extra bells and whistles and make you pay extra money but you HAVE the option to say NO instead of getting all these extra stuff
@The Dali Llama True .. They insisted to buy their insurance .. I think that's how they made the commission .. I get it ! However, IF they (Customers) had already had their full coverage insurance from their own auto insurance and they just wanted to "Opt-Out" .. then .. Why did they give the customer BAD CAR ?? That I don't understand !
Linda Fukuyu your reasoning makes absolutely zero sense. First of all we don’t offer “insurance” we offer coverage for the vehicles so that way in the event anything happens to the rental while it’s in your position, you’re not going through the headache of filing a claim through your own personal insurance company, paying your deductible and having your premiums go up for a vehicle you don’t even own. In most cases, unless you have gap insurance your insurance provider will only cover up to the year of your personal vehicle....so if you drive a brand new car it might not make sense to obtain coverage. Majority of people have a higher deductible, so paying $27 to cover a vehicle bumper to bumper as opposed to a $500 deductible and your premiums going up makes sense, everyone finds value in different places...and most people don’t realize that when you rent a car it acts as if it’s your own while in your possession. Hertz doesn’t give you a “bad car” because you didn’t take the coverage, you get what you book for and from their standpoint if you did take the coverage on a less expensive car and totaled it, it would be better for US considering you totaled a $30,000 car as opposed to a $60,000 car that we now have to eat...so it’s more likely they’d push it on a less expensive car. Every vehicle you rent through major rental car companies are at minimum 1-2 years old with typically no more than 50k miles. Which is why there are companies such as dollar and thrifty to provide higher mileage vehicles for lower prices. So to answer your ridiculous statement, no such thing as a “bad car” guarantee your personal vehicle is at least 3-4 years old with at minimum 60k miles on it.
There was a business analyst much loved by the Japanese who said the time for a company to carefully examine its policies and procedures was when it was doing very well. His name was Deming.
I was watching an old Abbott and Costello show on you tube. Abbott was going to rent a car from Hertz.And Costello kept coming up with one liners about some one getting " Hurt". This was from the 1950's.
For a brief period in the mid 1920's, Hertz built the cars that they used for their hire/lease business. After approximately 4,000 were built, manufacture stopped, as Hertz realised it was easier to lease vehicles from existing manufacturers.
4:48 I don't know how leasing works in USA but in Europe it's a different form of rental so if you're leasing a vehicle deprecation does not factor in.
As a Hertz employee of 5 years I have seen first-hand how the CEOs and directors have ran the company into the ground. Giving huge bonuses to the big wigs up top is a joke, they were the ones that ran the company into the ground. I knew about the 16 million in bonuses but had no idea about the 19.2 million dollar bonus the CEO gave himself. Yet the company has now decided to cut the pay of its employees that have been there 5 years or longer down to the SE pay as an employee that's worked there for 5 minutes. I had planned to retire from Hertz and work there until that time came. But with all the constant changes in how we are allowed to operate which don't make any sense, and the huge 33% paycut I'm being forced to accept coming July 1st, I'm looking for a new job.
Many of the same things happened to Advantage & EZ rental car. Biggest issue was payroll. Employees and management at Advantage & EZ were paid the highest in the industry. Income was good but could not keep up with commissions, bonus and base salaries.
I worked for hertz. Now I see why everything was suck a mess. Yes the pictures help but the overall system of submitting matince paperwork was a hassle.
Hertz screwed me in 1976 and I have refused to use the company since. It failed to deliver a car I had reserved three months earlier to be ready for me at the Montreal airport, traveling with my three children, my husband and a baby sitter and all our luggage when we arrived on a flight from Europe. "Go find someone else" was their solution - which we did and have not used Hertz since.
Pension funds who lent the private equity firms the money to buy these companies which they they proceeded to gut and left the carcass to the lenders ie pension funds.
After being a customer for 13 years, I paid the 1500.00 Platinum fee for about seven years and the rest of the years was Presidents' Circle and saw their quality drastically decrease. Best years was when they had the Dream Cars available for rent. It was nice to drive a Range, or higher end Benz or BMW for all business trips.
I used to work for avis and budget ( they are the same company basicaly) i can tell you the car rental business is the most unreliable, fraudulent business that it exists all these companies no matter if Its dollar, avis, hertz they screw up people's vacations, trips or business ventures by always managing to book the wrong car always smaller to what originaly agreed by customers Like 4 real, folk would book 4 months in advance to get a big SUV they need to fit 7 or 8 people they would get there and we would say sorry we have a toyota prius ... Pay us, i hated that job
Great video! I can add so much to this, having worked 10 years there, watched as the ship was going down. In short, from the top CEO down through management, people were rewarded for cheating, counter people on sales up to finance department fudging the numbers. Left in 2016, I wasn't shock when they paid bonuses 1 week before filing for bankruptcy. Shows they just don't change, the culture is rotten.
What a shame. My company used Hertz as there prefered rental cars in the 80s. I didn't fully realize how good they were until we went with other rental companies as a cost cutting measure.
Hertz biggest mistake was not hiring the ceo from Dollar. You have to have someone with experience in car rental. I know I worked for one of these companies they would hire college graduates and no experience they would fail every time
If lease long term you have to include asset on fixed asset register and depreciate it as you would own it (ifrs16) as it is asset generating revenue, you wouldn't have to depreciate if it is short term rental (e.g. if company would rent a car from Hertz for business trip)
This is unfortunately the problem with car rental and airline companies in general. They borrow money on something going down in value and have to rely on milking its consumer base for money to pay back its insane loans... When the consumer base is reduced significantly, the company dies.
They have the worse customer service.. I needed a rental and I paid out of pocket rather than have the insurance company pay. I’m sorry for the employees but I’m not surprised. Maybe ERAC can buy it to save the jobs.
Avis/Budget rent-a-car is in the best position to weather the pandemic economic storm. If Enterprise drastically recedes it's market position, Avis' best move will be to drastically revamp it's business model. Less dependence on Airport rental lots as rents & leases grew to outrageous terms over the years. Also look for some type of rate change possibly reverting to a time & mileage with fuel furnished scenario. The rent-a-car centralized rental centers at larger airports are probably a thing of the past. Air travel for business may never return to its former volume. Kudos to Avis management. After years of being treated condescendingly by Hertz, you outmaneuvered them especially with the Budget RAC purchase on your terms. This may be the right time to reintroduce Truck rentals at select corporate locations and especially franchisee locations. There is serious money in trucks when rental/ lease operations are incorporated as a counterbalance to heavy fleet turnovers for cars. Cost of cars may require RAC companies going forward to lengthen the age of their fleet.
Man I dont know why Avis hasn't gone like this, I take calls from people making reservations for Avis and the people that operate at the counter aren't the issue it's that in several ocasiones people I've gotten calls from usually have to get added coverage even if they said no or already have coverage , a lack of customer service since we can't help customers if the locations closed or even call them cuz we as the the people who take the calls are the one receiving the calls only, if you think you can get into contact to the direct location good luck that ain't happening cuz all phone numbers given are rerouted to the avis call center and that upsets me a lack of real concern for customers on the avis budget group for there customers they just take the Money and book it and I hope that time will tell if this company gets shafted cuz from what I've seen and heard they just don't care for there customers.
As somebody who previously worked for Avis, I agree. Granted I was out moving cars around, but the way a lot of their customers were treated was hard to witness considering I had run back and forth between the outside lot and the airport terminal. There's a reason I was only there for 6 months.
The last rental car I used was an insurance company rental while mine was in the shop. It was a Hyundai from Enterprise. It was a pretty good car. Hertz failed to realize there were other times when people might want to rent a car other than when flying.
I had no choice but to rent a car from Hertz recently for the first time ever. At the pick up location the car was dirty requested they wash it. Got in the car and it was not properly cleaned at all. Car had mechanical issues and damaged as well. Returned the vehicle at a different location 3 days after trying to get a swap but never got one. Dropped car off later as a key drop off and these ppl charged my cc $750 talking about a smoke fee. I don’t even smoke. No proof nothing. The lies I delt with. I hope hertz burns in hell. Using ppl and lies to meet overhead cost. Karma is coming for them.
I was a loyal Hertz customer. But when I tried other rental companies I realized that their customer experience was lack luster. So about 2 years ago, I stopped Hertz and became a loyal member of a different rental company. Hertz was ok as long as you did not have to make a change to an existing reservation. Gold Status meant nothing, so I walked away.
I really enjoy the "No" at around 6:53. I'm so used to you asking rhetorical questions and sounding impartial but you just added such a hilarious reading of "No."
Just another example of fossilised think dating back from the 20th century. We see this also in Ford and GM until just this year, 2020. As always in big corporations, the salaries and bonusses of the board members are much more important than the health of the company or its adaption to new times. Shareholders are held at bay by giving dividends, either in cash or stock. It is a simple formula that earns board members dozens, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars without having to show anything for it that guarantees the future of the company. It is this mechanism that enabled companies like Microsoft and Tesla to come about and thrive. Selling a company is the most lucrative action possible for a board of directors.
I own my own business and it requires me to travel all around the US. I have always used Dollar (owned by Hertz). Well, this year Dollar has lost the recipe for how to run a business. I'm guessing it's a combination of the effects of the pandemic and bad management. The Dollar web site is a mess. It will not allow me to use points when reserving a car. Sometimes it says I have ZERO points even though I have several thousand. Even when it does acknowledge my points, it still will not apply my points to the reservation. I finally gave up. I have switched to National. It can't be worse.
Wow dude, this video is so well made with great production value. I was actually kind of having trouble paying attention to the content itself because I was focused on the technical aspects. Anyway, really great! I usually don't subscribe to a channel after watching just one video, but this time is an exception!
The same could be said for companies like 24 Hour Fitness that grew, took on debt, allowed quality to decline, only to use Chapter 11 as a get out of jail card.
Corps lose their way when they completely forget about the service or product they provide and it ALL becomes about the profit. It rarely works out in the end. It's even worst when these private equity groups buy up well known, trusted corporations that have operated well for decades. They raid the company's assets and take out loans that don't make sense. Throw their equity all out of whack. Boost CEO's salaries, increase dividends, issue more stock etc. etc. It's also a bad idea to not... own anything you're selling or operating out of. Leasing cars and locations... that money should go to buying up those cars and properties. So in the end you at least own... something tangible. Anyone who sells their company to a corporate raider like this guy knows what they're doing though. They're also taking a "bribe" or payout to simply walk away.
Ya, I was a manager for Hertz in 2012. Around that time they cut management staff's hourly rate by $3 an hour and moved to really strict sales model that only airport employees (who rent more than 100 cars per person a day) can meet... Then they would victim blame the managers for not making a profit at their store even though they would they only had 5 rentals in one day.. so there is how Hertz also demoralized it's local buildings To get cars: Hertz often would give power to the airport locations and the locals had to rely on borrowing cars from the airport. Often, airports were greedy and would not share cars which often lead car shortages on local level (And pissed off customers) in the middle of the week and on major holidays. I remember Memorial Day (where I worked alone - sales, answering phone, cleaning inside out of cars, walk-around etc) where I had 40 rentals (25 vans having only 15, and the rest assorted being short about a dozen). Previous night, we took 10 employees (two trips each) to airport to get cars, I told branch manager I was dozen cars short they said I would be fine. Halfway thru shift I had to call Regional Manager because of the furious customers. I was still working with customers 1.5 hours after close. These two examples lead to toxic environment which showed consistent 5-10% loss with dozen local business in major metro area.
I worked for Hertz at an airport location. When ever our HLE came to pick up cars from us for extra weekends or weeks of holidays or higher demand our managers would tell us to find the cars with the highest mileage and the damaged ones and we would set them aside for the HLEs to come get.
@@BentleyCC yep... We had to get dirty cars, clean/gas at AP, usually over 100k, then drive back 45 mins. There were plenty of times where I had to get brand new car bc it was the only dirty one they had; def not giving up fancy and/or suvs... Think got a couple under 3k mileage
UK Heathrow Hertz are crooks. Avoid their "damage tires and rims" scam upon returning rental car. Take pictures of the rental car (wheels, rims, body), and carefully document all existing damages.
Booked a car online in Italy. Went in to claim it then they didn’t let me use because I didn’t have 2 credit cards. When my credit card bill came they still charged me. Didn’t refund it because I was out of Italy already. Karma is a real.
You can't make that work unless you can print money, and government debt isn't like private debt anyway. Government debt exists solely as one of a number of tools to control inflation. A government absolutely could print an infinite amount of money without borrowing it from anyone, but doing so would devalue the currency too much, so instead they issue bonds, not because they need to borrow money, but because they need to control the rate of inflation. Taxes too, exist not because a government needs an income, but yet again, to control inflation... (printing money increases the money supply. Taxation decreases it...) It's all a weird balancing act, but pretty much nothing in government finance is what it seems to be, nor is any of it meaningfully comparable to private finance...
Most wil go to wholesale auction and end up at thousands of used car lots all over the country. Most rental cars end up scattered around at dealerships. A mid-trim one year old used car with 30-40K mi at your local chevy dealership will most likely be a former rental car. Carfax is your friend.
I worked for AVIS and Hertz.. Both were fun to work at the people were great but not the HERTZ boss he was like a little worm of a guy...Shawn if your still out there big finger... I quit HERTZ and became service manager for AVIS.. It was a good job with good pay and worked with the best people.. I bet it is much different now with all of these new kids running it.. I am sure it has gone down hill.. Bad times for all now I am so glad that I am retired..
Your video made my day in that Icahn lost big $$$. His predatory actions have hurt 100s of thousands of workers and seeing him get burnt warms the cockles of my dark heart. Very good production value, well done overall!!
Basically the executives at the top extracted what they could from their cushy compensation packages, while doing a terrible job and mismanaging the business. With the exception of that Woman boss at the end who did good but then had foresight to get out.
It's roughly similar to what many companies are facing. Taking on too much debt, in part compelled by the asset inflation caused by central bank's interest rate policies of the past 12 years. If for any reason your revenue falls off, you have no money to pay your interest, rent, or lease. That's also what took down the airlines so quickly. They don't own their aircraft, they lease them. Usually payroll is also a massive cost, but in the US you can just lay people off, and in Europe you can't lay people off easily but we have generous payroll compensation schemes rolled out by most governments. The problem is the unprecedented level of debt. And the current answer to this problem? Creating more debt! Trillions every month now.
I never rented with Hertz for one simple reason - I always flew from the UK to Salzburg (Austria) and Munich (Germany) and the ques I saw at rental desks were horrific - often 20 people or more while other renter desks had ques of 2-5 people. It was something that disgusted me and I always rented with smaller outfits.
Classic adding debt to increase market share. Rarely works. Guys like Ichan usually load up the companies with huge debt at huge interest rates too. The Wall Street letches that started out in the 80’s destroying profitable businesses to make a fast buck has been a disaster.
The Hertz CEO pocketed a profit of 25 million dollars last year. I no this because I worked for them last year. The company is suffuring but she sure isnt.
As short version of this would be "Deplorable Private Equity Jerks destroy company-thousands lose jobs" . This is always what happens with these greedy private equity jerks. Their scheme should be outlawed in my opinion. If it had been illegal over the years, 10's of thousands, if not 100's of thousands up US citizens would still have jobs, be paying taxes, buying houses, cars, etc, benefiting the economy. Instead a few greedy, uncaring jerks get rich.
Hertz disrespects their repeat main customers (3 4 day rentals a month ones like me). In 2019 I hit Presidents level in July (20 rentals), yet through July to August and into Sept, I never saw the status upgrade. You get the runaround from locals who will not help you and deny you the rental status, then corporate who did little to resolve it and didn't seem to care to resolve it after 2 weeks of calling them and emailing them. I had to stay on Hertz tech support and another avenue given to me through tech support who said they did what they could do and to work the 2nd route. Should any customer have to do this?They couldn't even take care of their bread and butter customers. I started using National instead against our co. rules. Finally in late November, after 34 rentals, they gave me presidents circle, and the bonus points ratio I made sure I asked for in my emails. My company makes me use Hertz,otherwise I wouldn't. Hertz is a joke and the only way I ever got upgraded nationally is by working the counter and taking the time out of my schedule to do it. If you just show up , about 1 in 5 actually upgrade you per the rules. They all say it's availability. Sometimes they cannot even print you a receipt, they are so dedicated to trimming costs. I usually flew to large and mid range airports and there was no excuse for availability. I had good look a few times at the Minneapolis airport Hertz (that one has two I think) on upgrades, and good luck in Salt Lake City.
When Planes Trains and Automobiles came out, I thought that the Steve Martin scene with the rental car place was merely a comedic interlude....... it turned out to be a documentary.
Excellent stats , with reasoning and presentation. Great visuals to supplement the audio at the right moment. An amazing conglomerations of bad decisions, inopportune hubris and yes, greed. What a mess! A classic over grown (almost typical) collapse. The unemployed grow by 20,000 and near billions to failed CEO and billion $ losses to investors. Well done. This may portend of more to come.
Hertz is still deep in greed even though they filed chapter 11. The cars they are selling are listed for 10-14% savings? That is crazy since you can buy a new car from a dealer for the same price right now. Dealers are just selling whatever they can so buying a slapped out rental for 10% savings is yet another stupid decision and will not raise the capital they are hoping.
I had a VERY bad experience with Hertz back in 2016. We had received a rental from our local dealership which used Hertz and while we had the rental, I was involved in a multi-car accident. I was not at fault as I was car #3 in a 4 car collision. Originally Hertz informed me that the insurance was good (I had asked about insurance before picking up my rental but was told by the clerk that it was paid for already). However, when the driver who rear-ended me tried to sue me for damages, Hertz suddenly changed their tune and claimed that we had somehow purchased the wrong insurance as the rental was done through a corporate card and I was NOT on a business trip.....How do you purchase the WRONG insurance? Its not like we got boat or house insurance for the rental car...Thankfully, my normal car insurance company stepped in to fight for me since Hertz threw us under the bus. Needless to say, we vowed to never rent from Hertz again.
No wonder a few weeks before when I checked for used car sales at Hertz Indianapolis it says they were no longer in business and I didn't notice the company was in deep trouble.
Great job educating the people on how these rich manipulators control everything through their greed and avarice. For us it's trying to build a good life, strong economy, doing a good job. For them it's grabbing as much as they can. The problem for them is it's all for nothing for no matter how much you acquire or steal in life, eventually you end up dead and all that money, all that capital will do nothing to prevent it.
This was great! Good job. I like this. Happy to see more of these. Makes you wonder how many smaller companies with less scrutiny are getting away with.
July 1, 2020----Used to visit Dad, brother & his family who live in Florida. NEVER rented from Hertz because of their costs. Out of curiosity, wondered what a USED car from them would cost. How about at least $20,000? And some didn't even have a price other than saying click for further details.
I rented a Shelby Mustang Cobra convertible once in Tampa. Was around $730 for a few days, a little pricey but it was a fun car to drive back and forth from the hotel to work.
Are used to love renting cars from Hertz but in 2019 they came up with a new policy only that you can rent cars with major credit cards. Got a major credit card and start running car from enterprise roughly over 2 1/2 years later now hurts filing for bankruptcy I was a loyal customer to
Sounds like many years of mismanagement. I cannot speak for the US, but in Europe, I've rented just a few times from Hertz, notably in Italy. Worst experience ever. This business is built on trust and returning customers. I never dared to rent from Hertz again.
@@teddypup2424 Ya that's what I was thinking too. OP may know his stuff, but not saying a name of someone so famous in the financial world hurts his credibility
@@TheAnthonykirksey Are you 12 years old? You understand that people pronounce things differently. Also do you realize that the art of pronunciation was created by humans? How miserable must one be to cry about pronunciation of a corporate tyrant lol.
We totally screwed up Icahn's pronunciation, and there's a long story behind that, but we won't bore you with it.
Just dropping an apology and telling you we know its Eye-Cahn, not EEE-Cahn. Carry on.
The only thing your mini-documentaries are missing is a Trap Beat in the background. Nothing too annoying just something a little more upbeat than the current elevator music that plays now. Beyond That, you continue to do a Great Job.
Same reason that Americans can't say Nikon, instead they say N(eye)kon.
Ask me if I give a damn how you pronounce the name of some nasty greedy pig. Go ahead, I dare you.
Google Hertz Philadelphia
Carl Eye-Kahn. At least pronounce his name correctly.
Basically to sum up:
Too much debt Hertz
Rapid expansion Hertz
A business often changing hands Hertzz
it Hertz too much
@@jadenlee9074 dad, where have you been all these years?
Massive bonuses to ur execs Hertzzz
Private equity vulture fund assholes bleeding your company dry really Hertzzzzz.
its much easier to just look at the ceo of hertz and what he did. a rapidly expanding company can be a bad thing, but you can close down locations and restructure. In this case, the ceo wanted to run the company into the ground on purpose.
I once rented from Hertz. The website reservation said “Toyota Corolla or similar”, and when I arrived they gave me Chevrolet Aveo. To my question of that cannot possibly be “Toyota Corolla similar” they said that this is the car for the price I booked and I’ll have to pay more to get Corolla. Needless to say, I never rented from Hertz again.
Same happened to me. I reserved a Ford Focus or similar. A C class compact car. I got a Nissan Versa. A B class sub compact car. Not even in the same class. And proceeded to charge me the amount for the C class car. I refused. I walked across the terminal to National, got an upgrade for what it would have cost me for the versa. I have never rented from them again. The bate and switch took my by surprise.
@@vapsa56 a ford focus or similar is an economy sized car. You got a free upgrade.
- Former Hertz Employee
Always rent the cheapest make/model they have on their website, as often as not they don’t have these small cars and they will then try their up selling routine at the car hire desk. Stick with what you booked and there’s a good chance that you’ll get an upgrade for free.
Don’t think I’ve ever had exactly the car they propose to rent you, it’s generally the most desirable car in class. What they usually have is a vehicle from a less desirable manufacturer.
@@Myron90 the Versa was a downgrade. It is not even the same class of car. A larger C class Nissan Sentra is in the same class as the larger C class Ford Focus. The smaller B class Nissan Versa is in the same class as the smaller B class Ford Fiesta. It was a downgrade.
#hertzhurts
I worked for Hertz from 2001 to 2004 in their Car finance area - we had a team of 5 running all the finances, projects, and reporting when they were owned by Ford. The company was purely based on operations - all top execs had to have been at least a VP in the field for 2 years or more and most of them rotated through the department I was in during their tenure. They ran the company like a 1970s/1980s company and honestly considering how bad the competition was, they made money and were penetrating the local markets (non-airports), growing at a decent rate considering their size. Due to my position, I was always around the top execs and field ops folks - even the worst of them would be considered stars just about anywhere else. After I left, they were carved out of Ford as the author goes through - figured it would end in disaster, Frissora was a Al Dunlap level of corporate hack and what friends still with the company were telling me; the company was marked for death. The truth is that when you borrow like Hertz did to run operations in a commodity business, you will be out of business very quickly - just like the recent rash of retailers declaring bankruptcy this year. When the raiders want your company, plan your exit strategy ASAP.
They wanted employees to have bachelors degrees, to wash cars and go get oil changes. Talking about learning the job from the ground up. Man I didn’t go to school for 4 extra years to make minimum wage wash dead bugs off windshields.
As a former Hertz Manager I remember the 2005 purchase and how it negatively affected our culture and market expansion in the local markets. I remember having to pull many deals off the table because the new investors did not want to spend the money. Everything changed after that and the company did not feel the same. Thank you for bringing back these memories because it reaffirms I made the right choice by leaving the company in 2006.
Hertz: another victim in a line of companies screwed over by private equity firms.
doesn't matter if the company goes bankrupt, so long as the CEOs and other executives are getting their 6 figure paychecks.
@Agent J I'm saying that the CEOs and other high ranking executives don't care about the company, since they'll always be able to get their 6 figure paychecks by laying off other staff.
@Agent J It's a statement meant to highlight how unfair the situation is. Company is dying and employees are losing their jobs, but the executives don't care because they get their 6 and 7 and even 8 figure checks. Unless those executives are made accountable, they will continue to make these sort of decisions.
In other words, you two don't actually disagree. You simply interpreted a sarcastic statement at face value.
HealthPlus of Michigan in 2010 was the 22nd best in the nation (out of 200+) and 2nd best Health Insurance provider in the state of Michigan. New management came in ran it in to the ground. They were even told not to pursue the costly business practices, didn't matter. Within 5 years ran it in the ground. Top people were picked up by other large companies, (6 figure salaries). Others did get a severance but no top job offers the execs received.
"6 figure paychecks" yeah right...you mean 7 figures.
xi chen Hell, 8 figures according to the video.
Operating under a huge debt but still making money for the top execs is actually a viable business model for the greedy.
I was a manager. The amount of fraud in this company was staggering. Company stealing hours from employees. The employees being forced to modify contracts with coverage options to meet numbers while lowering price of total rental cost so patrons would not ask questions. These coverages would in turn cost the company money if the vehicle was involved in a incident.
USUALY TH MANAGER TRAINEES JUST LOWERED THE RENTAL PRICE TO $.01 AND ADDED THE DULL BOAT COVERAGE!!!!?!!! REMEMBER, AHH THOSE WERE THE DAYS, AND THE AREA MANAGER WOULF THEN TAKE THEM TO A BANQUET AND HONOE THEM FOR BEING A GOOD SELLER.
So they started during Spanish flu pandemic, ended during covid pandemic lol
@@jcrowley1985 The Pandemic is very real. My brother died from Covid.
My dad works for Hertz and literally nothing has changed.
@@jcrowley1985 ---- Oh look...a chemtrail.
@@jcrowley1985 No covid pandemic? With that mind set you have to be dead 5 months later
@@ytisfinggarbagenow8028 I'm still here and alive. I guess that's proof it's a hoax
I worked for hertz corporate in 2012-2017 while i was in college, the people i worked with were great, and we all thought the upper management was beyond corrupt, especially when the FTC found out frisora was cooking the books for a few years. That really hit us hard; also customers really noticed we had the higher prices, but no better quality than the competition. Its sad to see the great people there mismanaged into oblivion.
Wow, thanks for sharing your story!
Watching a hound like Carl Ichan lose billions is rather satisfying.
Yeah,but he still has a lot of money
He'll recoup a large amount by writing off the loss.
@@ontopoftheroof You obviously don't know how tax write offs work.
It's always satisfying to see a corporate raider get the sharp end of the sword. He still has more money than his grandkids could ever spend. I'll never understand the psychopathic mindset of individuals such as himself.
@@Khaab00 Agree. The difference between him and other billionaires is that most other billionaires actually bring good to the world. Carl just sticks his nose in things and makes bad situations worse.
When will companies and shareholders learn that the moment an executive comes in and the first order of business is to pay him/her self a huge bonus, it's the beginning of the end?!?
Too true. In 2008 when the CEOs of Lloyds TSB, Barclays etc. were getting an annual salary of 1 000 000 pounds with bonuses of a whopping 10 000 000 pounds plus.
As one who rented cars a few times a year, I've noticed that Hertz was usually the most expensive, so I seldom rented with them. Years ago, when Alamo was the first to allow unlimited mileage, I rented with them exclusively for quite a while because i liked to "roam" around the country. In later years, I've been renting mostly with Enterprise. Now that I'm retired, I tend to drive instead of flying and renting a car, particularly because of all the extra fees and taxes that make the rental twice as expensive. I tend to rent compacts or rarely a midsize--I wonder how many people actually want to rent the expensive cars.
When a contrarian investor like Carl Icahn comes in , God help the growth of the company
He pulled same stuff with Marvel comics
Whenever private equity gets involve, you should take pause. It usually means things are gonna get worse for the front line employees, and that the product/service is gonna be stripped down to improve profitability, so expect a lot of corner-cutting.
@@tylerdurden788 and TWA too.
When he shows up it's time to sell.
@@obsideon1343 and quit if you're a worker, cuz shit's about to go to hell really quick!
This channel is crazy, love the content guys!
Thank you Diario!
To compound on the debt mentioned in the video: Hertz sold a lot of Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) contingent on the value of the cars used in their fleet. When 2020 rolled around, the value of their fleet suddenly fell by ~12%, which meant they could not pay their debtors.
This very similar to what caused the 2008 housing crisis.
It's even dumber than that, sadly. They were buying cars, with cars (equitably speaking).
What's the deal with these higher executives making a payday even when the company is going bankrupt?
How much do you charge for firing employees in droves day after day and negotiating with hostile creditors?
@@skyak4493 I don't get your question, can you explain it more!?
If all executives leave then there would be nobody left to lead the company. The extra money is used to incentivise the executives to stay and help with the mess.
These companies won't steer themselves off the cliff, will they? :-)
@@marism6787 and it worked out so, so well. Such leadership. Much success. Great profit. Very rental.
My family traveled almost annually and Hertz was just the one rental brand we never bothered with because their prices just weren't good enough. Sort of a saturated market either way, but sure doesn't sound like the other well known companies were doing this bad to begin with.
As someone who is starting their own business, your channel has helped me a lot. Waiting on this new episode.
Don't tell me ur doing drop shipping.
Thank you! We're glad we've helped!
@@trusttheprocess4775 nope. its not dropshipping :)
Don't tell me it's a SAAS business.
Aryan Raveshia still can make millions stupid
Because of a credit card I hold, I was given the highest status with Hertz and in the last two years I have made about 50 car rentals. Only once was Hertz in the ballpark when it came to the price and the one time they were competitive I regretted choosing them. The car booked wasn't available (no issue, it happens), they tried to give me a car at least two tiers below the one booked without any adjustment to price (after 30+ minutes they reduced the rate) and the car received was not as nice as the same model from competition. The vehicle in this case was a Yukon which was fine but a Yukon from each of their competitors has always been an upper model in the line while this was the base model. I always see the "extras" of the higher end models as a bonus and don't expect them but when you get them from all the others you kind of feel they went cheap when Hertz delivers a lesser product. This video was a great history of Hertz and some of the issues with the company but when a company delivers less product for more money, it doesn't surprise me when they go bankrupt.
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."
Quote guy strikes again.
problem is people had no pride in what they do.. just how much money they made...
Yumm...greed...taste so good when you're the one being fed
Who's quote ?
There's enough to go around money isn't a limited quantity. You just have to find ways to get it instead of moping around about others having more, and how unfair everything is, and how you can't have something because others have it.
Good! They deserve it. I worked at the call center in Oklahoma City 27 years ago and quit after four months. They treat their employees like crap, and their employees tell on each other. I have since finished school, have a good job, and have never rented from Hertz.
The then Hertz ceo came to my school and talked about ethics and leadership last October... she stepped down when Covid hit lmao
All Car Rentals are Greedy ! I remember back then even last year 2019 prior to the pandemic .. those Employees had attitude problem. They forced you to buy insurance protection and any unnecessary stuffs and if you didn't want to do that .. they would give you BAD car. They also charged you insane amount of $$. I hope this coronavirus will teach everybody a lesson .. Don't Be Greedy .. because Karma will come back and bite you !
Yeah, too expensive. They even told a price more expensive than what I found on the companies webpage.
I hear you. But you must remember that these employees were only following orders from the company. If they strayed from the "program", they were fired.
They had no choice, unless they chose unemployment. Sad, but true.
We were doing what we were told.
We had to sell you all the extra bells and whistles and make you pay extra money but you HAVE the option to say NO instead of getting all these extra stuff
@The Dali Llama True .. They insisted to buy their insurance .. I think that's how they made the commission .. I get it ! However, IF they (Customers) had already had their full coverage insurance from their own auto insurance and they just wanted to "Opt-Out" .. then .. Why did they give the customer BAD CAR ?? That I don't understand !
Linda Fukuyu your reasoning makes absolutely zero sense. First of all we don’t offer “insurance” we offer coverage for the vehicles so that way in the event anything happens to the rental while it’s in your position, you’re not going through the headache of filing a claim through your own personal insurance company, paying your deductible and having your premiums go up for a vehicle you don’t even own. In most cases, unless you have gap insurance your insurance provider will only cover up to the year of your personal vehicle....so if you drive a brand new car it might not make sense to obtain coverage. Majority of people have a higher deductible, so paying $27 to cover a vehicle bumper to bumper as opposed to a $500 deductible and your premiums going up makes sense, everyone finds value in different places...and most people don’t realize that when you rent a car it acts as if it’s your own while in your possession. Hertz doesn’t give you a “bad car” because you didn’t take the coverage, you get what you book for and from their standpoint if you did take the coverage on a less expensive car and totaled it, it would be better for US considering you totaled a $30,000 car as opposed to a $60,000 car that we now have to eat...so it’s more likely they’d push it on a less expensive car. Every vehicle you rent through major rental car companies are at minimum 1-2 years old with typically no more than 50k miles. Which is why there are companies such as dollar and thrifty to provide higher mileage vehicles for lower prices. So to answer your ridiculous statement, no such thing as a “bad car” guarantee your personal vehicle is at least 3-4 years old with at minimum 60k miles on it.
I worked for Hertz 15 years ago. Best company I ever worked for. They had great incentives for their employees.
There was a business analyst much loved by the Japanese who said the time for a company to carefully examine its policies and procedures was when it was doing very well. His name was Deming.
I was watching an old Abbott and Costello show on you tube. Abbott was going to rent a car from Hertz.And Costello kept coming up with one liners about some one getting " Hurt". This was from the 1950's.
For a brief period in the mid 1920's, Hertz built the cars that they used for their hire/lease business. After approximately 4,000 were built, manufacture stopped, as Hertz realised it was easier to lease vehicles from existing manufacturers.
4:48 I don't know how leasing works in USA but in Europe it's a different form of rental so if you're leasing a vehicle deprecation does not factor in.
As a Hertz employee of 5 years I have seen first-hand how the CEOs and directors have ran the company into the ground. Giving huge bonuses to the big wigs up top is a joke, they were the ones that ran the company into the ground. I knew about the 16 million in bonuses but had no idea about the 19.2 million dollar bonus the CEO gave himself.
Yet the company has now decided to cut the pay of its employees that have been there 5 years or longer down to the SE pay as an employee that's worked there for 5 minutes.
I had planned to retire from Hertz and work there until that time came. But with all the constant changes in how we are allowed to operate which don't make any sense, and the huge 33% paycut I'm being forced to accept coming July 1st, I'm looking for a new job.
Many of the same things happened to Advantage & EZ rental car. Biggest issue was payroll. Employees and management at Advantage & EZ were paid the highest in the industry. Income was good but could not keep up with commissions, bonus and base salaries.
I worked for hertz. Now I see why everything was suck a mess. Yes the pictures help but the overall system of submitting matince paperwork was a hassle.
I worked for Hertz for 8 years. It has always been a soul sucking, greedy hell hole of a company.
6 years 😭
Fun fact : Hertz means 💓 in German!
Hertz screwed me in 1976 and I have refused to use the company since. It failed to deliver a car I had reserved three months earlier to be ready for me at the Montreal airport, traveling with my three children, my husband and a baby sitter and all our luggage when we arrived on a flight from Europe. "Go find someone else" was their solution - which we did and have not used Hertz since.
When the tide goes out, you see who's not wearing pants.
When the zoom meeting camera zooms out, you see who’s not wearing pants
Pension funds who lent the private equity firms the money to buy these companies which they they proceeded to gut and left the carcass to the lenders ie pension funds.
Love it 👍
Yeah but the tide is at their neck though
Love the way you passionately put the whole detailed explanation in a story format.
Love from India 🇮🇳 .
Really helpful for people to learn.
After being a customer for 13 years, I paid the 1500.00 Platinum fee for about seven years and the rest of the years was Presidents' Circle and saw their quality drastically decrease. Best years was when they had the Dream Cars available for rent. It was nice to drive a Range, or higher end Benz or BMW for all business trips.
I used to work for avis and budget ( they are the same company basicaly) i can tell you the car rental business is the most unreliable, fraudulent business that it exists
all these companies no matter if Its dollar, avis, hertz they screw up people's vacations, trips or business ventures by always managing to book the wrong car always smaller to what originaly agreed by customers
Like 4 real, folk would book 4 months in advance to get a big SUV they need to fit 7 or 8 people they would get there and we would say sorry we have a toyota prius ... Pay us, i hated that job
Great video! I can add so much to this, having worked 10 years there, watched as the ship was going down. In short, from the top CEO down through management, people were rewarded for cheating, counter people on sales up to finance department fudging the numbers. Left in 2016, I wasn't shock when they paid bonuses 1 week before filing for bankruptcy. Shows they just don't change, the culture is rotten.
I disagree
komodo drag Why? Was it their array of unscrupulous behavior that was the majority factor that brought Hertz down or not?
Wonderful explanation. Much better than business casual which pushes all facts below the carpet.
Thanks for watching!
What a shame. My company used Hertz as there prefered rental cars in the 80s. I didn't fully realize how good they were until we went with other rental companies as a cost cutting measure.
"Start-up" and "forensics" two of my favourite words.
Hertz biggest mistake was not hiring the ceo from Dollar. You have to have someone with experience in car rental. I know I worked for one of these companies they would hire college graduates and no experience they would fail every time
4:50 - if you lease, why would you have to factor in the vehicles depreciation?
If lease long term you have to include asset on fixed asset register and depreciate it as you would own it (ifrs16) as it is asset generating revenue, you wouldn't have to depreciate if it is short term rental (e.g. if company would rent a car from Hertz for business trip)
For resale value
You don't. But I actually think Hertz finances most of their cars and not leases them. That's why its up to them to sell them after retirement.
This is unfortunately the problem with car rental and airline companies in general. They borrow money on something going down in value and have to rely on milking its consumer base for money to pay back its insane loans... When the consumer base is reduced significantly, the company dies.
They have the worse customer service.. I needed a rental and I paid out of pocket rather than have the insurance company pay. I’m sorry for the employees but I’m not surprised. Maybe ERAC can buy it to save the jobs.
Avis/Budget rent-a-car is in the best position to weather the pandemic economic storm. If Enterprise drastically recedes it's market position, Avis' best move will be to drastically revamp it's business model. Less dependence on Airport rental lots as rents & leases grew to outrageous terms over the years. Also look for some type of rate change possibly reverting to a time & mileage with fuel furnished scenario. The rent-a-car centralized rental centers at larger airports are probably a thing of the past. Air travel for business may never return to its former volume. Kudos to Avis management. After years of being treated condescendingly by Hertz, you outmaneuvered them especially with the Budget RAC purchase on your terms. This may be the right time to reintroduce Truck rentals at select corporate locations and especially franchisee locations. There is serious money in trucks when rental/ lease operations are incorporated as a counterbalance to heavy fleet turnovers for cars. Cost of cars may require RAC companies going forward to lengthen the age of their fleet.
Man I dont know why Avis hasn't gone like this, I take calls from people making reservations for Avis and the people that operate at the counter aren't the issue it's that in several ocasiones people I've gotten calls from usually have to get added coverage even if they said no or already have coverage , a lack of customer service since we can't help customers if the locations closed or even call them cuz we as the the people who take the calls are the one receiving the calls only, if you think you can get into contact to the direct location good luck that ain't happening cuz all phone numbers given are rerouted to the avis call center and that upsets me a lack of real concern for customers on the avis budget group for there customers they just take the Money and book it and I hope that time will tell if this company gets shafted cuz from what I've seen and heard they just don't care for there customers.
As somebody who previously worked for Avis, I agree. Granted I was out moving cars around, but the way a lot of their customers were treated was hard to witness considering I had run back and forth between the outside lot and the airport terminal. There's a reason I was only there for 6 months.
Used to rent Hertz cars whenever I traveled until about 2017 when I noticed prices were no longer competitive even after AAA discount. Now I see why
The last rental car I used was an insurance company rental while mine was in the shop. It was a Hyundai from Enterprise. It was a pretty good car. Hertz failed to realize there were other times when people might want to rent a car other than when flying.
I had no choice but to rent a car from Hertz recently for the first time ever. At the pick up location the car was dirty requested they wash it. Got in the car and it was not properly cleaned at all. Car had mechanical issues and damaged as well.
Returned the vehicle at a different location 3 days after trying to get a swap but never got one. Dropped car off later as a key drop off and these ppl charged my cc $750 talking about a smoke fee. I don’t even smoke. No proof nothing. The lies I delt with. I hope hertz burns in hell. Using ppl and lies to meet overhead cost. Karma is coming for them.
I was a loyal Hertz customer. But when I tried other rental companies I realized that their customer experience was lack luster. So about 2 years ago, I stopped Hertz and became a loyal member of a different rental company. Hertz was ok as long as you did not have to make a change to an existing reservation. Gold Status meant nothing, so I walked away.
I really enjoy the "No" at around 6:53. I'm so used to you asking rhetorical questions and sounding impartial but you just added such a hilarious reading of "No."
Just another example of fossilised think dating back from the 20th century. We see this also in Ford and GM until just this year, 2020. As always in big corporations, the salaries and bonusses of the board members are much more important than the health of the company or its adaption to new times. Shareholders are held at bay by giving dividends, either in cash or stock. It is a simple formula that earns board members dozens, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars without having to show anything for it that guarantees the future of the company. It is this mechanism that enabled companies like Microsoft and Tesla to come about and thrive. Selling a company is the most lucrative action possible for a board of directors.
I own my own business and it requires me to travel all around the US. I have always used Dollar (owned by Hertz). Well, this year Dollar has lost the recipe for how to run a business. I'm guessing it's a combination of the effects of the pandemic and bad management. The Dollar web site is a mess. It will not allow me to use points when reserving a car. Sometimes it says I have ZERO points even though I have several thousand. Even when it does acknowledge my points, it still will not apply my points to the reservation. I finally gave up. I have switched to National. It can't be worse.
Wow dude, this video is so well made with great production value. I was actually kind of having trouble paying attention to the content itself because I was focused on the technical aspects. Anyway, really great! I usually don't subscribe to a channel after watching just one video, but this time is an exception!
The same could be said for companies like 24 Hour Fitness that grew, took on debt, allowed quality to decline, only to use Chapter 11 as a get out of jail card.
Corps lose their way when they completely forget about the service or product they provide and it ALL becomes about the profit. It rarely works out in the end. It's even worst when these private equity groups buy up well known, trusted corporations that have operated well for decades. They raid the company's assets and take out loans that don't make sense. Throw their equity all out of whack. Boost CEO's salaries, increase dividends, issue more stock etc. etc. It's also a bad idea to not... own anything you're selling or operating out of. Leasing cars and locations... that money should go to buying up those cars and properties. So in the end you at least own... something tangible. Anyone who sells their company to a corporate raider like this guy knows what they're doing though. They're also taking a "bribe" or payout to simply walk away.
Ya, I was a manager for Hertz in 2012. Around that time they cut management staff's hourly rate by $3 an hour and moved to really strict sales model that only airport employees (who rent more than 100 cars per person a day) can meet... Then they would victim blame the managers for not making a profit at their store even though they would they only had 5 rentals in one day.. so there is how Hertz also demoralized it's local buildings
To get cars: Hertz often would give power to the airport locations and the locals had to rely on borrowing cars from the airport. Often, airports were greedy and would not share cars which often lead car shortages on local level (And pissed off customers) in the middle of the week and on major holidays. I remember Memorial Day (where I worked alone - sales, answering phone, cleaning inside out of cars, walk-around etc) where I had 40 rentals (25 vans having only 15, and the rest assorted being short about a dozen). Previous night, we took 10 employees (two trips each) to airport to get cars, I told branch manager I was dozen cars short they said I would be fine. Halfway thru shift I had to call Regional Manager because of the furious customers. I was still working with customers 1.5 hours after close. These two examples lead to toxic environment which showed consistent 5-10% loss with dozen local business in major metro area.
I worked for Hertz at an airport location. When ever our HLE came to pick up cars from us for extra weekends or weeks of holidays or higher demand our managers would tell us to find the cars with the highest mileage and the damaged ones and we would set them aside for the HLEs to come get.
@@BentleyCC yep... We had to get dirty cars, clean/gas at AP, usually over 100k, then drive back 45 mins. There were plenty of times where I had to get brand new car bc it was the only dirty one they had; def not giving up fancy and/or suvs... Think got a couple under 3k mileage
UK Heathrow Hertz are crooks. Avoid their "damage tires and rims" scam upon returning rental car. Take pictures of the rental car (wheels, rims, body), and carefully document all existing damages.
watched just a couple of vids from you and really loved the clear and concise way you explain complex topics. bravo. instant follow
"He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have."
--Socrates
Quote guy strikes again.
😆
It's true LMAO
Booked a car online in Italy. Went in to claim it then they didn’t let me use because I didn’t have 2 credit cards. When my credit card bill came they still charged me. Didn’t refund it because I was out of Italy already. Karma is a real.
"Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of." Josh Billings
TLDR: Hertz tries modern monetary theory. For some reason they couldn't make infinite debt work.
You can't make that work unless you can print money, and government debt isn't like private debt anyway.
Government debt exists solely as one of a number of tools to control inflation.
A government absolutely could print an infinite amount of money without borrowing it from anyone, but doing so would devalue the currency too much, so instead they issue bonds, not because they need to borrow money, but because they need to control the rate of inflation.
Taxes too, exist not because a government needs an income, but yet again, to control inflation... (printing money increases the money supply. Taxation decreases it...)
It's all a weird balancing act, but pretty much nothing in government finance is what it seems to be, nor is any of it meaningfully comparable to private finance...
I think I remember considering renting a few years ago and for whatever reason, hertz was so much more expensive than Avis.
Guess it hertz for them.
B r u h
Quite a Thrifty pun!
Baa bum tsss
So where can I buy cars from Hertz? Other than their own used cars portal, I can't seem to find anything
Exactly what I wanted to know. If they start liquidizing I'm trying to buy a sweet car from them on the low
They sells have lots in big cities.
Don't
Most wil go to wholesale auction and end up at thousands of used car lots all over the country. Most rental cars end up scattered around at dealerships. A mid-trim one year old used car with 30-40K mi at your local chevy dealership will most likely be a former rental car. Carfax is your friend.
I worked for AVIS and Hertz.. Both were fun to work at the people were great but not the HERTZ boss he was like a little worm of a guy...Shawn if your still out there big finger... I quit HERTZ and became service manager for AVIS.. It was a good job with good pay and worked with the best people.. I bet it is much different now with all of these new kids running it.. I am sure it has gone down hill.. Bad times for all now I am so glad that I am retired..
I retired from Avis also. Best decision ever.
Your video made my day in that Icahn lost big $$$. His predatory actions have hurt 100s of thousands of workers and seeing him get burnt warms the cockles of my dark heart. Very good production value, well done overall!!
Basically the executives at the top extracted what they could from their cushy compensation packages, while doing a terrible job and mismanaging the business. With the exception of that Woman boss at the end who did good but then had foresight to get out.
It's roughly similar to what many companies are facing. Taking on too much debt, in part compelled by the asset inflation caused by central bank's interest rate policies of the past 12 years. If for any reason your revenue falls off, you have no money to pay your interest, rent, or lease. That's also what took down the airlines so quickly. They don't own their aircraft, they lease them.
Usually payroll is also a massive cost, but in the US you can just lay people off, and in Europe you can't lay people off easily but we have generous payroll compensation schemes rolled out by most governments. The problem is the unprecedented level of debt. And the current answer to this problem? Creating more debt! Trillions every month now.
I never rented with Hertz for one simple reason - I always flew from the UK to Salzburg (Austria) and Munich (Germany) and the ques I saw at rental desks were horrific - often 20 people or more while other renter desks had ques of 2-5 people. It was something that disgusted me and I always rented with smaller outfits.
Classic adding debt to increase market share. Rarely works. Guys like Ichan usually load up the companies with huge debt at huge interest rates too.
The Wall Street letches that started out in the 80’s destroying profitable businesses to make a fast buck has been a disaster.
The Hertz CEO pocketed a profit of 25 million dollars last year. I no this because I worked for them last year. The company is suffuring but she sure isnt.
Excellent report and very well narrated. Well done!
Glad you liked it!
As short version of this would be "Deplorable Private Equity Jerks destroy company-thousands lose jobs" . This is always what happens with these greedy private equity jerks. Their scheme should be outlawed in my opinion. If it had been illegal over the years, 10's of thousands, if not 100's of thousands up US citizens would still have jobs, be paying taxes, buying houses, cars, etc, benefiting the economy. Instead a few greedy, uncaring jerks get rich.
Hertz disrespects their repeat main customers (3 4 day rentals a month ones like me). In 2019 I hit Presidents level in July (20 rentals), yet through July to August and into Sept, I never saw the status upgrade. You get the runaround from locals who will not help you and deny you the rental status, then corporate who did little to resolve it and didn't seem to care to resolve it after 2 weeks of calling them and emailing them. I had to stay on Hertz tech support and another avenue given to me through tech support who said they did what they could do and to work the 2nd route. Should any customer have to do this?They couldn't even take care of their bread and butter customers. I started using National instead against our co. rules. Finally in late November, after 34 rentals, they gave me presidents circle, and the bonus points ratio I made sure I asked for in my emails. My company makes me use Hertz,otherwise I wouldn't. Hertz is a joke and the only way I ever got upgraded nationally is by working the counter and taking the time out of my schedule to do it. If you just show up , about 1 in 5 actually upgrade you per the rules. They all say it's availability. Sometimes they cannot even print you a receipt, they are so dedicated to trimming costs. I usually flew to large and mid range airports and there was no excuse for availability. I had good look a few times at the Minneapolis airport Hertz (that one has two I think) on upgrades, and good luck in Salt Lake City.
Great video and well researched. Funny that after all that debt now their solution is try to issue new stock
Sounds so familiar - greedy CEOs and executives paying themselves tens of millions when companies are deep in debt.
why we cannot have a legislation that,when a company in debt,cannot take a huge bonus.
@@smilefaceofbengal because that would fascist.
I like using Turo, makes things way easier and only gotta be 21 to rent. Much cheaper too
When Planes Trains and Automobiles came out, I thought that the Steve Martin scene with the rental car place was merely a comedic interlude....... it turned out to be a documentary.
Excellent stats , with reasoning and presentation. Great visuals to supplement the audio at the right moment. An amazing conglomerations of bad decisions, inopportune hubris and yes, greed. What a mess! A classic over grown (almost typical) collapse. The unemployed grow by 20,000 and near billions to failed CEO and billion $ losses to investors. Well done. This may portend of more to come.
Hertz is still deep in greed even though they filed chapter 11. The cars they are selling are listed for 10-14% savings? That is crazy since you can buy a new car from a dealer for the same price right now. Dealers are just selling whatever they can so buying a slapped out rental for 10% savings is yet another stupid decision and will not raise the capital they are hoping.
Hello. This is the first I have seen of your channel. Excellent research and presentation. Keep up the work. Thanks
I had a VERY bad experience with Hertz back in 2016. We had received a rental from our local dealership which used Hertz and while we had the rental, I was involved in a multi-car accident. I was not at fault as I was car #3 in a 4 car collision. Originally Hertz informed me that the insurance was good (I had asked about insurance before picking up my rental but was told by the clerk that it was paid for already). However, when the driver who rear-ended me tried to sue me for damages, Hertz suddenly changed their tune and claimed that we had somehow purchased the wrong insurance as the rental was done through a corporate card and I was NOT on a business trip.....How do you purchase the WRONG insurance? Its not like we got boat or house insurance for the rental car...Thankfully, my normal car insurance company stepped in to fight for me since Hertz threw us under the bus.
Needless to say, we vowed to never rent from Hertz again.
No wonder a few weeks before when I checked for used car sales at Hertz Indianapolis it says they were no longer in business and I didn't notice the company was in deep trouble.
Great job educating the people on how these rich manipulators control everything through their greed and avarice. For us it's trying to build a good life, strong economy, doing a good job. For them it's grabbing as much as they can. The problem for them is it's all for nothing for no matter how much you acquire or steal in life, eventually you end up dead and all that money, all that capital will do nothing to prevent it.
This was great! Good job. I like this. Happy to see more of these. Makes you wonder how many smaller companies with less scrutiny are getting away with.
More to come! Check out other episodes here: th-cam.com/video/jxPDeFT4oTE/w-d-xo.html
July 1, 2020----Used to visit Dad, brother & his family who live in Florida. NEVER rented from Hertz because of their costs. Out of curiosity, wondered what a USED car from them would cost. How about at least $20,000? And some didn't even have a price other than saying click for further details.
give someone your car for a week, see what you get back, the end
@chris younts what you talking about mohamed
Love the content. Please do more videos on companies that are less famous or always on the news.
*amazing video once again. thank you for info.*
Thanks for watching, Be Free!
I rented a Shelby Mustang Cobra convertible once in Tampa. Was around $730 for a few days, a little pricey but it was a fun car to drive back and forth from the hotel to work.
Are used to love renting cars from Hertz but in 2019 they came up with a new policy only that you can rent cars with major credit cards. Got a major credit card and start running car from enterprise roughly over 2 1/2 years later now hurts filing for bankruptcy I was a loyal customer to
As always a pleasure to watch your videos
Sounds like many years of mismanagement. I cannot speak for the US, but in Europe, I've rented just a few times from Hertz, notably in Italy. Worst experience ever. This business is built on trust and returning customers. I never dared to rent from Hertz again.
Delighted to hear Icahn lost his shirt. He is part of the reason that US companies are obsessed with short term outcomes.
Fantastic content as usual.
Glad you think so!
EEE-Can should be pronounced Eye-Con. Thompsen is pronounced Tom-sen.
Not to be a stickler, but... you didn't know how to pronounce the name of one of the most famous activist investors??
Make sure to emphasise the *con* part as well
@@teddypup2424 Ya that's what I was thinking too. OP may know his stuff, but not saying a name of someone so famous in the financial world hurts his credibility
Icon!!!
@@TheAnthonykirksey Are you 12 years old? You understand that people pronounce things differently. Also do you realize that the art of pronunciation was created by humans? How miserable must one be to cry about pronunciation of a corporate tyrant lol.