The breakfast roundtable sessions returned for 2010, allowing operators to connect with exhibitors face to face on solutions to help them run a better business.
Drum Roll, Please
Frank Colonna of Triangle Rent A Car received the Russell Bruno Award for outstanding service to the car rental industry. Shelton Watts, vice president of Triangle, presented Colonna with the award.
In a business dominated by a few large companies, Watts described how Colonna built his independent car rental company from one location with seven cars into 28 locations with more than 4,000 cars.
On the legislative front, Colonna has lobbied against predatory car rental taxation in local markets, worked to repeal vicarious liability at the federal level and helped to ensure that rental fleet lending was included in the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Colonna has been active in local associations and ACRA for many years.
In other raffles, Sarah Romanowski of Ride Share Systems, a New Jersey Dollar licensee, won a free Car Rental Show pass for her moneymaking idea presented in Jim Tennant's session.
Sharky Laguana of Bandago Van Rentals won dinner for two, while Michael Trudel of GMI Insurance Services and Marvene Christopherson of Toyota won one-night stays at the Hilton Las Vegas.
Asked at the Car Rental Show: How did you change your business to survive the recession?
Mel Morris, Jo Ette Morris - Rent A Wreck, Canton, Mich.
"We shop utilities, insurance and other services on a yearly basis. We're running higher mileage cars and we buy them with our own money. We had our best year ever in 2009, our 43rd year in business."
Estella Lo - Budget Rent A Car, Vancouver, Canada
"We cut fleet and streamlined labor. The Winter Olympics was a good opportunity to increase our incremental sales and we added more SUVs to our fleet."
Holly Farrington - Majestic Car Rental, Burlington, Vt.
"We reined in spending and better managed operating expenses. We cut our fleet and raised our rates. We marketed aggressively. We ran close to 95 percent utilization, which is like living moment to moment, car to car. We struggled, but we came out stronger."
Steven and Sarah Romanowski - Ride Share Systems, Morristown, N.J.
"We took restrictions away such as cash rentals and the 18-year-old requirement. We cut bottled water and coffee and we cut down on trash hauling frequency. We felt we had to get into the 80-percent range locally for utilization and we cut fleet to get there. We look at every check from the previous month and ask ourselves if we really needed that."
Aharon Ben Shoshan - ABC Car Rental, Hallandale, Fla.
"We started paying attention to what the customer was asking for and we spoiled them. We deliver almost every car now, most within seven miles. All of our business is prepaid and we're almost completely sold out. With prepaid reservations, we are now able to give customers their exact car model."