Authors & Contributors

Chris Brown

Chris Brown

Executive Editor

https://plus.google.com/112966626995148870245

Chris Brown is the executive editor of Business Fleet, Auto Rental News and Fleet Forward. Through these publications, online newsletters, trade events, and associations, Chris covers all aspects of the fleet world, including fleet management, the new mobility ecosystem, manufacturer fleet activities, the fleet leasing industry, vehicle remarketing, rental industry news, car rental taxation and legislation as well as automotive environmental initiatives and trends. Chris produces the International Car Rental Show and the Fleet Forward Conference. Chris is relied on as industry resource in matters relating to car rental by major media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio.

Written by Chris Brown

Blog Post

ICRS Experience Day 5: The Hard Part Is Over

Today three seasoned operators explained their present conditions and how they’ve adjusted...

The final day examined whether the car rental industry has turned the corner to meet next year’s challenges. The answer is not about the current travel outlook, which still isn’t pretty. It’s about how car rental companies are reacting to meet those conditions.

Blog Post

ICRS Experience Day 4: Weathering the Proverbial and Actual Storms

This day started with a conversation between Kurt Browning, president of the Auto Truck and...

This day’s seminars offered advice on how to deal with lenders in a crisis, which COVID-19 claims to look out for, new business to source arising after the pandemic, and how to prepare for the increasing number of weather events in the U.S.

Blog Post

ICRS Experience Day 3: All About Fleet

The day’s first seminar convened fleet experts from sales (Mike Muehlenfeld of Walser Fleet),...

We learned that rental fleet allocation will be tight in the next few quarters, so operators will have to work harder to source vehicles. In this massive disruption, renter types are changing too. Third-party platforms are designed to find them.

Blog Post

ICRS Experience Day 2: What We Learned

The day started with the seminar “Assessing the Big Picture: Financial, Wholesale, and Travel...

Today was about industry prognostications, from the future of Hertz post-bankruptcy and next year’s used car market to the acceleration of car rental’s digital transformation.

Blog Post

ICRS Experience Day 1: What We Learned

If you’re not registered for ICRS Experience there’s still time, we’ve got four more days of...

Speakers from J.D. Power outlined surprising findings related to COVID-19 while ACRA outlined a member offer and 2021 priorities. We learned how car rental rates are shaping up and to not let our guard down on Graves protections.

Blog Post

Where Were You in the Beginning of March?

As we began to grasp the enormity of the pandemic, it became clear that an in-person ICRS would...

In a few weeks, the world seemed to teeter on its axis and then spin out of control. Today, businesses willing to evolve will be able to meet the needs of tomorrow’s travelers, while those choosing to stay put won’t survive.

Blog Post

Assessing the New Hertz Bonus Plan

Hertz — which shed over half its global workforce and declared bankruptcy in the span of two...

When normal incentive structures go out the window, how do you keep key talent in times of severe financial distress?

News

Gov. Newsom Issues Order to Ban New Gas Car Sales in Calif. by 2035

Although the order would require new cars to be zero-emission, it would not prevent Californians...

The order requires all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission in 15 years, though it would not prevent Californians from owning gasoline-powered cars or selling them on the used car market.

Blog Post

Can Sixt Win at Subscriptions Where Others Haven’t?

The door is open for car rental and subscriptions — if the industry wants to walk through it.

This could be car rental’s time for subscriptions — or another noble experiment.

Article

Prevailing through a Pandemic: Budget Harrisburg’s Blacktop Story

With about six acres of blacktop, Cramer says it was always going to be a challenge to do the...

“There is always opportunity amidst chaos,” says Solomon Cramer, licensee owner of Budget Rent a Car of Harrisburg. “You just have to find it.”

Blog Post

What the Lyft-Sixt Deal Could Mean to Car Rental and Mobility

In this scenario, Lyft touches the rental customer first through the Lyft app, but doesn’t own...

Lyft gets a ready supply of vehicles while Sixt gets an alternative outlet for its fleet — yet this partnership’s potential long-term evolution could be the true art in this deal.

Article

Kyte: Disrupting the Car Rental Model at the Right Time

Kyte founders Ludwig Schoenack (left), Nikolaus Volk, and Francesco Wiedemann spent their early...

This startup car rental platform has grown 20% to 40% month-on-month since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with partners’ fleets and an app-based delivery model.

Blog Post

$279 a Day to Rent a Car In NYC? There’s More to the Story

Kusinitz took this photo of customers waiting outside an Avis location on Manhattan’s Upper East...

An imbalance of cars and the high cost to move them to where they’re needed, rentals booked for low rates in April, and higher incidences of fraud and damage plague the shift to local rentals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Blog Post

Advantage Lives to Rent Another Car

Advantage was born in 1963 in San Antonio, to Kenneth and Helen Walker, humble, yet...

Advantage has suffered three bankruptcies and ping-ponged from five ownership groups with wildly divergent goals. Yet a slimmed down Advantage under entrepreneurial ownership just might have a chance.

Blog Post

How a Hertz Bankruptcy Affects its Franchisees

Though the franchise landscape has shrunk steadily in the past 30 years, a footprint of Hertz,...

Bankruptcy proceedings can impact franchise contracts, fleet payments, and corporate accounts. When the dust settles, Hertz 2.0 will have ripples beyond the franchisees.