For those in the car rental community who don’t know me, I ran Auto Rental News and the International Car Rental Show for close to two decades.

Those who know me may remember that I ceded editorial duties at ARN to step into the role of associate publisher at Automotive Fleet. I’m still in that role. But now I’m telling all of you, I’m back at Auto Rental News.

You’ll hear more in the coming weeks. For now, I’d like to share with you why I’m delighted to be back.

I read this at the 30^th anniversary of the International Car Rental Show in May. It represents my views of how the show has transformed, but it also encapsulates my 20 years of feelings for this industry (Oh but also have fun with the links. They're a trip down memory lane.)

My First Notion of Car Rental

My first notion of what the car rental industry actually was — other than as a car renter — was in 2004. I was working at Bobit, but not yet on Auto Rental News.

ARN has traditionally published the chart in the Fact Book that breaks down revenue, fleet size, and location by brands.

At the time, someone at Bobit showed me the chart from 1996 — the first year of the Car Rental Show — which listed 35 companies. Then they showed me the most recent chart, and the number of brands was already down to 15.

“Dying industry,” this person said. “Consolidation. No room for the independent anymore or the small franchisee.”

Soon after, I took over ARN. My first Car Rental Show was 2006.

That was the same year as the rebirth of the new ACRA, with whom we have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership.

At my first Car Rental Show, unlike what I was told, I saw a thriving community.

Then the market crashed. In 2009, we had barely 400 attendees at the Las Vegas Hilton, and we were saying to exhibitors, “The attendees that actually showed up, they’re super motivated!”

But still, there were whispers: The smaller operators, they don’t have the big pocketbooks to survive this crisis. What about them? What about the show?

Would Carsharing Take Over?

It was around that time that the idea of carsharing was taking root.

Carsharing. So much more efficient! Cars are all over the place, not cooped up in a lot! Walk up to the car, you use this Steve Jobs device in your pocket, you open the car and go!

That’s going to be the death of traditional car rental, they said.

The little guys, they’d never survive this, this carsharing.

In 2011, we had Larry De Shon as keynote speaker — he was a few years away from becoming CEO of Avis Budget Group — and we welcomed 600 attendees to the room. I remember watching the back of the room fill up. It was standing room only. Always a good sign.

And we had attendees from Ireland, Korea, India, Venezuela, Australia and the Middle East.

In 2012 we were up to 26 nations in attendance. And Mark Frissora, CEO of Hertz, keynoted with Gary Rappeport, CEO of Donlen.

And Congressman Sam Graves famously graced the stage.

Graves Amendment. Vicarious liability. Can I get an amen for Congressman Graves?

About that time, Uber and Lyft were taking off.

Then Came Uber

Ride-hailing! Uber and Lyft! They said. Push a button on your personal device, and it shows up in minutes!

That’s going to kill one- and two-day rentals! They said.

The little guys. They won’t be around. It’ll hurt the show.

In 2015, we renamed it the International Car Rental Show, and we grew attendance yet again.

At that time, the idea of peer-to-peer rentals was taking off with Turo and Getaround.

Personal cars — we only use them 5% of the time! In neighborhoods across the US, let’s wake them up. Let’s unlock that utilization! You can do it with your smart thingie!

The small guys don’t stand a chance! The Car Rental Show will surely suffer.

Yet we kept growing.

We know what happened in 2020. ICRS was to take place on March 20. We had it all planned. Yes, of course, COVID canceled that show and dampened the two after that.

But you came back. And we rebuilt attendance to record numbers ever since.

Let’s think about this:

The Car Rental Show was around when Chrysler was Chrysler. And when Chrysler was Daimler Chrysler. And then Fiat Chrysler. And then Stellantis.

The Car Rental Show was around when there wasn’t a Scion brand, and then there was, and then there wasn’t.

The Car Rental Show was around when Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, Avis, Budget, National, Alamo, and Enterprise were all staunch competitors of each other.

And the US was just a gleam in the eye for Sixt and Europcar.

I could go on.

You're Still Here

After all that. We’re still here. You’re still here.

Here’s why: The people in this room are entrepreneurs. There is always ample room for entrepreneurs in the U.S., in the Americas, in Europe, and across the globe.

You are The Doers and The Makers.

You raised the capital. You convinced someone — a bank, a relative, the mafia, maybe — “I can do this. Trust me. I’ve got this.”

You saw an opening. And you said, I’ve got two elbows. I’m going to use them to make a place in this market.

That made you a disruptor. And from the outset, maybe not exactly liked in your market.

And, I bet when you were drawing up your articles of incorporation, you actually thought you knew what you were doing. But you really didn’t, did you? Admit it.

But you took a shot. You figured it out.

You know who started to like you? Your customers did. And they kept coming back because you did it better. Not on price. Because you learned you won’t compete with the big boys on the price of a subcompact. But on service.

You got bad reviews. You took them, you improved, and you learned.

And you figured it out.

And you came to this show. The only event dedicated specifically to you.

This gathering. Where we can put aside our differences for three days and raise our own boats and, at the same time, our competitors' boats.

And we can benefit the industry as a whole.

This will always be your show.

Transportation will look a lot different in 10 years. Heck, no. Five years. Next year.

We’ve got work to do. Here. Together.

We not only survive together. We prevail.

Thank you.