After a one-year hiatus, Auto Rental News is pleased to bring back the Professional of the Year (POY) Awards for 2019. Inaugurated in 2012, the POY Awards honor associates who demonstrate and promote outstanding customer satisfaction and leadership.

Previously held at Auto Rental Summit, which convened in the fall in Florida, the awards ceremony is moving to the 2019 International Car Rental Show (ICRS) at Paris Hotel in Las Vegas April 14-16.

“We’re excited to hold the awards at the ICRS, where recipients will be recognized on a bigger stage with attendees from around the world,” says Chris Brown, conference chair and executive editor of Auto Rental News.

Two recipients, one from a car rental company and the other from a vendor company serving the auto rental industry, will be chosen. The vendor award was added in 2016.

The criteria for this award is judged on customer service, operations management, sales, leadership, and industry and community involvement for an associate from a vendor company to the auto rental industry.

This criteria, says Brown, is only as relevant as the material included in the application.

“It’s inspirational to read the personal accomplishments in the applications,” he says. “It’s important to bring these good works the larger car rental community to inspire future unsung heroes foster a positive message regarding car rental to all.”

“With this in mind, we also receive many incomplete applications,” Brown continues. “As the judging is anonymous, the judges can only base their scores on the content of the application. It appears that potentially great candidates often do not get the attention they deserve simply because of a poorly submitted application.”

Brown suggests applicants take plenty of time to fill out the online form. The site allows submitters to save and return to the application at a later point before submitting.

“Think about how to bring your candidate’s best deeds and accomplishments to light. Successes defined by data points are great and should be included, but also remember to make the applicant human for the judges,” he says. “Ask others for feedback.”

Brown stresses that subjects vying for the award can submit an application for themselves. “The person submitting the award could also be the applicants themselves,” he says. “This does not factor into the judges’ decision-making process.”

As part of the judging process Auto Rental News reserves the right to audit any information in the applications.

Brown stresses not to include company names or personal names on the application, as the judging is designed to be anonymous. As part of the judging process we have had to manually remove names before submitting to the judges.

Click here to enter the awards. The deadline to submit applications is March 1.

The two winners will be announced just before the morning keynote address at 8:30 a on Tuesday, April 16. Registration for the 2019 International Car Rental Show is now open.