Starting this year, Jim Schalberg Auto Rental Solutions' new operator classes include the CIRAS certification as a rental car professional. Attendees spend two full days in class to earn the certification.

In January, the five graduates who also earned their CIRAS certifications included Saul Garcia, Oliver Nevarez, Larry Fishman, John Speranza, and Ryan McFadden.

Garcia and Nevarez are partners in a used car operation in Calexico, Calif. They are adding rentals to their operation and are looking to buy newer cars, run them for a year, and then move them to their front line.

Fishman and Speranza are looking to not write checks to another company for their customers in the body shop. Adding rentals will help him capture that revenue in the shop as well as give them the flexibility to have customers leave their cars at the shop.

McFadden owns multiple storage unit properties and has already bought several 10-foot and 14-foot trucks. In the class, we showed him the value of after-sale products in rentals from boxes to tape to a grocery list of items the renting public needs.

Once a month, the new operator class is offered at Schalberg headquarters in South Carolina.