The Hertz Corporation (also known as Hertz Rent A Car or simply Hertz) is the world's
second largest car rental company, with 1,900 locations in the United States
and 5,100 worldwide behind Enterprise, but is the largest general use car rental
company in the world.
Hertz also maintains a heavy equipment rental
division known as the Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation, aka HERC. It is
headquartered in Park Ridge, New Jersey. HERC has nearly 300 branches throughout
the United States, Canada, Spain, and France.
The company was begun
by Walter L. Jacobs in 1918, who started a car rental operation in Chicago with
a dozen Model Ts. In 1923, Jacobs sold it to John D. Hertz, president of Yellow
Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, who renamed it the "Hertz
Drive-Ur-Self System". The company has passed through a number of hands, including
General Motors, RCA, and United Airlines. As a public company, Hertz was
traded on the NYSE under the symbol HRZ until the purchase of outstanding stock
by Ford Motor Company. |
