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The auto rental, leasing and fleet management industry comprises companies that operate by renting out, leasing of cars, trucks or major transportation vehicles in fleet or small number to the consumer that could be individual or in industrial size such as hotels, offices, business establishments etc., Here, in the car rental business, the global car rental sector can be divided into two main categories, that are insurance replacement rentals and other general rentals, so the insurance replacement sector is basically about renting vehicles to people who have lost their own vehicles through accident, breakdown or theft and the general sector deals with airport and non-airport segments for customers traveling, and it also covers all the companies that rent cars mostly for business and leisure travelers on a daily, weekly or any short number of days usage basis.

The major benefit and advantage of this industry is that it is not regulated or guided by any regulatory standards and it is not tied to a generalized business pattern, so the companies are thriving with revenue and boosting income and they are structurally and carefully devising a strategic plan to improve the generation of the individual companies in turn improving the conditions of the industry. According to Koncept Analytics, the global car rental industry is expected to continue to witness growth because of the global population's increased business and leisure travel across the globe. And according to Global Industry Analysts, the biggest innovative feature and improvement, that is of utilizing digital space and digital medium, the online rental is expected to constitute a significant trend in catering to the customers.

Auto Rental Industry Current Trends

The global car rental, leasing and fleet management industry is on a booming stage with revenue incoming with improved operational structuring, better standards, better services and overall better and quality offer to the customers that the industry is expected to thrive. Currently, the car rental sector is recording strong growth in developed countries, in which the US and North American demographic dominate the global car rental industry, then the Europe and countries such as Germany, Spain, UK, France and Italy. The growth potential in emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil are shining at the moment and the estimations and expectations are high since two countries with most population are expected to overtake the major developed markets in the near future.

The major fast pacing and high generating revenue streams is from the foreign traveling, where airport leisure segment alone brings in the highest annual revenue with over $7 billion in revenue. Since most foreign travel takes place for vacation, the airport leisure segment serves as the best option and if not then, at least for inter city travel by the passengers that need a vehicle for all other reasons. The industry analysts estimate that the US car rental industry is worth over $24 billion, in which the revenue generation can be divided into earnings from locations servicing for passengers from airports, which is generally referred as airport market, which accounts for over $12 billion and the other stream being the servicing from neighborhood location servicing customers for various travel and local and long distance reaches. For example, the company Enterprise Holdings, which is the world’s largest car rental company in terms of revenue, fleet, and employees, generated over $15.4 billion in revenue and operated over 1.3 million vehicles in 2012 alone.

In the Asia-pacific market, in India, the car rental industry is expected to perform well and show a good growth in the country’s tourism sector, as the country draws millions of travelers for various purposes, from vacation, to spiritual practice and lessons and learning yoga to business related, so the industry's main focus lies in the developing economies. With the latest environmental awareness campaigns showing a major shift in consumer selection or the industry's manufacturing, the car rental and leasing outfits are slowly and steadily maintaining the standards of emissions or the economy and performance of the vehicles for longevity and durability.

Major Auto Rental Industry Players

Major players in the auto rental, leasing and fleet management industry include Dollar Thrifty, Enterprise, Avis Budget and Hertz and Enterprise Holdings.