Avis: Still Trying Harder!

This inspired him to start a car rental company that catered to those people who wanted to rent their own vehicles as soon as they flew into a city. Although Hertz was already offering a transportation service, its branches were located in the city, not at airports. Founded with an investment of $ 85000, the company began operations with a fleet of just three cars at the Willow Run Airport in Detroit. The company was the world's first car rental operation located inside an airport. Within two years, the business was doing very well, and Warren opened a number of outlets in various business areas of the city and also one at Miami airport. Later it was decided to drop the word 'Airline' from the company's name. By 1953, Warren had launched franchise operations of Avis in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Subsequently, Robie opened a number of outlets throughout the US and introduced the innovative concept of a nationwide one-way car rental system. In this system, customers could rent a car at one place and leave it at their destination instead of returning the vehicle to the shop. By the late 1950s, the company had opened 185 branches throughout the US and 10 branches in Canada. In addition, the company entered into alliances with other car rental companies in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Scotland. Avis was the first car rental company to introduce the concept of renting cars on a credit basis (late 1950's). By 1956, Avis' fleet had expanded to 1200 cars and the company had recorded a turnover of $ 4 million...