CAR rental giant Hertz aims to end the year with 3,000 new vehicles on its books in the UAE.
Speaking to TTN during ATM Nigel Johnson, general manager Hertz UAE, said: “There’s no doubt that the financial crisis had an impact on the entire industry and in the UAE we have also been affected.
“I have watched the market change, customers are looking for value but also want good quality and as a business we have continued investing for the last 18 months in both product and people.
“Good to Great was launched last year and since then we have carried out 2,000 hours of training and refreshed our fleet. At a time when our competitors were holding onto vehicles we bought 2,000 new ones. We’ve already purchased 1,000 new vehicles this year and are on target to have 3,000 new models by the end of the year.”
The spend for vehicles alone in 2010 will top Dh200 million ($54 million) on top of which a further Dh5 million is earmarked for investment in training programmes, technology and refurbishing location offices.
Johnson said: “I believe that the market has changed and is continuing to change for the better, expectations are higher, cars should be clean and tidy and customer service should be better.
“Consumer habits are also changing, they are taking the smaller cars, which are cheaper to rent. We had a bit of a false market there with people looking for status cars whereas now it is more realistic.
“We are coming into an interesting period with a new location at Al Raha in Abu Dhabi and we have been selected as one of the suppliers chosen to be in Skypark Abu Dhabi. We are also continuing to look out for further new locations to bring our service closer to our customers.
“My gut feeling is that 2010 appears more optimistic and we are looking to the future.”