Joe Saunders, father of the rental car industry

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NovakOmaha
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Joe Saunders, father of the rental car industry

Post by NovakOmaha »

I had no idea of this man until I read a story about him in the current issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.  The car rental industry was born in Omaha.

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On August 20, 1916, Omaha entrepreneur Josiah Ellis “Joe” Saunders launched the car rental business with a seven-line classified ad announcing “Automobiles for Hire.”
    Saunders, whose main business was real estate, placed the ad in the Omaha World-Herald. His fleet consisted of just one automobile — a borrowed Model T Ford. Within six months, Saunders had 18 Model Ts at his business, Ford Livery Company, 317 N. 22nd St. Renting Fords at 10 cents a mile, he soon convinced his three brothers that car rental was a booming business. Even their skeptical father joined the operation, which later became Saunders Drive-It-Yourself System and finally Saunders System.
 In 1917 the business moved to a much larger garage at 13th and Howard. Within two years it was filled with more than 130 Model T Fords. There seemed to be no shortage of customers. “Cars often were rented just for the experience and the pleasure of driving,” wrote Harris Saunders in a book on the company’s history. Though thefts, wrecks and bad accounts were concerns, profits overcame any liabilities.
 Warwick Saunders Sr., the father who had at one time questioned the legitimacy of the business, now pushed his sons to expand. By late 1919 they had a location in Kansas City; the following year they were purchasing 100 Fords from a dealer in Birmingham, Alabama and leasing a new garage there. By 1926 Saunders System operated in 56 cities. The Saunders brothers even dabbled in the “fly-it-yourself” industry.
 The Great Depression dealt the business a severe blow, but Saunders System survived. Joe Saunders sold his Chicago operation to Avis in 1955 for $500,000.
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Omababe
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Post by Omababe »

It's kinda hard to believe that others didn't have similar ideas in other markets.
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Coyote
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Post by Coyote »

Allegedly, the first rental agency belonged to a Nebraskan man named Joe Saunders, who would rent his Model T out for ten cents a mile. Saunders used a mileage meter to determine how far his car had been driven. The legend goes that Saunders' first rental went to a traveling salesman who wanted to impress a girl on a date.
 :lol:


Good catch NovakOmaha!


and then I found this:   http://omahahistory.org/Education_Innov ... unders.htm
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