ST. LOUIS, Sept. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation – the philanthropic arm of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand – has pledged $750,000 to the American Red Cross and $250,000 to Americares. This $1 million donation follows the devastation left behind by Hurricane Irma and will assist with relief efforts in the Southeast U.S. and Caribbean.

The donation is the latest example of Enterprise's ongoing disaster recovery support this hurricane season, and is in addition to the $1 million the Foundation gave to support Hurricane Harvey relief in late August as well as a $1 million gift to the American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) made earlier this year. This funding brings Enterprise's support for disaster relief this year to $3 million.

"We know firsthand how services from the American Red Cross and Americares can be life-changing and make a positive difference for disaster victims," said Carolyn Kindle Betz, Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation. "These are the communities where our employees and customers live and work, and we will continue to support the efforts of those organizations to help people in their times of greatest need."

Florida and Caribbean Rental Locations Impacted

The Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand is owned by Enterprise Holdings, the world's largest car rental company, which also owns the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands. Hurricane Irma forced Enterprise Holdings to initially shutter more than 100 of its over 500 neighborhood and airport car rental locations throughout Florida, mostly due to power outages. Over half of those locations have now begun operations again, with more opening each day.

In the Caribbean, Enterprise Holdings' franchise locations in Tortola, St. Maarten and St. Barths sustained some of the heaviest damage and remain closed for inbound reservations. The Enterprise location in Turks & Caicos has reopened. Though many of these locations are still unable to accept inbound reservations until further notice, they are beginning to work with local partners in the recovery process, as well as local customers to provide vehicle rentals. In addition, Enterprise Holdings' franchise locations continue to monitor the ongoing hurricane activity in the Caribbean to determine any additional need for closures.  

Similar to what was done for customers impacted by Hurricane Harvey, Enterprise Holdings' three brands – Enterprise, National and Alamo – have waived one-way rental fees for customers who rented vehicles in Southeast Florida and needed to drop them elsewhere, as they were evacuating.

Before Hurricane Irma made landfall, Enterprise activated its Emergency Action Plan, equipping employees with Enterprise LaunchPad® tablets, allowing them to run branch operations once the hurricane passed through, even during power outages. Those preparations, in addition to the flexibility of Enterprise's neighborhood network, allowed employee teams to work nimbly to support the transportation needs of those affected by Hurricane Irma.

This state-of-the-art mobile technology made it easier to reassign employees where needed and forward customer calls to operational sites from flooded or damaged branch offices to effectively manage demand.

Neighborhood Branch Network Proves Critical to Customer Support

With more than 6,400 fully staffed neighborhood and airport branch offices throughout the United States, Enterprise Holdings is uniquely positioned to seamlessly move vehicles around the country and into affected areas. The extensive Enterprise network also facilitates strategic support for insurance companies, utility companies and government agencies, helping them get the recovery and restoration process underway as quickly as possible.

In addition, the strength and reach of the Enterprise neighborhood network enables Enterprise to work closely with its insurance partners to prioritize vehicle replacement requests in South Florida for policyholders, and get those customers into vehicles as they begin the recovery and clean-up process.

For more information about Enterprise Holdings, visit www.enterpriseholdings.com.  

About Enterprise Holdings

Enterprise Holdings – through its integrated global network of independent regional subsidiaries and franchises – operates the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands at more than 9,600 fully staffed neighborhood and airport locations. The company and its affiliate, Enterprise Fleet Management, together offer a total transportation solution, including extensive car rental and car-sharing services, truck rental, corporate fleet management and retail car sales. Combined, these businesses accounted for more than $20.9 billion in revenue and owned nearly 1.9 million vehicles throughout the world in fiscal year 2016. Enterprise Holdings' regional subsidiaries and Enterprise Fleet Management currently employ more than 97,000 worldwide.

In total, the annual revenues of Enterprise Holdings and Enterprise Fleet Management rank near the top of the travel industry, ahead of many airlines and most cruise lines, hotels, tour operators and online travel agencies. Enterprise Holdings currently is ranked as one of America's Largest Private Companies. In addition, among all North American car rental companies, it has the lowest leverage ratio and is the only one with an investment-grade rating. Furthermore, if it were publicly traded, Enterprise Holdings would rank on Fortune's list of the 500 largest American public companies. In addition, Enterprise Holdings not only accounts for the largest airport market share in the U.S., but its domestic rental fleet also is one of the newest in the industry. The company's affiliate, Enterprise Fleet Management, provides full-service fleet management to companies, government agencies and organizations operating medium-sized fleets of 20 or more vehicles, as well as those seeking an alternative to employee reimbursement programs. Other transportation services marketed under the Enterprise brand name include Enterprise CarShare, Enterprise Rideshare, Enterprise Car Sales, Enterprise Truck Rental, Exotic Car Collection by Enterprise, Zimride by Enterprise and Enterprise Flex-E-Rent.

 

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enterprise-2017-disaster-relief-aid-grows-to-3-million-300522836.html

SOURCE Enterprise Holdings