Enterprise CarShare Offering Free Parking in Downtown Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY, April 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise CarShare – served by the local Enterprise Rent-A-Car network – is now offering free downtown parking to members who rent a hybrid vehicle, all in partnership with the city government. The free metered parking is part of a new green vehicle initiative in Salt Lake City.

Vehicles that achieve a minimum fuel economy or air pollution score are designated as "green vehicles" and therefore eligible for a special permit allowing up to two free hours of parking. "By making the most of alternative forms of transportation like car sharing, as well as by promoting the use of hybrids, we can help Salt Lake City residents get around more sustainably," said Neil Hafer, vice president and general manager for Enterprise in Utah.

"Enterprise is already known for offering affordable, accessible and flexible services on a local basis," Hafer noted. "This opportunity to offer free downtown parking is just one more added benefit for our Enterprise CarShare customers."

When Enterprise's car-sharing program launched in Salt Lake City late 2013, the area became the seventh major U.S. market to offer Enterprise CarShare. The Utah Transit Authority (UTA), Salt Lake City, the University of Utah and Utah Valley University are partners with Enterprise in providing affordable car-sharing services to Salt Lake City and Wasatch Front residents and local businesses. Also supporting this car-sharing initiative is the Utah Department of Transportation's "TravelWise" program, which incorporates a set of strategies that encourage individuals, businesses and organizations to use alternatives to driving alone and thereby reduce energy consumption, optimize mobility and improve air quality in Utah.

Today, Enterprise CarShare is available in more than 35 U.S. states, Canada and the U.K., on more than 80 university campuses and on 40 government and business campuses. Putting vehicles right where people live and work, and making them available around the clock for hourly, daily and overnight rentals, makes Enterprise CarShare a cost-effective, hassle-free supplement to public transit.

Additionally, Enterprise Holdings – which owns the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental brands through its regional subsidiaries – operates the world's largest fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles. Including hybrid and electric vehicles, approximately 56 percent of the company's vehicles average a highway fuel efficiency rating of at least 28 mpg, and 28 percent average 32 mpg or better.

Urban Mobility
Enterprise has been delivering transportation alternatives right where people are since 1957, an early example of today's "collaborative consumption" trend. Forty years later, the brand trademarked the term Virtual Car®, after recognizing the long-term impact of such a sustainable neighborhood-based business model, and began promoting the "virtual car" concept in a newspaper ad as early as 1997.

Last fall, Enterprise CarShare was a key sponsor at the Shared Use Mobility Conference, hosted by the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. In addition, Enterprise sponsored and collaborated on a milestone research project with the Wharton School's Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL). The report, titled Next Stop, Innovation: What's Ahead for Urban Mobility?, provided an update on how cities are expanding their options for cleaner transportation. Enterprise Holdings supported these initiatives because it is a family-owned business, intuitively focused on the need to operate for the long term and with the next generation in mind.

This sense of "triple bottom line" stewardship is reflected in Enterprise's other partnerships with key stakeholders. For instance, Enterprise has joined forces with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the largest independent plant research center in the world, to establish the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels. The Institute's aim is to create the next generation of alternative fuel technologies from environmentally sound plant and algal sources, thus reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on non-renewable resources.

Tree Plantings
The company also is working with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 1 million trees throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom this year as part of the Enterprise 50 Million Tree Pledge. Supported by a $50-million commitment from Enterprise, the private/public/nonprofit partnership already has resulted in 8 million trees being planted in areas suffering damage from wildfires and other natural disasters. For example, 50,000 trees were planted in Dixie National Forest two years ago in Utah (an interactive map of the plantings is available online). 

For more information on Enterprise CarShare, visit www.EnterpriseCarShare.com/slc, the Enterprise CarShare Facebook page or follow @carshare on Twitter. For more information about Enterprise Holdings' corporate sustainability initiatives, please see its www.DrivingFutures.com sustainability-focused website and its most recent Corporate Sustainability Report.

About Enterprise CarShare
Enterprise CarShare is a natural extension of the local car rental service that Enterprise Rent-A-Car pioneered more than 55 years ago. Enterprise CarShare offers a variety of clean, well-maintained vehicles at an affordable price, when and where customers need them, whether it is for an hour, a day, a weekend or longer. In 2011, Enterprise entered a major retail car-sharing market for the first time by acquiring PhillyCarShare in Philadelphia, and then, in 2012, it acquired Mint Cars On-Demand in Boston and New York City. In May 2013, Enterprise acquired the business of IGO CarSharing, the first car-sharing program in Chicago. Today, Enterprise CarShare offers hybrid, plug-in and fuel-efficient vehicles, delivering car-sharing technology's speed and economy nationwide to businesses, universities and government offices looking to enhance their fleet management operations along with their fiscal and social sustainability initiatives. 

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SOURCE Enterprise CarShare