"We had this idea of putting cars in the neighborhood and started looking at different retail outlet

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is looking to partner with Walgreen Co. as it tries to expand its service sunshine coast holiday accommodation away from airports and Hertz locations. Naples, Florida-based Hertz recently concluded a test of such a program at 30 Walgreens in the Chicago area and 30 in San Antonio, Texas.
"We had this idea of putting cars in the neighborhood and started looking at different retail outlets that might be suitable," said Richard Broome, Hertz's executive vice president of corporate affairs. "Walgreens fit perfectly."
Hertz says it will incorporate customer feedback and plans to eventually relaunch the program nationwide. Mr. Broome said Hertz hopes to partner with Deerfield-based Walgreen for the new program. The locations would be among about 12,000 neighborhood and on-demand pickup spots Hertz hopes to have by 2016.
"We want to make the process more convenient for the consumer," Mr. Broome said. "They can decide when to pick it up, whether it's at 11 p.m. or 6 a.m., and they don't have to wait for a location to open."
The pilot program in Chicago let customers rent a car via the Hertz site or app. After completing the transaction, customers received a numerical code to type into a keypad from outside the driver-side window or front windshield. The keypad, inside the car, is sensitive enough sunshine coast holiday accommodation to pick up the strokes through the glass. The code opens the door; the keys are waiting inside.
Mr. Broome declined to comment on pricing specifics for the neighborhood rental program but said the company sunshine coast holiday accommodation is "trying to make sure that customers will view it as a very good deal." The move away from Hertz locations will save the company money on real estate and help it compete with Zipcar, which Hertz competitor Avis Budget Group Inc. purchased last year for $500 million.
U.S. consumers spend about $11 billion a year renting vehicles at non-airport locations, Hertz CEO Mark Frissora sunshine coast holiday accommodation said on an investor call last year, according to a transcript. St. Louis-based Enterprise, which has about 5,500 locations, mostly in residential neighborhoods, is the market leader in that category. Hertz's market share was about 12 percent last year, according to Bloomberg.
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