Thrifty

Thrifty Car Rental is, as the name would suggest, a value-oriented car rental company. Founded in 1957 and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the company was floated in 1987 and bought two years later by car firm Chrysler, which acquired Dollar Rent A Car at the same time.

In 1997 Chrysler divested Thrifty and Dollar as part of the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. In December 2002, the two units were united as a single company but both brands remain.

The company presently operates 368 sites in the US, 136 in Canada and 567 in other areas around the world, employing a workforce of over 8,000 in the US alone.

Over 90 per cent of the business is franchised globally, owned by independent businesses that are licensed to use Thrifty trade names, systems and technologies.

At its peak in 2002 the company had a fleet of over 177,000 cars in the US and Canada, primarily cars of the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation. Although no longer owned by Daimler-Chrysler, Dollar still has ties with its former parent, offering customers the Chrysler 300 and the Chrysler Pacific. Other models in the US fleet include the Dodge Caravan minivan, the Jeep Cherokee, the Sebring convertible and the Dodge Neon.

Unlike some of its main competitors Thrifty has a significant presence both in the airport and local car rental markets, as opposed to just the airport. In the United States approximately 66 per cent of its business is in the airport market, 34 per cent in the local market.

Thrifty operates in 57 countries and territories with over 1,000 locations throughout North, Central, and South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.

Thrifty operates in terminal in every major airport in Canada and Australia, and in 85 airport locations in the US.

The company is at the cutting edge of new technology and ranks in the top tier in its connections with the automated reservations systems and is connected to every major computer reservation system available.

Thrifty also uses state-of-the-art voice recognition software at 1-800-THRIFTY.

Parking is also an interest of Thrifty and with more than 14,000 parking spaces at 33 Thrifty locations across the US it is one of the country's largest parking operators.

Parking operations can be found in most major metropolitan cities such as Chicago, Dallas (Love Field), Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa and Orlando.

In a bid to secure repeat business, the firm has forged partnerships with a number of leading carriers. Dollar currently has tie-ins, including frequent flyer miles deals with Aeromexico, Air Canada, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hilton Corporation, Icelandair, Kuwait Airlines, Northwest Airlines, US Airways, Qantas, United Airlines and GlobalPass, a consortium of more than a dozen airlines in Latin America, Alaska Air/Horizon Air and America West.

For more information about Thrifty Car Rental, visit the company's website. If you are planning a foreign or domestic trip and want to hire a car, remember to check out the rates on Major Travel (www.majortravel.co.uk).