Enterprise car rental

Official Enterprise car rental website: www.enterprise.com

Background of Enterprise car rental

The year was 1957.  With seven cars and a hunch that customers would embrace the novel concept of leasing automobiles, Jack Taylor founded Executive Leasing Company in St. Louis.

From day one, Jack’s philosophy was clear: Provide customers with exceptional service, give employees respect and ample career opportunities, and growth and profitability are sure to follow.

The philosophy paid off and the business thrived.  But as Jack listened carefully to his customers, he heard them asking for something more. They wanted cars to rent while theirs were in the shop for repairs, so Jack added daily auto rental to his company’s services in the 1960s.

Soon, Jack and his team were ready to expand beyond St. Louis. Unable to use the Executive name in some markets, Jack re-christened his growing operation “Enterprise” in honor of the USS Enterprise, one of the aircraft carriers he served aboard as a decorated fighter pilot during World War II.

As Enterprise moved into the 1970s, our management team realized that the best growth opportunities for our rental business were with hometown renters, not airport travelers. As the rest of the rental car industry fiercely competed at the edge of America’s runways, Jack took the company into neighborhoods, bringing car rentals to where customers lived and worked.

Enterprise expanded throughout St. Louis and into Atlanta, Kansas City and Orlando. Around this time, we also pioneered our trademark “We’ll Pick You Up” service.  An entrepreneurial idea conceived by a manager in Florida, this new service spread through our operation and helped us to become the rental provider of choice in an ever-growing number of neighborhoods.

In 1976, Jack and his son Andy decided to begin an aggressive nationwide expansion. By 1980, when Andy became our company’s second president, Enterprise reached the milestone of 6,000 rental cars - and we were just getting started.  By 1996, Enterprise had become the largest rental car company in North America with more than a half million vehicles in service.