Missouri Ag Connection - Enterprise Disaster Relief Aid Grows to $3 Million

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Enterprise Disaster Relief Aid Grows to $3 Million
Missouri Ag Connection - 09/22/2017

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."

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.

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.

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