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Buckle up, because we’re diving into the untold stories of the mobility world.
From monitoring the policies influencing how we move to tracking down stolen cars, we’re bringing you inside the busy, high-stakes world of transportation - including everything from autonomous vehicles and micro-mobility to public transportation and air travel.
Brought to you by the American Car Rental Association, each episode tackles the big issues driving the future of mobility: autonomous vehicles, data rights, new business models, and the laws that could flip the industry on its head.
With jaw-dropping stories, bold opinions, and no holds barred, we’re here to challenge the status quo and get you thinking about the future of how we move, whether by car, bike, plane, or train, and why it matters to everyone.
[00:00:00] Ryan Kerzner: The car rental experience, I mean, everyone's been there. You've traveled with your family or you're on business. You come into the airport. I mean, many times it can seem like a hassle to get that car. You don't know how your flight was or what led up to it, but You want to have a smooth transaction as soon as you land.
[00:00:14] Ryan Kerzner: You've already been through a lot, and by the time you get to the airport, you gotta run and get your car. You want that to be as easy as possible.
[00:00:32] Don Lefeve: All right. Welcome my guest, Ryan Kerzner, senior associate with The Merlin Group. Ryan, you spent more than, uh, 25 years across about every corner of the business. You started at Avis Budget, spent 13 years at Midway, had stints at Merchants Fleet and EV charging infrastructure company, ABM, and, and now you find yourself, uh, at The Merlin Group. Tell our listeners what, The Merlin Group is and what your role is there.
[00:00:58] Ryan Kerzner: Great. And I'd love to. Don, yeah, thanks for having me. It's always great to, uh, catch up with you. well, at The Merlin Group, we have a variety of things that we do. in my most current role right now is I'm helping, several companies with their go-to-market and business development strategy, one of which is European-based, and they needed, help in the US market, in car rentals specifically.
[00:01:21] Ryan Kerzner: Uh, we're also doing quite a bit of business in the last mile space, which is pretty much where our expertise has been. we're kind of the, I don't want to say jack of all trades, but, uh, we have customers that come to us because of that fleet and rental experience. there's about 12 or so people on our team altogether, and their background and experience is much like mine or even more ex-extensive.
[00:01:45] Ryan Kerzner: They've been in car rental or fleet for decades. And so collectively as a team, we put together our heads and, and do what's best for the customer, whatever they may need. It's just that. We can put together a program for whatever it is that those customers need.
[00:02:00] Don Lefeve: well take me back to the beginning. How
[00:02:02] Don Lefeve: did a customer service job at Avis Budget turn into this 25-year run
[00:02:07] Don Lefeve: in
[00:02:08] Ryan Kerzner: Most who are in car rental past the 20-year mark, more or less, I believe, got their start either during college or right out of college, and mine was very similar as growing up in Los Angeles and, while in college got a job at Budget Rent A Car, Beverly Hills, and we were delivering cars, and it was a local franchise, with several stores.
[00:02:31] Ryan Kerzner: But I was there, at the counter. I was washing cars. I was delivering vehicles, working at the airport location as every now and again. I went away for several years to do another opportunity in Santa Barbara, Ventura County.
[00:02:44] Ryan Kerzner: And then I came back, around two thousand and seven or so and was working with Midway. And I stayed at Midway, honestly, I think till about twenty twenty, like post-COVID. And then, but my career at Midway really shaped kind of where I'm at now, plus what I was doing in, at, in fleet management.
[00:03:01] Ryan Kerzner: But as far as car rental is concerned, again, started at, at Midway. I was, doing car sales and a little bit of remarketing. That's where I started, uh, but then went back into rental, working at the counter. I ran a store for a couple of years and then was doing sales and marketing for Midway.
[00:03:19] Ryan Kerzner: I started out doing specifically hotel, sales and hotel marketing to our hotel accounts. Did some VIP travel accounts, corporate accounts and worked my way up to, uh, director of sales and marketing where I was helping the sales team and coming up with new marketing strategies. And things were going great.
[00:03:35] Ryan Kerzner: so once COVID hit, um, saw that as an opportunity to, to reset doing sales for Merchants Fleet in the Southeast in Atlanta.
[00:03:42] Ryan Kerzner: And so, brought me to where I'm at today and started working with ABM doing, EV infrastructure projects specifically for fleet electrification. So, you can see the progression went from car rental to fleet management and then EV infrastructure for fleets. And now at The Merlin Group, um, I can dabble in each one of those buckets if I wanted to.
[00:04:02] Ryan Kerzner: We have an arm that can help on the EV infrastructure side for fleets. We have someone for that. myself, I, I do a lot in the car rental space. And then, as far as fleet management and vehicle acquisitions, we have the opportunity to help there as well too. So, like I said earlier, there's really nothing we can't do.
[00:04:20] Ryan Kerzner: It's whatever the customers need from us, we're here for them
[00:04:23] Don Lefeve: Talk to me a little bit about customer service. Like, what did you learn early on at, at Budget and then at Midway? Like,
[00:04:30] Don Lefeve: how important is customer service for car rental?
[00:04:33] Ryan Kerzner: it's paramount, the car rental experience coming out of the airport and the return to the airport is the common example used. It's usually the first and last impression that that customer is going to have of the city that they leave or the experience that they have, all together on, like, a, a vacation.
[00:04:52] Ryan Kerzner: the car rental experience, I mean, everyone's been there. You've traveled, you-- with your family or you're on business. You come into the airport. I mean, many times it can seem like a hassle to get that car. You don't know how your flight was or what led up to it, but You want to have a smooth transaction as soon as you land.
[00:05:07] Ryan Kerzner: You've already been through a lot, and by the time you get to the airport, you gotta run and get your car. You want that to be as, as easy as possible. And the same thing with the return. If anything, you're rushing to catch a flight or you have other things going on, you want to drop off your car and go. So, it's just important for that customer to put yourself in their shoes and know what they've gone through to get to where where they met you, where you are with them, with the car rental and same thing when they leave.
[00:05:31] Ryan Kerzner: so they have to have the best experience possible.
[00:05:33] Don Lefeve: how has that changed, from when you were in car rental to kind of where we are today?
[00:05:38] Ryan Kerzner: I started on Car Rental when they were-- we were printing contracts on three-ply paper from a dot matrix printer. you get on your app and you can do, contact list and sign ahead and be on these different programs and be as electronic as possible. And there's other, uh, large logos now that are trying to do the, deliver to the gate or have some other priority lane or some sort that gives you, better customer service.
[00:06:02] Ryan Kerzner: it's changed a lot, but I mean, a lot of things are still the same, Don. You still have to have the right people at the counter that have that customer interaction, that give that best customer experience. If it's not the right person, it's got to be the right solution that can meet the customer where they are and give them that best experience.
[00:06:21] Ryan Kerzner: frictionless comes to mind. You have to have the most frictionless interaction possible from that human interaction or something electronic as possible, 'cause that's what they remember
[00:06:33] Don Lefeve: Ryan, when you tell people you're in mobility, what does that actually mean?
[00:06:39] Ryan Kerzner: mobility could refer to how easy it is to, to move about, whether it's with your vehicle that you rented, could be a, e-bike, could be a, the mobility plan of a large corporation that has a, a fleet that they need to dynamically flex for peak season and non-peak season, car rental included.
[00:07:02] Ryan Kerzner: it can mean a lot of things.
[00:07:03] Don Lefeve: it's a pretty diverse universe, right? But it encompasses kind of the check all of the above, if you will.
[00:07:09] Ryan Kerzner: And so people even lean in on their company name as being, XYZ Mobility or a subscription company that's a mobility company, or if it's a traditional short-term car rental company that's, that has a mobility division. it can mean a lot of things. It's from car sharing to subscription services to corporate fleets.
[00:07:28] Ryan Kerzner: Corporate fleets have a mobility division where they'd set maybe a pool of vehicles that they use for, for their team. it can be a variety of things, which is, I think, kind of unfortunate, but if it's the hip term for right now, that, that works.
[00:07:42] Don Lefeve: you see so many different partnerships out there today, right? I always tended to think about car rental as almost a static industry siloed, right? but now, you know, with the advent of the transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, TNCs, see car rental companies having partnerships with them, renting to drivers, and,
[00:08:05] Don Lefeve: the traditional lines or silos, I guess, are, are starting to get broken down a little bit more. where do you see things going in the next five, 10 years
[00:08:16] Ryan Kerzner: Long ago, when, like, Uber and Lyft, well, Uber especially, was just coming around, their rental car companies weren't necessarily renting to Uber and Lyft drivers for vehicles as much as they were-- are today. but we saw the shift or the impact of what ridesharing was doing with our business because we saw, less rentals at airports, maybe less deliveries, 'cause people were thinking...
[00:08:40] Ryan Kerzner: Our customers, like, we could tell customers were thinking, "Why pay for a car rental for a three to five-day period, plus parking, plus drop fees, plus taxes, plus, you know, all these other concession fees, things that go along with car rental, when I could just take an Uber, or Lyft or what have you?" we saw that impact right from the beginning.
[00:08:59] Ryan Kerzner: And so we started thinking of ways to circumvent that or offer deals or provide a-added value that go beyond that, and maybe even creating the, the demand where people would need a vehicle. like when I was at Midway, we had more luxury cars and more fun vehicles and tried to make it more about the experience of the rental than it was the expense and the mobility of, of needing one.
[00:09:25] Ryan Kerzner: So that was important. I still think that's important today. and as far as today with, the, car rental companies renting to the, the rideshare, I mean, for incremental business, it may seem like a great way to go to, to get out of business. But along with that, you might have extra maintenance, extra damage costs, other things that go along with that little bit of incremental business.
[00:09:48] Ryan Kerzner: And then ultimately, you're chasing rate. If you're just trying to get vehicles on the road, squeeze what you can. It is, is a good way to do it. But there's things you need to consider that go along with renting out to the, the Ubers and Lyfts of the world. And like I said earlier, the other thing to keep on the horizon, which you should be considering, is where autonomous vehicles are going.
[00:10:09] Ryan Kerzner: If you're not in a city already that's got-- that has Waymos and, robotaxis and such, it's, not that it's coming, it's here now. And then that too could affect, uh, you know, people's car rental needs and demands 'cause there's the opportunity to take autonomous vehicles. And there's even talk at the, uh, last car rental show about car rental operators embracing AVs as part of their fleet as something to consider or at least think about now, 'cause it's coming.
[00:10:39] Ryan Kerzner: You don't want to get caught off guard five years from now when a new car rental operator opens up that's, you know, has an AV side to their business. It's, you know, you gotta really be looking ahead of what's coming down the
[00:10:51] Ryan Kerzner: pipeline.
[00:10:52] Don Lefeve: you think AVs are the demise of the car rental industry or quite the opposite?
[00:10:57] Ryan Kerzner: No, I don't know. I'm a purist.I prefer to drive around where, you know, wherever I go. It's not going to be the demise. People are still going to need vehicles and, want to get around their own way.
[00:11:08] Ryan Kerzner: I think it'll be l-- not necessarily just a luxury, but just another form of mobility, uh, to choose from. It really will be. But going back to what I said earlier, car rental companies still need to know that's coming and decide if AVs is a side of their business, a vertical that they want to have on the car rental side.
[00:11:27] Ryan Kerzner: It's not-- You're not renting cars to someone to have, as an AV. there's different ways to go. I can go on another tangent about it. Uh, it's not necessarily my expertise. It's just extracurricular, reading time to find out where the, you know, what's happening in that autonomous vehicle space.
[00:11:43] Don Lefeve: what keeps car rental operators up at night right now?
[00:11:47] Ryan Kerzner: what is still constant in car rental? What costs the most is people and cars. That's always been the same. Merlin has a partner that I alluded to, I think I alluded to earlier, that offers a solution to help reduce those costs. So staying up at night of running your business, like what is your business costing you?
[00:12:06] Ryan Kerzner: How can you be more profitable? Is it car sales? Is it the way you purchase cars? Is it your labor costs? Is it the systems you have involved? So I think it all goes back to data. You gotta keep track of what, what you're doing in your business, not just your books and how you're depreciating your vehicles and what your car sales are doing.
[00:12:24] Ryan Kerzner: But look at the little incremental things that are happening within your business and, from that check-in to check-out time, what's happening within that time? How can you squeeze out the most out of each vehicle, possibly your employees within that time? And if you're not really tracking that, how can you go back and make those little shifts, right?
[00:12:44] Ryan Kerzner: How can you squeeze an extra percent point or here and there from the way things are being done? it's costs. It's people and cars, and how can you adjust those to do better?
[00:12:56] Don Lefeve: what most outside observers don't understand about the car rental business, is how competitive it is and how it is very much a team sport, right?
[00:13:09] Don Lefeve: you can have the best, uh, operations folks. You can have the best business plan. you could have the best cars that are the most reliable.
[00:13:17] Don Lefeve: But if you don't have good customer service, for example, that's going to break down that chain and impact everything real fast.
[00:13:24] Don Lefeve:
[00:13:24] Ryan Kerzner: And people. one thing I've noticed from the industry and having spent a lot of time in the hotel side of it, like us renting, in my past, renting to hotel partners, car rental business and the hotel industry I feel are very similar. And just like you said, if that customer experience isn't there, or if you've got a, a rental attendant that's having a bad day and that gets to the customer, or they don't clean the car properly, like all of those little things have an effect on your bottom line, on how you run your car rental company.
[00:13:54] Ryan Kerzner: it's about the people too in that case. Like it's, gotta be a tight ship
[00:13:58] Don Lefeve: what else are you seeing in the car rental space that's really changed from, you know, your time at, at Midway or even at a Budget?
[00:14:06] Ryan Kerzner: one area I've noticed just 'cause I've spent more time in this now is at the, the con racks and how are the con racks changing the way that they do, lane assignments and positioning of, people and equipment and things like that. like I said, one of our partners is European based and the model that they have in Europe for how they manage operations inside of a con rack is a lot different than we do here in the US.
[00:14:30] Ryan Kerzner: again, going back to efficiency on what happens in that QTA space and what's happening operationally where the customer is not involved.
[00:14:38] Ryan Kerzner: 'Cause once the customer has their vehicle, they're out. I mean, aside from any hazards that might happen. But operations on the lot, how can you speed that up? And I've seen that change 'cause there's solutions and tech and GPS tracking and ways to keep track of how things are going. And if you can create efficiencies in the way things are done, how they're handled using a text or chat-based system instead of a two-way walkie-talkie or, tracking vehicles with your attendant's mobile phones and then, you know, all the while changing the way the vehicles are, are handled on the lot.
[00:15:17] Ryan Kerzner: all those things have changed and it is different from 15, 20 years ago 'cause you didn't have cloud-based apps and AI. I was just going to go right there. I said that what we can do now with AI, not just crunching your data and seeing what's happening with the data, but actually developing a new kind of tech stack or something custom around what you're already doing.
[00:15:37] Ryan Kerzner: that wasn't a thing three years ago. What, I mean, not anything like it is now
[00:15:42] Don Lefeve: and the cost have just dramatically plummeted as a
[00:15:45] Don Lefeve: result of that, right? What would've
[00:15:46] Don Lefeve: taken you five years ago for a $30,000 website or $60,000 website,
[00:15:53] Don Lefeve: AI can do with a $20 account in a matter of minutes. You know?
[00:15:59] Don Lefeve: It's, it's insane. well, talk to me, what are some of the things that you're seeing in AI?
[00:16:05] Don Lefeve: how is AI being deployed in the mobility space?
[00:16:08] Don Lefeve: from an efficiency standpoint?
[00:16:10] Ryan Kerzner: I'll give you the most direct and hands-on example I have right now with one of the partners that we have. They have an AI damage detection system. if you've been at the car rental show or you're reading any sort of news, there is damage detection out there. There has been you've been able to record, views of vehicles of before and after, but, not just because of, AI, but also the hardware technology has changed.
[00:16:34] Ryan Kerzner: but with AI being able to read the before and after pictures in real time and showing that attendant what happened when the vehicle left and when, and what it looks like now, takes away any sort of the, uh, discrepancies that may come up of what might have been handwritten on a checkout slip. it's right there in front of you and, in many cases or in one case, it can even give you an estimated damage cost.
[00:17:00] Ryan Kerzner: Now, it's up to the attendant and whatever procedure that car rental company has on how to broach that with a customer. that's an entirely different conversation.
[00:17:10] Ryan Kerzner: say you've got a, you've got a repeat customer who's comes to you every month, and the system tells you that it found a three hundred dollar piece of, dent on the door. Now, do you really want to have that conversation with that customer?
[00:17:23] Ryan Kerzner: you know, is it a vehicle that's on its way out? There's a lot of other considerations than what the AI will tell you. Yes, the AI will tell you, "Hey, this is new. It wasn't there when it left. You may want to take a look at this." But, I still think the best case is not to automatically charge a customer.
[00:17:36] Ryan Kerzner: You still should have a conversation with the customer about that sort of thing, but it does make it a lot easier than trying to compare a checkout slip or a check-in from paper, right?
[00:17:48] Don Lefeve: it's odd because, you know, we hear about, oh, AI is going to displace so many careers, and there's kinda doom and gloom. but I think the, the more AI becomes a tool, arguably it may have the opposite effect where you need more people on AI
[00:18:05] Don Lefeve: to actually really enhance efficiency,
[00:18:08] Ryan Kerzner: I've talked to, uh, some toll companies recently, various ones, about what they're using on their platforms for AI. And whether it's, you know, character recognition which has been out there to help with data entry, all the way up to recognizing, images taken from, you know, municipal cameras or, or like r- like red light cameras and timestamping things.
[00:18:30] Ryan Kerzner: And, the AI that is built into certain, some of these platforms will show you what fleet vehicles are more prone to these tolls and violations in a particular region down to, just simple data entry. it's advancing quickly. And, some of the legacy companies I think that are out there, they're, they are not scrambling, but they're working to inject AI into what's already, what they've already been working on.
[00:18:55] Ryan Kerzner: Meanwhile, someone in, in their office, me and my buddy could try to put something together with AI. It may not be as good, but Things can happen. You can develop things a heck of a lot easier than you could before
[00:19:07] Don Lefeve: obviously you were in the EV world for a while. What do you see on the horizons for EVs?
[00:19:14] Ryan Kerzner: what I've seen most recently, especially in the last year, is, I could say either a consolidation or a, deflation of-- in the industry whereby companies are either being sold or go under, whether it's a charging OEM or, piece of software.
[00:19:31] Ryan Kerzner: But there's a bit of, I'd say, condensment happening, in the EV industry.
[00:19:37] Ryan Kerzner: The demand is there. I've been driving an EV for a very long time, probably seven years or so,
[00:19:42] Ryan Kerzner: one thing to point out, if your viewers don't see this yet, maybe they're mostly car rental operators but, there's a glut of, off-lease EVs that are coming to the market.
[00:19:54] Ryan Kerzner: So I think that's going to really affect the used car market as far as EVs are concerned 'cause three years ago, there was a ton of amazing deals out there on EVs on leasing, but they're all coming to roost now. And so I'm curious to see how that's going to affect the used EV market, and demand 'cause now it'll be less expensive for any average consumer to get into an EV than it was even a year ago, two years ago,
[00:20:22] Don Lefeve: Affordability you know, is a major issue in politics right now, in every country, not just the United States. But that EV market, the price of gas going up, Do you think the used prices for EVs will spike?
[00:20:37] Ryan Kerzner: I don't think you're going to see a hockey stick of, EV pricing going up. there'll be more vehicles on market for consumers to choose from in the, on the used side. I saw something a week ago about just the Google searches alone for EV sales had gone up like 20 point.
[00:20:54] Ryan Kerzner: It was like a-- Every time there is a huge, increase in the gas, which there has been even in the last week or so, it's gone up like 30 cents. they are noticing that the searches for used EVs has gone up as well. And I think the turn rate too, like, dealer, days on market for EVs has now gone below, the average rate for ICE vehicles of something like average rate, I think it was like 32 days for EVs and something like 40 days for new vehicles.
[00:21:22] Ryan Kerzner: Like, don't quote me on it. But, there's definitely that correlation between the gas prices and what people are, are looking for EVs. I mean, like, my wife's car is up for release in January. I know we're not going to get another ICE vehicle. I insist we don't. I mean, not just because of gas prices, but I like the EV experience so much better and, we'll be an all EV household by the beginning of next year
[00:21:47] Don Lefeve: I tend to agree with you. I think when people drive an EV, they kind of realize how cool they are and, uh, honestly, from a customer experience, there's actually a
[00:21:57] Don Lefeve: lot of benefits, right? that's one of the reasons Tesla's actually been so successful. but talk to me about range anxiety.
[00:22:05] Don Lefeve: where are we? Are the batteries improving? are we getting to a point where, range anxiety is going to be put to the wayside, you know?
[00:22:14] Ryan Kerzner: I think the range anxiety still-- there still has to be a correlation between the range anxiety, people's driving habits, and their access to chargers. I mean, all these vehicles, they're all going to get about three hundred miles or so to range. Some four hundred plus miles per, you know, charge.
[00:22:33] Ryan Kerzner: That's a lot. I don't know, other than a fleet vehicle that's doing a ton of driving, most people aren't going to go three, four hundred miles a day. They might go on a road trip, from my understanding and most people's driving habits is well within the capabilities of what that vehicle can handle.
[00:22:51] Ryan Kerzner: And there is plentiful amount of, public charging in most areas especially in metropolitan areas where people can get to a charger. it's a different way of driving. You've gotta know where you can charge, understand, what your vehicle can do, like how far it can go.
[00:23:10] Ryan Kerzner: if you can charge at home, that'll drastically affect, if you're public charging or not. I get by at home on a level one charger, given the amount of driving I do. It's maybe twenty, thirty miles a day. And for that, I don't have to go to a gas station. I don't have to public charge at all, luckily.
[00:23:27] Ryan Kerzner: but even if you had a larger commute, and, not so long ago, I did have a, twenty-five, thirty-mile commute each way. And even at level one at home, I was only having to charge over the weekend overnight, for a day or so. But yeah, again, range anxiety is still there. I think people may have a misunderstanding of, what it means to lead like an EV life of understanding where to charge and how to charge.
[00:23:51] Ryan Kerzner: as far as public charging and finding places to charge, like you said earlier, Tesla really, nailed it and still is pretty much the go-to and easiest, I'd say the easiest transition into driving EV would be with the Tesla. But there's plenty of other great vehicles out there that now, past this year will be able to charge at a, Tesla charging station anyway.
[00:24:14] Don Lefeve: obviously EVs have a lot of strengths. They also, as we're discussing, have some weaknesses, right? does that mean that hybrids are the future? You know, because a hybrid, you still obviously, it can be a nice vehicle at times.
[00:24:28] Don Lefeve: It could be an EV at times. and the range, I think they get, like, 90 miles to the gallon or something, all in with the EV is that kind of the future?
[00:24:38] Ryan Kerzner: if someone wants high gas mileage, maybe they don't want to go to the pump as much, or they want to cut their expenses. plenty more automotive OEMs that are doing either only hybrid vehicles or have the hybrid option.
[00:24:50] Ryan Kerzner: if you don't want to change your typical refueling habits and you, don't mind going to the gas station, that's just what we've all been used to doing, then yeah, a hybrid's a great way to go. It really is. I mean, that would be ideal, right? but on the EV side, if you're looking to cut down your maintenance expenses, cut down your fueling costs, the, the hassle of going to the gas station, how often you would, you would need to go, depending on your driving habits.
[00:25:15] Ryan Kerzner: you know, if you're trying to be eco-friendly, that's another subject too. But, hybrid, you're not getting into EVs if you're just driving hybrid. and the plug-in hybrids, we're not seeing that as much anymore. Like, there's some OEMs that backed off of that too, to try to get the best of both worlds.
[00:25:34] Ryan Kerzner: But then even with a plug-in hybrid, two things I think that could go wrong, but that's just my opinion.
[00:25:38] Don Lefeve: we've got a number of, independent operators. one guest in particular said, you know, "Really find your niche," right? "And be where the others are not." what's your advice to independent car rental operators?
[00:25:51] Ryan Kerzner: that conversation actually came up quite a bit when I was at the car rental show. I met a lot of smaller operators that did, you know, like only Jeep rentals, or they did, luxury vehicles, or they had older vehicles that were, marketed toward the rideshare community. you could find your niche and stick to it.
[00:26:09] Ryan Kerzner: You still have a business to run and, I mean, it comes down to, like I said earlier, buying cars right and knowing how you should operate your business and selling the vehicles is a big part of it, regardless if it's an older Jeep or a brand-new Mercedes. buying the vehicles at the right price and being able to get the most out of it when you're done with it still remains the same.
[00:26:32] Ryan Kerzner: as far as the customer experience and marketing, having a, a niche for your car rental operation, I guess would help you focus. And if you're a smaller operator, it's harder to chase the larger logos if you are trying to be exactly what they are.
[00:26:48] Ryan Kerzner: If you're a small operator and you want to beat one of the big three at the airport, it's harder. You're going to be chasing rate if you don't already have that niche. You have something specific, something different to offer, whether it's a customer experience or a different type of vehicle.
[00:27:02] Ryan Kerzner: You should stick with something
[00:27:04] Don Lefeve: the mobility space is growing, right? people, particularly in cities, may not want to own a vehicle, right? So there's all these other use cases for car rental.
[00:27:15] Don Lefeve: could be insurance replacement. It could be, I've got to take, you know, a kid up to a sporting event, and my car isn't that big, there's a lot of diverse uses.
[00:27:25] Don Lefeve: you know, when I talk to members, you get a sense this is not just travel only, as most, I think, people, tend to think of car rental, right?
[00:27:34] Don Lefeve: Like, either business travel or personal travel. But there's a lot of diverse uses out there, and with those diverse uses come, customer opportunities and, uh, business-to-business sales.
[00:27:45] Ryan Kerzner: Yeah, that's one area that we focus on as well too. I'm glad you mentioned that. there is still truck rental, there's van rental, either passenger or cargo, that it does open the door to an entirely different type of business that may even offset your cyclical consumer business. you can be a niche just for that.
[00:28:07] Ryan Kerzner: Maybe you're going after last mile or business that need moving trucks. but there is other verticals out there that you may want to explore, such as B2B rentals with cargo vans, even passenger vans, if you haven't already.
[00:28:23] Ryan Kerzner: If you're trying to expand your business as a smaller operator, that's available to you as well, can be. And like I said, many times it offsets your typical peak or cyclical car rental business, the other verticals.
[00:28:37] Don Lefeve: we do have a segment here called WTF, right
[00:28:41] Don Lefeve: What, what's the craziest thing that you've seen in
[00:28:46] Don Lefeve: car rental or mobility?
[00:28:48] Ryan Kerzner: We were participating and sponsoring a car rally, and we had a more than a handful of exotic vehicles that we had shipped from Los Angeles to New York, and they were supposed to be in Manhattan at, like, 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, literally Times Square at a hotel there.
[00:29:06] Ryan Kerzner: And I got a call. I was landing in JFK at, like, roughly 11 o'clock at night, and I got a call from the transpo It's a different guy, someone I had never spoke to before, asking who I was, and he said he had my vehicles, and he was in Hoboken, and I had to come pick them up. And I was by myself, "Let me get this straight.
[00:29:23] Ryan Kerzner: you have six vehicles. They're all exotic cars, and you're sitting in a parking lot, a Toys "R" Us parking lot in Hoboken, and you want me to drive them to Manhattan?" And he told me in his thick accent, he says, "I can't cross the bridge. I can't go into the city with these vehicles." And I'm not going to let him leave all these vehicles in the parking lot in New Jersey.
[00:29:43] Ryan Kerzner: So I called a friend of mine that lived in Manhattan. It was about midnight, and I said, "I need your help. I have to transfer six exotic cars from New Jersey to New York. Can you help me?" And so by the grace of God, at, like, 4 o'clock in the morning, we made several trips. We were picking up vehicles,
[00:30:01] Ryan Kerzner: There was, like, a Maserati. There was a Ferrari 458. Some muscle cars too. That was the fun part. but we were driving all these vehicles back and forth to get them into Manhattan, taking a taxi back, and then making another trip.
[00:30:11] Ryan Kerzner: Made three different trips to get-- three or four different trips to get all these vehicles back there. And it took some time, but I was literally in the parking lot sitting with these vehicles, wondering, how am I supposed to do this by myself?" we got it on time, and I didn't get any sleep that night 'cause the next morning I had to be there on-site delivering these cars, to make sure they got out okay.
[00:30:29] Don Lefeve: quite a treat to, uh, drive around Manhattan in, in those cars with nobody else around, some pretty loud vehicles. It was, it was a lot of fun
[00:30:38] Don Lefeve:
[00:30:38] Don Lefeve: Well, Ryan, thank you again for joining TMP. We really appreciate it. hope to see you back sometime soon.