Annual reminder part of effort to help U.S. and Canadian officials address outstanding tickets and revenue shortfalls
ST. LOUIS, 2012-08-03 — /travelprnews.com/ — In an ongoing effort to help address outstanding fines for traffic, parking and toll violations by car rental customers, Enterprise Holdings has notified more than 6,500 local governments in the United States and Canada and submitted the company’s contact information as part of the public record. Enterprise Holdings, through its regional subsidiaries, operates the Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental brands.
The annual reminder directed government officials to deliver notice of any outstanding tickets and fines to the company’s shared services centers in Tulsa and Toronto (examples linked: U.S., Canada). “Budgets continue to be very tight for local governments, and we know how much these cities and towns depend on revenue from various traffic, parking and toll violators. Extensive and costly delays in collecting these fines can impact a variety of important taxpayer services,” said Gary Cunningham, vice president at Enterprise Holdings.
“Streamlining the turnaround of this information enables us to help local officials quickly identify individuals who owe fines so they can deal directly with them to collect payment,” Cunningham added.
Following the 2007 acquisition of Alamo and National, Enterprise Holdings began to consolidate and process citation data on behalf of all three brands at its shared services centers. (Previously, Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices handled customer traffic and parking fines locally.) Information about violators is reviewed and, where permissible, transmitted to the proper government officials, allowing their respective local courts to enforce citations more rapidly and reduce backlogs of unpaid fines.
In some locations, car rental companies are legally required to pay violations on behalf of their customers while other communities enable companies to transfer the liability to those responsible for the traffic fine.
“Our continued preference is for local officials to work directly with car rental customers – it’s simply the most efficient and cost-effective method for processing fines,” Cunningham explained.
In some locations, the ticket enforcement process is further complicated by unmanned, electronic toll booths or “cashless toll roads” that require a driver to have a local payment device to pass through legally. To help address that issue, the Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental brands offer a video toll pass service. TollPass™ Automatic provides automatic billing for customers who pass video tolling stations and generate tolls at an automated toll booth.
This service, available for a small daily fee, is currently available to rental customers in Northern California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Washington state, and also will be offered to renters in British Columbia later this year. In addition, Enterprise, National and Alamo customers in Maryland and at most locations in the Northeast can rent a TollPass Device transponder that enables them to pay tolls electronically.
About Enterprise Holdings
Founded in 1957, Enterprise Holdings is the most comprehensive service provider in the car rental industry, operating – through its regional subsidiaries – the Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental brands as well as its flagship Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand in North America. Alamo, Enterprise and National – which swept Executive Travel magazine’s 2011 “Leading Edge Awards” for the top three car rental brands in the travel industry – collectively lead with more than one-third of all airport business in the United States and Canada. Enterprise Holdings’ worldwide network includes more than 7,700 neighborhood and airport locations, with 6,000 offices located within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population – and more than twice as many locations as Enterprise Holdings’ nearest U.S. competitor. With annual revenues of $14.1 billion and more than 70,000 employees, Enterprise Holdings owns and operates more than 1.2 million cars and trucks, making it the largest car rental company in the world measured by revenue, employees and fleet. For more information about St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings, visit www.enterpriseholdings.com.
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