DULUTH, Ga. - RentOnTheDot, an Internet-based rental reservation company, has hired former Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. executive Willie Swisher as president. Swisher was HERC's vice president of sales and marketing for four years after serving in several management capacities during a 15-year career at Prime Equipment.
Swisher brings knowledge of the needs of contractor customers as well as rental operations to help guide the new RentOnTheDot system.
"We want the rental companies to express their value proposition to the customer base," Swisher told RER. "We also want customers to have an easy transaction. My background in the rental business allows me to express these needs to our technical staff. I approach the strategy from a different perspective, as somebody who understands the needs of the end-user and the operations of the rental company."
Swisher said he expected RentOnTheDot, which has more than 500 locations signed up to participate, to launch its real-time national reservation system this year.
The company's Web site (www.rentonthedot.com) emphasizes proximity to the customers' job sites rather than a request-for-quote process, allowing customers real-time access to rental companies' inventories. Swisher said his goals are to grow the system quickly in North America, focusing on the rental process, and then look at the possibility of international expansion.
LAS VEGAS - Ahern Rentals opened its first rental department in a Payless Cashways home-improvement center here, CEO Don Ahern said.
"We wrote 11 contracts the first day, so we're in business," he said.
Ahern added that he and Payless Cashways have agreed on a location for the next department - in Denver in January. Ahern said the store preparation is about a 30-day process.
In addition to the rental departments, Ahern hopes to open at least a half-dozen stand-alone rental centers in 2001.
Ahern Rentals is No. 18 on the RER 100.
