<B>Under The Hood</B>
<B>Budget, ANC Report Fourth-Quarter Losses</B>
Budget Group Inc.'s losses continue to escalate, with the company reporting a net loss of $595.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2000, compared with $95 million in fourth-quarter 1999. Total net losses for the year amounted to $604.6, compared with $64.5 million in 1999.
Budget management attributed the losses to charges related to a scale-back and implementation of a franchising strategy in Europe, asset valuations and uncollected accounts receivable, along with adjustments to truck inventory valuations. Besides its difficulties in Europe, stemming from the loss and subsequent rebuilding of business due to a dispute with a former franchisee, Budget has been struggling to integrate Ryder TRS, which it acquired in 1999, into its truck operations. Budget's domestic car rental operations reported a fourth-quarter operating loss, before charges of $7.6 million, which executives partly attributed to depressed pricing. However, operating income for the division increased for the year, and the company was expecting improvement this year, with projected volume up 3 percent to 4 percent. Budget expects to achieve profitability, which it last experienced in 1997, next year.
Meanwhile, ANC Rental Corp., the umbrella company for National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car, which was spun off from AutoNation last year, reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $44 million, an improvement over the $95.5 million net loss of fourth-quarter 1999. ANC chairman and CEO Michael Egan attributed the loss to "a difficult pricing environment" in North American airport markets, and said the company would continue to reduce costs.
<B><A NAME="2">Worldspan Debuts Chauffeured Bookings</B>
Reserving a car service through Worldspan is becoming quicker and easier. Through its new Web-based platform, Worldspan on the Web, Worldspan now has the capability to offer instant confirmation of ground transportation bookings, traditionally a process that can take hours for car services on the global distribution system and integration into the client's passenger name record. The first supplier to sign up for the service is BostonCoach; other participants include Saturn Internet Reservation Systems Inc., NovaTran WorldRide Transportation Network and LimoLink, which are Web-based reservation systems representing a wide network of suppliers. Last October, Sabre Holdings Corp. pioneered ground transportation bookings through the Web when it signed up LimoStation.com, a ground transportation provider with 400 affiliates, on Sabre AgentExplorer. AgentExplorer not only provides instant confirmation of the car services booking and integration with the PNR, but it also offers travel arrangers access to comprehensive rates and other information. Galileo plans to jump on a similar bandwagon soon. By the third quarter, it expects to have NovaTran included in its e-Agent Web portal.
<B><A NAME="2">Car Bites</B>
Alamo has introduced an online booking service called QuickRent which enables customers to bypass the counter by electronically signing the rental agreement on Alamo's Web site and using the self-service kiosk at the rental location. Anyone with a driver's license and credit card qualifies for the service. ... With its acquisition by Cendant now completed, Avis Rent A Car will be moving its offices from Garden City, on New York's Long Island, to Cendant's headquarters in Parsipanny, N.J. ... Travelers booking Europcar, one of the leading car rental companies in Europe, now will receive a free wireless phone, thanks to a new partnership with Cellhire USA. Cellhire will deliver the phone for free anywhere in the contiguous United States, although customers are responsible for their call charges and return of the phone. ... Alamo has debuted service in South Africa with the opening of airport locations at Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.