Truck Rentals - The Big Four

Budget Truck Rentals In the famed presidential election of 2000, a Budget truck made history by transporting Florida's contested presidential election ballots from Palm Beach to Tallahassee to decide the election. The trip made by the Budget truck resulted in tremendous press coverage throughout the nation.

Budget sold the ballot-carrying truck on Yahoo! Auctions, and the proceeds - $67,100 - were donated to the American Red Cross. (For many years, Budget has provided trucks to the American Red Cross for disaster relief efforts across the country.)

Penske Truck Leasing Co., L.P., headquartered in Reading, Pa., is a joint venture of Penske Corporation and General Electric's GE Industrial. A global transportation services provider, Penske operates over 216,000 vehicles and serves customers from over 1,000 locations in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Penske Truck Rental, a service of Penske Truck Leasing, provides do-it-yourself movers with trucks, moving equipment, packing supplies, accessories and Penske's exclusive Travelcare Guarantee and Rate Protections Plus Programs. Penske Truck Rental also provides businesses with straight trucks, tractors, flatbeds, refrigerated vans, trailers and specialized equipment.

Avis Rent A Car System Inc. is an automobile rental company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey USA. Avis and Budget Rent a Car are units of Avis Budget Group.and currently operates over 4000 branch offices world-wide, including locations in Australia, New Zealand, the Central American and Caribbean regions, South America and Africa. Avis is one of the largest vehicle rental agencies in the world. Apart from renting out cars for out-of-town travellers (as well as local commuters who are temporarily without the use of their own vehicles), the company also provides an assortment of vehicles ranging from cube and panel vans to 5-ton box trucks, for the purposes of both residential and commercial moving. Avis also operates a number of storage facilities at their various locations.

Ryder NYSE: R is a popular truck rental and leasing company for companies' distribution and supply chain efforts. Founded in Miami, Florida in 1932 by James A. Ryder, the Ryder company began its business by hauling concrete. Within a few years, the business had expanded to leasing trucks for other companies and the company changed its focus from distribution to leasing. By 1939, the truck fleet had increased to 50. By the 1960s and '70s, Ryder had expanded into the distribution and supply chain markets, assisting other companies with the distribution management of their products effectively. In 1975 James Ryder, under pressure from the boardroom and his bankers, stepped down as head of the company he had founded. In 1978, a third major competitor, Jartran Inc., joined the field. Jartran was an acronym for James A. Ryder Transportation. Giving up a $100,000 annual payment to get out of his noncompetition agreement with Ryder System, James Ryder founded Jartran, which made a fast entry into the field, building a 30,000 vehicle fleet in less than 18 months. James Ryder's new company became a thorn in the side of his former company. James Ryder appeared in Jartran ads as "the man who invented truck rental," and his new vehicles resembled Ryder System's enough upset Ryder System's Board of Directors. Ryder provides leading-edge transportation, logistics and supply chain management solutions worldwide. Ryder's product offerings range from full service leasing, commercial rental and programmed maintenance of vehicles to integrated services such as dedicated contract carriage and carrier management. Additionally, Ryder offers comprehensive supply chain solutions, consulting, lead logistics management services and e-Business solutions that support customers' entire supply chains, from inbound raw materials and parts through distribution and delivery of finished goods. Ryder serves customer needs throughout North America, in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Today, Ryder has divisions all over the world and employs around 25,000 people.