Hertz Partners With Shift Technologies

Rental car giant Hertz recently announced it teamed up with startup Shift Technologies, said Fortune. Shift Technologies is an online used-car marketplace.

Under the new deal, Shift Technologies will feature and sell used vehicles from Hertz’s rental inventory, giving Hertz access to an additional retail sales channel. As of now, Hertz sells most of its cars at auction.

George Arison, founder and CEO of Shift Technologies, was quoted as saying: “The intent of the partnership is to combine Hertz’s cars with our customer experience to give customers an opportunity to buy these cars directly. We think this partnership offers us an awesome, unfair advantage to expand into numerous markets quickly.”

Shift Technologies is reportedly looking to use the deal as a means to expand its offerings beyond its current market in San Fransisco and Los Angeles. Hertz already works with Shift Technologies in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Shift looks to expand its brand outward to smaller and mid-sized cities nationwide, though no concrete plans have been announced as of yet.

Additionally, Hertz could certainly use an additional sales channel. Competition from ridesharing providers and newer, upstart rental car provider Silvercar has left the legacy car rental industry feeling the heat. Uber and Lyft allow users to schedule rides in advance, making it easier than ever for travelers to phase out car rentals altogether. Hertz has seen shares dropping regularly since the summer of 2015, with shares falling 23 percent in early November after a low third-quarter profit.

This is far from the first time Hertz went in with a startup. In 2015, Hertz partnered with both Uber and Lyft to make its fleet of vehicles available to potential ridesharing drivers at an affordable price. As with Shift Technologies, Hertz rents out cars that are soon to rotate out of its rental fleet — meaning drivers would be able to rent, and now purchase, older vehicle models.