Collaboration with Hertz-Rental & leasing business

Following the bursting of the bubble economy, the opening of new rental and lease locations by TMC's Rental & Leasing Business Division had stagnated. However, in 1998, TMC adopted an aggressive policy of further increasing the number of locations to an industry-leading size. As the industry leader, TMC also actively worked on measures to improve customer satisfaction, seen through such examples as the introduction of Support Dial 24, an around-the-clock call service, in August of the same year. TMC increased the number of its rental & leasing locations to 1,092 by 2001, the year in which Toyota Rental & Leasing marked its 35th anniversary. Furthermore, it instituted a storefront customer satisfaction evaluation system called "Customer First Shop II" in 2002, in an effort to continue making improvements in both quality and quantity.

TMC also expanded globally in this business area, beginning a business tie-up in April 1999 with Hertz Corporation, the world's largest rent-a-car company. Toyota Rental & Leasing participated in Hertz' global network, while Hertz (which had no sales locations in Japan) utilized Toyota Rental & Leasing's network in the Japanese market, in order to refer customers to each other. The collaboration generated a significant benefit to TMC, with sales revenue based on Hertz referrals topping 100 million yen in 2003.

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