Joe Saunders
On August 20, 1916, Omaha entrepreneur
Josiah Ellis “Joe” Saunders launched the car rental business
with a seven-line classified ad announcing “Automobiles for
Hire.”
Saunders, whose main business was real estate, placed
the ad in the Omaha World-Herald. His fleet consisted of
just one automobile — a borrowed Model T Ford. Within six
months, Saunders had 18 Model Ts at his business, Ford Livery
Company, 317 N. 22nd St. Renting Fords at 10 cents a mile, he
soon convinced his three brothers that car rental was a booming
business. Even their skeptical father joined the operation,
which later became Saunders Drive-It-Yourself System and finally
Saunders System.
In 1917 the business moved to a much larger garage at 13th and Howard.
Within two years it was filled with more than 130 Model T Fords.
There seemed to be no shortage of customers. “Cars often were
rented just for the experience and the pleasure of driving,”
wrote Harris Saunders in a book on the company’s history. Though
thefts, wrecks and bad accounts were concerns, profits overcame
any liabilities.
Warwick Saunders Sr., the father who had at one time questioned the
legitimacy of the business, now pushed his sons to expand. By
late 1919 they had a location in Kansas City; the following year
they were purchasing 100 Fords from a dealer in Birmingham,
Alabama and leasing a new garage there. By 1926 Saunders System
operated in 56 cities. The Saunders brothers even dabbled in the
“fly-it-yourself” industry.
The Great Depression dealt the business a severe blow, but Saunders
System survived. Joe Saunders sold his Chicago operation to Avis
in 1955 for $500,000.
— Gary Rosenberg
DCHS
Staff
Sources:
Vertical Files, Douglas County Historical Society Library
Archives Center
Saunders, Sr., Harris Top Up or Down: Car and Truck Renting
— the Origin and Development of the
industry — Since 1916.
Birmingham, Ala.: Birmingham Printing and Publishing Co., 1985.
Omaha City Directories
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