Stories by DCHS Board Members, Volunteers and Staff
© 2009 The Douglas County Historical Society

              

 
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

 

 

 

 

 

 


Joe Saunders and his brothers set up their second garage at 13th & Howard in Omaha.

 

     

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