Vehitel, owner, operator and distributor
Vehitel is a general partnership (SNC) comprising the three historic car rental companies AVIS, EUROPCAR and HERTZ. These companies created the Res@Car platform in the 1990s. Vehitel is also a simplified joint-stock company (SAS), whose member shareholders are responsible for managing, operating and distributing Res@Car services under an exclusive licence granted by the SNC. The SNC owns the Res@Car brands and services.
Twelve rental companies have joined forces to offer their business customers a free, efficient and secure booking solution.
Res@Car shareholder and member rental companies, their brands and geographic locations
- ADA (France, 1,000 agencies and rental points)
- AVIS (International, 170 countries); additional brands: BUDGET (International, 165 countries), FRANCE CARS (France), MAGGIORE (Italy)
- CARGO by Jean Lain Mobilités (France, 450 agencies)
- DRIVALIA (International, 18 countries)
- ENTERPRISE (International, 90 countries); additional brand: NATIONAL (International, 60 countries)
- EUROPCAR (International, 140 countries)
- FREE2MOVE Stellantis Group (International, 170 countries); Rent networks: Citroën, DS, Opel, and Peugeot
- HERTZ (International, 145 countries)
- RENT A CAR (France, 480 agencies); Additional brand: ONE WAY (France)
- SIXT (International, 105 countries)
- UCAR Groupe Cosmobilis (France, 460 agencies); Rent networks: Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Skoda, Volkswagen
Some dates
The 1990s:
Following a request from a network of travel agencies to the car rental professional union (now MOBILIANS), Res@Car was created by HERTZ, AVIS and EUROPCAR to connect this network with their systems.
The desire to develop the tool, coupled with the constraints of competition law, led to the establishment of VEHITEL companies in the late 1990s.
The 2000s:
A new version of the platform was developed with the arrival of the internet.
The following car rental companies joined Res@Car during this decade: ENTERPRISE (formerly CITERr) in 2003, BUDGETt in 2004, RENT A CAR in 2005, UCAR in 2007, SIXT in 2008 and ADA in 2009.
The 2010s:
Membership applications continue: FRANCE CARS in 2010, MOBILIZE (formerly RENAULT RENT) in 2013, CARGO in 2015, DRIVALIA (formerly RENTIZ) in 2017, and FREE2MOVE (STELLANTIS) in 2019.
The 2020s:
Following the health crisis of 2020-21, VEHITEL entered a transition phase designed to secure and improve the platform before migrating to a scalable infrastructure and implementing a new service centre to support growth.
Our objectives
Res@Car was originally created by car rental companies based on a « win-win » approach, i.e. combining the financing of a highly competitive booking channel with the possibility of offering their customers a powerful, flexible, scalable and regularly updated tool free of charge.
To comply with competition law and enable car rental companies wishing to use Res@Car to do so, a hosting structure was created.
Under certain conditions, this structure offers a simple and inexpensive way to access the tool.
Developing a collaborative tool that brings together stakeholders engaged in fierce commercial competition was challenging, but could be achieved by implementing a number of rules and safeguards.
A moderating lawyer is present at all meetings of the Vehitel companies (executive committees and general meetings).
He guarantee to the competition authorities that discussions are ethical and only address topics related to the Res@Car tool.
All shareholder representatives agree to and sign Vehitel’s ethical charter. This document specifies the proper conduct to be adopted with regard to various topics, such as boycotts, pricing and information sharing.
An appendix includes a handbook from the French Competition Authority relating to professional organisations.
After twenty years, it is clear that this model works.
Over the years, Res@Car has attracted an ever-increasing number of companies.
To offer its numerous users an increasingly powerful, secure and robust tool, in 2025 Vehitel began migrating the Res@Car infrastructure to a new, optimised private cloud environment.
In the coming months, Res@Car will welcome new member rental companies from various European countries.
In order to support these new companies and third-party partners, as well as new services, the Res@Car service centre has recently undergone a reorganisation to increase its resources and capacity.