This is an independent manager-run scenario for a modeled U.S. Hertz operation with 100 rentable vehicles. The 2026 Hertz System, Inc. Franchise Disclosure Document does not report franchisee sales, profit, EBITDA, cash flow, or owner compensation in Item 19, so the range is not an official Hertz earnings result.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Hertz System, Inc. It combines identified 2026 FDD facts with separately identified SEC, IRS, BLS, and editorial assumptions. Actual results can differ materially by airport or non-airport format, fleet size, revenue per vehicle, utilization, labor, concession or occupancy cost, vehicle financing, owner involvement, transaction mix, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Hertz System, Inc.
FDD: Issued March 20, 2026
Item 19 status: No financial performance representation
FDD formats: Airport and non-airport vehicle-rental locations
Primary proxy: 2025 Americas RAC revenue per unit and Adjusted EBITDA
Date checked: July 21, 2026
Manager-run owner earnings
Pre-tax residual after modeled operating costs, before financing principal and personal taxes.
Base revenue proxy
100 vehicles × $1,405 monthly revenue per unit × 12 months.
2025 Americas RAC Adjusted EBITDA
Equivalent to a derived -2.54% margin on $6.759 billion of segment revenue.
Franchise fee on Gross Receipts
7% for non-airport rentals and 9% for airport rentals, subject to a minimum annual amount.
Franchised outlets at year-end 2025
Item 20 reports 400 at the start of 2025, 13 openings, and 23 outlets that ceased operations for other reasons.
What does the Hertz FDD actually disclose about owner earnings?
Official answer: it discloses no franchisee revenue or earnings measure. Item 19 of the 2026 Hertz System, Inc. FDD states that the franchisor does not make representations about future franchisee financial performance or the past performance of company-owned or franchised outlets. That means no FDD average, median, quartile, margin, owner salary, or take-home figure can serve as the direct answer.
The absence of an Item 19 result is not evidence that a Hertz location earns zero or loses money. It means the public decision model has to use structural facts from the FDD and clearly labeled external proxies. The Federal Trade Commission's franchise buying guide also cautions that gross sales are not profit and that buyers should request written substantiation for any earnings claim.
Even a credible revenue estimate cannot be renamed owner income. A vehicle-rental operator must absorb fleet depreciation or lease cost, vehicle interest, damage and maintenance, labor, facilities or airport concessions, insurance, transaction charges, the 7% or 9% franchise fee, and other operating expenses before any residual reaches the owner.
What does Item 20 add?
Official system context: Item 20 reports 390 franchised outlets at the end of 2025, down from 400 at the start of the year. The table records 13 openings and 23 outlets that ceased operations for “other reasons”; it does not identify the economics of those locations. It also reports zero franchisee-to-new-owner transfers in 2025, after 16 in 2024.
FDD references: 2026 Hertz System, Inc. FDD, Item 19, p. 19-1; Item 20, pp. 20-2 to 20-9.
How was the annual earnings range calculated?
Estimated answer: the model starts with a 100-vehicle operation, applies the 2025 Hertz Americas RAC monthly revenue-per-unit proxy, then applies a three-point margin sensitivity around the segment's 2025 Adjusted EBITDA margin. The 100-vehicle scale is an editorial illustration within the FDD's stated 30-to-300-vehicle starting-fleet range; it is not described by Hertz as typical.
| Scenario | Revenue proxy | Operating margin | Manager-run owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Conservative 80% of base revenue; proxy margin minus 3 points |
$1,348,800 | -5.54% | -$74,788 |
|
Base 100% of base revenue; 2025 parent proxy margin |
$1,686,000 | -2.54% | -$42,905 |
|
Upside 120% of base revenue; proxy margin plus 3 points |
$2,023,200 | 0.46% | $9,211 |
What does the manager-run scenario produce?
Estimated annual pre-tax owner earnings for a modeled 100-vehicle operation
Interpretation: the modeled manager-run operation remains below break-even in the conservative and base cases and produces only a modest residual in the upside case. These categories are analytical sensitivities, not probabilities or forecasts.
Sources: 2026 Hertz System, Inc. FDD, Items 6, 7, and 19; Hertz 2025 full-year operating results; SEC Americas RAC segment table. Calculations use unrounded inputs and are rounded to the nearest dollar.
- Estimated pre-tax owner earnings
- Residual operating result after the all-in segment-margin proxy, before personal income taxes and financing principal payments.
- Manager compensation
- Included indirectly in the manager-run proxy because Hertz's regional operating result includes normal labor costs. It is not added again.
- Vehicle depreciation and lease cost
- Included in the parent segment's Adjusted EBITDA calculation as disclosed by Hertz, but the amount and financing structure for a franchisee may differ substantially.
- Interest, capital expenditure, and debt service
- Vehicle-interest-like operating items enter the parent proxy, but franchisee borrowing terms, principal payments, fleet purchases, facility capital spending, and owner-level debt are not modeled separately.
- Personal taxes
- Excluded. Entity structure, state, deductions, and owner circumstances make after-tax take-home pay unsuitable for a standardized estimate.
How does active owner involvement change the result?
Estimated answer: if the owner personally serves as the full-time manager, the modeled owner-operator benefit rises to approximately $21,000 to $105,000 a year. That figure is not pure business profit: it combines the residual operating result with the market value of management labor performed by the owner.
Item 15 says the franchisee must devote significant personal time, energy, direction, and best efforts to the business. The owner must employ a full-time trained manager or may serve as that manager. A manager-run structure therefore should not be described as passive ownership.
Manager-run residual versus owner-operator benefit
The owner-operator figures add the $95,760 BLS annual mean wage for a General and Operations Manager in the rental and leasing industry
Interpretation: replacing a paid manager can improve cash available to the owner, but the added amount compensates the owner for full-time work. It is not passive profit and should not be compared directly with a hands-off investment return.
Sources: 2026 Hertz System, Inc. FDD, Item 15, p. 15-1; BLS May 2023 rental and leasing industry wage data. The wage benchmark is broad, older than the FDD, and not Hertz-specific.
How much can the airport versus non-airport fee structure matter?
Official FDD answer: Hertz charges a franchise fee equal to 7% of Gross Receipts for non-airport rentals and 9% for airport rentals, subject to a minimum annual amount. At the model's $1.686 million base revenue, the two-point difference equals $33,720 a year before considering airport concession fees, shuttle requirements, reservation charges, travel commissions, card-processing charges, insurance, or other operating differences.
| Format illustration | FDD rate | Fee at $1.686M revenue | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-airport rental | 7% | $118,020 | Lower stated percentage, still subject to the FDD-defined minimum annual amount. |
| Airport rental | 9% | $151,740 | Higher stated percentage; airport concession and transport obligations can add separate cost. |
| Rate difference | 2 points | $33,720 | A scale illustration, not an additional deduction from the scenario margin. |
The scenario applies an all-in Hertz parent operating-margin proxy, so it does not separately subtract the 7% or 9% FDD franchise fee. Doing so would combine incompatible company and franchise definitions and could charge the fee twice. The fee table instead shows the size of the obligation that a buyer should reconcile against actual franchisee profit-and-loss statements.
FDD references: 2026 Hertz System, Inc. FDD, Item 6, pp. 6-1 and 6-5; Item 7, pp. 7-1 to 7-4.
Why is the evidence confidence limited?
Uncertain answer: the decisive missing evidence is same-brand franchised-unit revenue and expense data. The 2025 Americas RAC result is current and same-brand, but it covers a regional operating segment rather than a clearly isolated U.S. franchised-unit cohort. It therefore cannot establish what a single Hertz franchise owner earns.
The proxy is directionally consistent with broad U.S. tax data. In IRS Publication 16 for tax year 2022, corporations classified in automotive equipment rental and leasing reported approximately $98.1 billion of total receipts and $100.4 billion of deductions, a derived receipts-less-deductions margin of about -2.4%. That dataset is older, covers a broader industry than passenger-car rental, and includes corporations with very different scale and business models; it corroborates cost pressure but does not validate a Hertz-specific result.
The U.S. Census Bureau definition of NAICS 532111 identifies passenger car rental as short-term rental of passenger cars without drivers. The closest IRS table is broader than that exact activity, another reason to keep confidence limited.
- Revenue per vehicle and utilization: small changes compound across the full fleet and affect how much fixed facility and management cost each vehicle carries.
- Vehicle economics: acquisition price, depreciation, lease terms, interest, damage, maintenance, downtime, and disposal proceeds can dominate the operating result.
- Airport versus non-airport structure: the 9% versus 7% franchise fee is only one difference; airport concessions, transport, hours, and staffing may be material.
- Channel and transaction mix: reservation charges, travel commissions, card services, replacement-rental processing, and other per-transaction costs vary with how bookings arrive.
- Owner role: an owner serving as full-time manager may capture labor value but is exchanging time and operating responsibility for that benefit.
- Financing: fleet and facility debt can turn a positive operating result into negative owner cash flow even though principal payments are not operating expenses.
What should a buyer verify before relying on any earnings estimate?
Practical answer: obtain location- and format-specific records rather than treating this analytical span as a forecast. The highest-value evidence would be complete profit-and-loss statements from comparable U.S. franchisees and written substantiation for every performance statement made during the sales process.
- Confirm whether the latest Item 19 remains a no-representation disclosure and request written substantiation for any supplemental earnings information.
- Separate airport and non-airport franchisee results, including concession fees, transport costs, operating hours, and the 9% versus 7% franchise fee.
- Compare fleet size,average rentable vehicles, utilization, total revenue per unit, vehicle age, and vehicle disposal practices.
- Reconcile every recurring and transaction-based fee in Item 6 to actual monthly statements, including reservations, commissions, card services, and replacement-rental processing.
- Identify whether each franchisee P&L includes a market-rate manager salary, owner salary, owner draw, related-party rent, depreciation, and vehicle interest.
- Model debt service separately using the buyer's actual vehicle, facility, and acquisition financing terms.
- Interview current and former franchisees listed in Item 20 about owner hours, manager depth, fleet downtime, seasonal cash needs, closures, and transfer conditions.
What is the strongest defensible earnings conclusion?
The strongest defensible public estimate is approximately -$75,000 to $9,000 of annual manager-run pre-tax owner earnings for a modeled 100-vehicle Hertz operation. It is a structural FDD-anchored scenario, not an official Hertz result. If the owner replaces a paid full-time manager, the corresponding estimated owner-operator benefit is about $21,000 to $105,000, but part of that amount is compensation for labor rather than passive business profit.
The most important earnings driver is the interaction between revenue per vehicle and vehicle carrying cost. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of a current Item 19 disclosure for U.S. franchised-unit sales, expenses, or profit. A buyer should therefore verify the latest Item 19, demand written substantiation for any earnings claim, and compare actual franchisee records from similar airport or non-airport locations before treating any range as decision-grade.