In the car rental industry, a distinction is made between rental companies and operators (or car rental brokers).

Rental companies
Car rental companies are companies that have their own fleet of cars that they rent out. Most of them belong to large, international chains such as Avis, Hertz or Europcar.

Car rental brokers/operators

Operators (also known as car rental brokers) do not have their own car rental fleet, but handle a certain contingent of vehicles from car rental companies in different regions and market them to people looking to rent a car Since they receive a volume discount from the rental companies, they can often rent the cars to the customer at more favourable conditions. Tour operators usually bundle two or more main services, such as a rental car and an insurance package, into an overall package to create a tourist service.

International brokers or operators include Auto Europe and Sunny Cars, but also well-known tour operators such as FTI and DERTOUR.