Counter and Rental Clerks
Scrub through 120years of this role's history, from when it first emerged, through every wave of technology that reshaped it, to the cited projections for where it's heading next.
April 2025: Hertz deploys UVeye AI damage-detection scanners across US airport rental locations. The system drives vehicles through a photo-booth tunnel, captures thousands of images, and flags damage automatically -- replacing the manual walk-around inspection that had been a counter agent's closing ritual since 1916. More than 675,000 Hertz rentals are scanned; more than 97% show no billable damage. The AI system generates the report; the counter agent reviews disputed findings and explains the determination to the customer. The Hertz-UVeye deployment is the most concrete 2025 data point for how AI transforms the counter and rental clerk role: it does not eliminate the job but reassigns the physical inspection task to a machine and concentrates human time on the exceptions.
The tools that defined the work
Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.
Paper ledger and mileage meter (hand-written rental contract era)
The first rental counter agents worked with the simplest possible tools: a mileage meter bolted to a wheel, a paper ledger, and a cash drawer. Joe Saunders charged ten cents per mile and kept a handwritten record of each transaction. Rental agreements were simple, typed or hand-filled carbon-copy contracts that the customer signed and the clerk retained. The counter agent's expertise was entirely embodied: knowing the fleet, explaining how to drive a stick-shift Model T, collecting the car at the agreed time, and resolving disputes about mileage readings by hand. No technology mediated these judgments.
Ledger workPaper recordkeeping Airport counter terminal and carbon-copy rental agreement (air travel expansion era)
Warren Avis put the first car rental counter inside an airport in 1946 at Willow Run in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and then at Miami and Chicago. The innovation restructured the counter agent's workflow around air travel rhythms: plane arrivals created burst demand, queues formed, and the speed of processing each counter transaction became a competitive differentiator. Standardized carbon-copy rental agreements -- the "contract set" that became universal across Hertz, Avis, National, and Budget by the 1960s -- allowed clerks to complete a rental in a consistent, audit-ready format without managing paper ledgers. The counter agent's pace and accuracy became central to the customer experience in a way the original Saunders model had never required.
Work toolChanging equipment VHS cassette and video rental store counter (home video revolution)
George Atkinson opened the first US video rental store in Los Angeles in December 1977, and by mid-1985 there were 15,000 video rental outlets in the country. The video rental counter clerk became one of the most culturally visible iterations of the counter-and-rental role: the person who recommended films, explained the difference between VHS and Beta (a distinction that mattered acutely through the early 1980s), enforced late fees, and processed returns with a rewind check. By 1988 roughly 70,000 video rental outlets existed across the US. The video clerk's knowledge base was the film catalog itself -- a form of expertise that chains like Blockbuster (founded 1985) both systematized (through proprietary database software) and, over time, commoditized by replacing cinephile clerks with teenagers managing standardized inventory. At its peak Blockbuster employed 84,300 workers worldwide.
Effect on the workThe video rental sector added an estimated 100,000-200,000 counter and rental clerk jobs at its peak in the late 1990s. The entire segment was eliminated by streaming and Redbox kiosks between 2005 and 2021, representing one of the most complete technology-driven occupational contraction events in modern US service history.
Work toolChanging equipment Computer reservation and rental management systems (IBM mainframe to PC era)
Car rental chains adopted IBM mainframe-based reservation systems through the 1970s and 1980s, moving fleet allocation and booking confirmation from paper logs to electronic records. By the early 1990s, PC-based rental management systems had reached equipment rental stores, replacing handwritten inventory ledgers with real-time availability tracking. For the counter agent this change was transformative: a clerk could now check fleet availability across multiple locations, confirm reservations in seconds, and generate a printed contract automatically. The expertise required shifted from memorizing a physical inventory toward accurate data entry and navigation of the reservation software -- the first step in the long transition from craft knowledge toward platform fluency that defines the modern counter role.
Mainframe processingComputerized records Online booking and loyalty kiosk programs (Hertz Gold, Avis Preferred)
Hertz launched its "Gold" frequent-renter program and began allowing pre-registered members to bypass the main counter and pick up a car directly from the lot. Avis Preferred followed a similar model. These programs did not eliminate counter agents but bifurcated demand: loyalty members went around the counter; first-time or infrequent renters and complex transactions remained at it. By the mid-2000s, major car rental chains also deployed self-service kiosks in some airport locations for reservation holders. Hertz introduced its ExpressRent kiosk in November 2011, allowing customers to complete a rental from a live video-chat agent outside of normal business hours. The effect was incremental displacement of counter intake for straightforward transactions, concentrating human counter time on exceptions and new customers.
Effect on the workHertz's kiosk rollout (ExpressRent, 2011-2012) covered more than 30 markets by 2012. The direct employment effect on counter headcount at car rental companies is not precisely documented in public sources, but the Gold bypass and kiosk programs together reduced the volume of standard transactions handled at counters without eliminating counter positions -- the service remained available for travelers who needed it.
Work toolChanging equipment DVD vending kiosks (Redbox, 2004-2024)
McDonald's founded Redbox in 2002 as an automated convenience store concept; by 2004 it had pivoted to DVD rental kiosks. At its peak, Redbox operated more than 34,000 kiosks across the US and controlled more than half the domestic DVD rental market. Redbox is the purest example of a rental counter fully replaced by a machine: every transaction the video store clerk had handled -- film selection, payment, return, late fee -- was moved to a $1-per-night automated kiosk. The video store counter clerk did not adapt; the job simply ceased to exist as a format. Redbox itself ceased operations in August 2024, displaced by streaming video on demand.
Effect on the workRedbox kiosks and Netflix streaming together ended the video rental store segment entirely. By 2017, over 86% of the 15,300 US video rental stores open in 2007 had closed. Family Video, the last major chain, closed all remaining stores in January 2021. The roughly 100,000-200,000 counter and rental clerk positions in video rental were eliminated without meaningful migration to other counter formats.
Work toolChanging equipment Mobile check-in, contactless apps, and IoT fleet management (Hertz, Enterprise mobile apps)
Major car rental chains deployed mobile apps enabling customers to complete the entire intake process before arriving at a rental location: selecting the vehicle, signing the agreement digitally, and picking up from a designated spot without visiting a counter. Enterprise and Hertz both offered mobile-native check-in by 2017-2018. For equipment rental, platforms like Booqable and Point of Rental brought online booking and automated contract generation to the small-operator market. The counter agent's role shifted further toward exception handling, physical vehicle handoff for app-confused customers, upselling insurance and upgrades, and resolving discrepancies between the digital booking and physical fleet availability. The job became less about intake and more about service recovery.
Accounting softwareIntegrated ledgers AI chatbots and damage-detection AI (Anolla, UVeye, Rybo, InTempo AI)
AI rental chatbots handle up to 79.3% of routine rental queries without human intervention -- availability checks, quotes, booking confirmations, extensions, and cancellations (Anolla benchmark, 2024). Hertz deployed UVeye's AI damage-detection scanners across US airport locations in April 2025, automatically capturing thousands of images per vehicle and flagging damage without a manual walk-around. InTempo Software reports AI-driven predictive maintenance reducing unplanned equipment downtime by 20-50%. For the counter agent, the AI wave concentrates work on the tasks machines cannot complete: in-person damage disputes, equipment orientation walk-arounds, identity-document edge cases, upsell conversations that require reading a customer, and service recovery when the digital system has failed. The Gitnux 2026 rental industry benchmarks show 1.8x faster resolution of complex cases and 80% less manual data entry where AI tools are deployed -- gains that reduce clerk transaction volume without eliminating the role.
Effect on the workBLS projects modest employment growth of 3.2% (13,100 jobs) for 41-2021 through 2034 despite heavy AI adoption, reflecting that the physical-handoff and dispute-resolution tasks at the core of the occupation are genuinely difficult to automate at scale. The remaining counter workforce is expected to concentrate in equipment rental, specialty rental, and high-value vehicle segments rather than commodity car rental.
Work toolChanging equipment
What credible sources project
Scrub the slider past now to anchor each scenario on the scrubber. The spread is the range of futures credible sources project for this role.
What's shifting in the work right now
The historical view above shows how this role has moved. This is the present-day detail: which AI tools are picking up which tasks, where the edge still is, and the natural directions this work can grow.
What's changing in your day
Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.
AI is sitting alongside you hereRespond to in-person and phone reservation requests for vehicles, equipment, or services
Respond to in-person and phone reservation requests for vehicles, equipment, or services; check real-time availability in the rental management system; provide pricing, policies, and add-on options; and confirm bookings with customers while the AI chatbot handles routine digital inquiries.[6],[9],[1]
Focus on reservation scenarios the AI cannot close: walk-in customers with special requirements, fleet reallocation during peak demand, and bundled add-on upsells. Develop working knowledge of the chatbot's escalation triggers so you can pick up handoffs without restarting the customer's context.
AI is sitting alongside you hereGenerate rental agreements and calculate charges using the rental management platform
Generate rental agreements and calculate charges using the rental management platform; process credit card payments and security deposits; and resolve payment exceptions -- declined cards, invoice disputes, and prorated early-return calculations -- that the automated billing flow cannot handle without judgment.[5],[12],[1]
Own the exception layer: learn the billing logic well enough to audit automated invoices for common errors (wrong rate tier, missing waiver, incorrect duration). Customers who dispute charges at the counter need a clerk who can explain the line items clearly and resolve the issue on the spot.
AI is sitting alongside you hereMonitor real-time inventory status in the rental management platform
Monitor real-time inventory status in the rental management platform; conduct periodic physical spot-checks to reconcile the digital record against actual on-lot availability; flag overdue returns and coordinate with dispatch on reallocation decisions when demand exceeds available fleet.[7],[10]
Treat the software dashboard as a starting point, not the final word. Unrecorded damage, unreported early returns, and misplaced equipment create gaps between digital and physical inventory. Frequent physical spot-checks -- especially before peak-demand periods -- catch the discrepancies that create customer complaints and revenue leakage.
Where this role is heading
Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.
Customer Service Representatives
Counter and rental clerks already perform the core tasks of customer service: handling complaints, answering product questions, resolving billing disputes, and managing service recovery. Transitioning to a dedicated customer service role -- especially in a contact center or omnichannel support team -- requires virtually no additional credential. The pivot gains CRI stability because customer service representatives are more distributed across industries (healthcare, software, utilities, financial services) than rental-sector clerks, reducing concentration risk as kiosk check-in erodes rental counter headcount.
- · CRM platform proficiency (Salesforce Service Cloud or Zendesk)
- · Ticket-based support workflows and escalation procedures
- · Written communication for chat and email support channels
- · De-escalation techniques for multi-channel (phone, chat, email) interactions
See the same long-arc view for your own profession.
Browse the directory by industry, or search by title or SOC code. New roles ship every few weeks. Every profile cites every claim.
Browse all roles