The original Hertz company was founded by Mr Walter Jacobs in Chicago in 1918. In 1923, having seen the annual revenue grow to one million dollars, he sold the business to John Hertz and the company began trading as Hertz Drive Ur-Self System. The business was sold again in 1926 to General Motors. In 1953, it was acquired by Omnibus Corporation and in 1954 the Hertz Corporation was established with Walter Jacobs as its first official president.

In 1965, Ford Motor Company and Hertz entered into a joint advertising agreement to promote their products and services together. It was the first step in a relationship that came to fruition in 1994, when Ford Motor Company purchased all outstanding shares in the Hertz Corporation.The company was sold to a private equity group in 2005 and was taken public in November 2006. It is now quoted on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘HTZ’.

Hertz has grown from being the pioneer of the car rental business to an organisation that offers rental facilities at 7,000 locations in over 140 countries. In keeping with the company's innovative approach to meeting the requirements of the global market, Hertz developed its leasing and fleet management business and today the company manages fleets for many leading organisations throughout the world.