AVIS Europe is to consolidate its eight call-centre operations based around Europe into two offices located in Manchester and France.
At the moment 300 staff are employed around the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
The new office in Manchester, to open in spring 2000, will have around 200 staff and take an estimated 50,000 calls a week from the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The French call centre, details of which have not been finalised, is hoped to employ the same amount of staff and take calls from southern Europe. The new operation is scheduled to open at the end of the year 2000.
Avis Europe is offering a relocation package to the 175 staff based in its UK headquarters in Bracknell, along with all its staff at the seven other call centres.
Avis Europe said the new call centres, which will deal with agents and the public, have been created to deal with the rising amount of sales taken over the telephone. The car rental company estimates that 39% of its reservations are now made through call centres.
Avis rental stations make up 35% of bookings and the rest are made through global distribution systems.
A spokeswoman for Avis said: “Call centres are now our largest distribution channel. We need to make improvements to response times and this move will allow us to invest in the technology to do this.”