usrentacar.co.uk® Car Hire USA Blog

Hi all,

Its almost the weekend… so how about a little bit of fun (I use this word loosely). Are you good a spotting things? Do you like Harry Potter?

If you’ve answered yes to both of these questions why not check out our exclusive Harry Spotter game.

Following the link here - http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/spot-the-difference-harry-potter.aspx

Can you spot all ten differences between these two pictures? If you can, why not email me them at jamest@usrentacar.co.uk and I’ll send you out a small prize.

regards,

James

Good afternoon,

I have worked in the car rental business specialising in the USA for the past 14 years and along the way I have picked up some extremely useful tips when it comes to hiring a car for the first time. In this series I will do my best to dispel a couple of the more common myths and stigma’s associated with car hire USA.

The first issue I will tackle may be familiar to the regular visitors to the USA

Q: I will get sued if I don’t have enough insurance!

A: This is a pretty old question that has been around for as long as I can remember. I have spoken to many customers who have quoted a story from a friend of a friend who knew someone that got sued and lost their house because they didn’t have enough insurance. This question perpetuates because of the ‘perceived suing culture’ in America. I wouldn’t say its any worse than in the UK but its always wise to ensure you are adequately covered in the event that you are involved in an accident.

While it’s never advisable to drive a vehicle without insurance, our policies come with everything you will need to ensure you are covered for all eventualities. Here is a quick run down of what we include and also what the blurb actually means;

• Unlimited Mileage. There are no additional charges incurred for the amount of miles you drive. Mileage is not charged on a per mile basis.

• Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) which is a combination insurance of both Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Waiver. As long as you adhere to the rental policy of the supplier you will not be held responsible for the cost of replacement or repair to your hire vehicle.

• Uninsured Motorist Protection (UMP) up to $1m Liability Cover. Offers an Uninsured/Underinsured/Hit-and-Run Motorist Protection (UMP) that provides the renter and family members travelling together in the rented vehicle with up to $1,000,000 of non-stacked coverage for bodily injury sustained while driving the rental car, and caused by another driver who has no insurance, minimal insurance, or is a hit-and-run driver.

• Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) up to $1m Liability Cover. All drivers included on the rental agreement will not be held liable for third party claims for bodily injury or property damage resulting from an accident.

• Basic Roadside Assistance. In the event of mechanical difficulties there is an emergency number for you to call on the rental agreement you collect from the supplier.

• All Taxes and Airport Fees. You will not be charged any additional taxes or fee’s because your insurances have been pre-paid.

As you can see the cover we provide as ‘ standard car hire insurance ’ will cover you for most eventualities that you may encounter while driving your car hire USA.

For more information please feel free to contact our car rental specialist via www.usrentacar.co.uk

Author: Frank Williams
Web: www.usrentacar.co.uk

Hi all,

Alamo were doing so well this week, on Monday they amended their petrol policy and Tuesday they revealed their new Cape Canaveral location, Wednesday was a bit quiet but today we’ve been advised of some new terms that aren’t quite as positive.

One Way Rentals

Ford Mustang and Convertible lovers collecting in San Francisco may have to rethink their schedule due to this new fee.

One way rentals commencing 01 July 2012 – 31 August 2012. Intercity fees from all San Francisco Locations for the STAR (Convertible) to all destinations will be charged at 350.00 USD

So to confirm, if you are collecting a Convertible from a San Francisco location and looking to drop it off at a different location between the 01/07/12 and the 31/08/12 you will be liable for a one way rental fee of $350.00 plus tax. Please note if the usual one way fee is greater you will pay the greater amount, for example SFO to MCO would still be $500 plus tax.

Gold rate

Starting from February 1st 2012, the Alamo gold rate will now only be available on rentals of 4 days or more from all locations.

The minimum rental period for all of our Gold products will be changing to 4 days (Alamo and National brands) for destinations USA and Canada and will apply to rentals picking up on or after 1st April 2012; this will apply for all new bookings made from 1st February 2012. Existing bookings will be unaffected.

These changes will effect all companies offering Alamo/National products.

Remember at present Dollar Rent A Car are still offering free one way rentals on their Convertible product within certain locations, contact our reservations department for more information or use our website to obtain a quote.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Following on from yesterdays fuel policy alteration, Alamo Rent A Car have followed in the foot steps of Budget Rent A Car and Dollar Rent A Car by offering a Florida Car Hire services out of Cape Canaveral.

Located near the port at 6211 N. Atlantic Avenue, the office will run a free shuttle bus service to and from the cruise area during the following hours.

Mon-Fri: 07:30 am 05:30 pm

Sat: 08:00 am 04:00 pm

Sun: 07:00 am 04:00 pm

Alamo’s addition to the area can only be a positive move for customers as increased competition should see a positive effect on service and rates.

regards.

James

Hi all,

Good news from Alamo Rent A Car today. After a lot of lobbying from ourselves, Alamo have agreed to return too the fuelling policies of  the past.

With our inclusive (silver) USA car hire product the customer is expected to purchase a full tank of fuel upon arrive and return the vehicle empty. Pump prices from suppliers can be more expensive, as we touched on during this post and if you’re renting for a short amount of time can work out to be more expensive.

So its refreshing to see that Alamo Rent A Car have heard our concerns and agreed that from 01/04/12 usrentacar.co.uk customers will be given the option to either pre-purchase their fuel upon arrival at an agreed price or return the vehicle the same way it was collected (full).

I’m sure you’ll all agree this is good news from Alamo Rent A Car and nice to see that the largest car rental supplier in America isn’t too big to listen to our concerns.

Now all we need is for the other car rental companies to follow suit.

regards,

James

Hi all,

With car manufactures getting more and more advanced with their technology offerings, (see our post technology and car rental) the american automotive authority believes the time is drawing near when we’ll get in to our hire cars and not know how to even start them!

Facebook integration, keyless cars and even vehicles run on electricity are becoming the norm, if you’d mentioned this 10 years ago to the average Joe they would have thought you’d gone mental.

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we believe in being prepared, so before you drive out of the parking lot here are 5 things we believe you should know.

1. All drivers should know how to start the car, it use to be straight forward, stick the key in turn it and hey presto, these days its not so simple, take the Prius for example, to turn on the engine you insert the key, push down the brake pedal and press the “power” button….simples.
2. How to Turn on the lights, last thing you need is to be driving in a foreign Country fiddling around the dash board trying to figure out how to switch the lights on after along day at Universal Orlando!
3. How to Switch on the Windscreen wipers, again you don’t want to be caught in a sudden storm and not know how to quickly turn the wipers on.
4. How to open the petrol cap and where its situated on the car.
5. How to disengage the hand brake. (this one came from our facebook page, via John Young) ”I remember sitting trying to figure that one out for ages the first time we hired an SUV. The parking brake release was a button on the dash”.
6. How to operate an automatic, for UK drivers we generally all drive “stick” then change to automatic can briefly throw you, get use to the controls before leaving the car park. (suggested by Adam Robertson via facebook)
7. How to remove the key from the ignition, some vehicles require a push or a reverse twist to remove the key, better to figure this out before you’re miles away from the rental office. (suggested by Paul Bevan via facebook)

Hey everyone,

For those of you that like statistics and fact based blogs – come on now, dont pretend like this stuff is boring and you’re not a car hire nerd Here are a couple of stats that you might find intresting. Honest! 

While looking at some numbers from a data post from 2011 regarding the amount of cars each major supplier operates versus the amount of revenue generated, we can grab a snippet of which supplier is generating the most revenue per vehicle for car hire in the USA. Its not an exact science but its in the ball park.

Check out these numbers;

We all know that Enterprise/Alamo is the monster player in the market with almost 1 million cars in the market but its surprising to find they are not the top dog when its comes to getting the most revenue per vehicle.

As you can see above the master’s of milking every last dime out of their vehicles is Avis/Budget making on average approximately$14,421.05 per vehicle.

Now the second hand market has been extremely buoyant for the last couple of years, and this is where the car rental suppliers are really making their profits.

So can we assume that Alamo are selling their vehicles before Budget, therefore not getting the most out of the rental revenue but getting more from the second hand market?

If you liked this post and still have a little ‘nerd time’ left to fill why not check the related blog James posted back in December.

Cheers

Simon

Hi all,

If you’re a new car hire USA supplier getting your vehicles on airport at such locations as Orlando and Sanford Airport is not only expensive but near on impossible as spaces rarely become available.

On the 16th January 2012 Sixt Rent A Car, a large player in the European Market, opened up a local office to serve Orlando International Airport. The new location, which is situated in close proximity to the major transport hub, will also offer a free 24 hour shuttle to and from the two airport terminals to assist customers in reaching the conveniently located branch with ease. The total journey from Airport to location is approximately 7 mins (source = google maps).

Now one of the unique selling points of established suppliers in Florida is the fact their hire cars are on on airport, customers have generally be travelling for over 9 hours when they hit Orlando and so he last thing they want to do it travel again.

Last night I asked our facebook friends this question - Would you consider taking a shuttle bus for a cheaper car hire rate?

Granted we didn’t give our other facebook friends very long to comment, however I think the above couple of answers are possibly a typical response.

So how do car rental companies successfully operate off airport; here are a couple of ideas.

• Offer lower rates, I’m not sure 20-30% is possible as suggested above, but you have to be cheaper than the on airport suppliers.
• Offer a diverse fleet, I don’t think you can compete with the airport suppliers head on however offering prestige vehicles and American Muscle cars could be a way of enticing customers to your service.
• Offer amazing customer services, from the shuttle bus driver to the person at the car hire location, you must be at least 10% better than the on airport suppliers.
• The most important, be fast; queues at Orlando International Airport can sometimes keep you from the road for a good hour. Your shuttle buses must be regular, and the pick up process must be fast. The total process must be under 12 mins.

What do you think about off airport collections?

regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we like to stay on the cutting edge of social media, so today we will begin to trial the use of Pinterest.

Pinterest is a new social website based around the “pinning” of images and items of interest to your own custom notice board.

Although Pinterest is still in beta (invitation only) it has already exceeded 6 Million users.

We will use our pinterest account to “pin” items we think will be of interest; including pictures of car’s collected by our customers, great theme park info or pic’s and anything we think is inspiring or just cool.

You can follow us on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/usrentacar/ (follow us and we’ll follow back).

If you haven’t got a pinterest account yet we will send invitation to the first 50 users to either post their booking reference number below or on our facebook account, or email me at jamest@usrentacar.co.uk.

regards,

James,

Hi all,

Hot off the press (our guys have just finished loading the rates!), we have just been given some discounted prices for new pick up’s with Alamo Rent A Car between the 25/01/12 and the 31/03/12 on every car group in Florida. ***Hooray***.

Both our inclusive and gold rates have been lowered by around 5% offering even greater value for your fully inclusive Florida car hire.

You can book via our website – usrentacar.co.uk or call our reservations department on 0845 226 8523.

I hope some of you can take advantage of these great low rates.

regards,

James