usrentacar.co.uk ® Car Hire USA Blog

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,

With the British pound being so volatile at the moment and extremely sensitive to the Euro, I thought it might be a good idea to remind you all that usrentacar.co.uk were the first Car Hire USA supplier to offer customers the opportunity to secure their rental and price by means of a low deposit.

usrentacar.co.uk customers can book and confirm their vehicles with just a £50.00 deposit, the balance being due 8 weeks prior to departure and regardless of what happens to the pound, dollar or euro your price will not change.

To leave a deposit simply tick the box marked deposit where prompted on the payment page (shown below) our system will then only capture £50.00.

9 weeks prior to your departure we will send you an email reminding you that your balance is due and giving you the opportunity to alter your payment method, if you don’t want to alter your payment method then our system will automatically take payment from the card used at the time of booking.

As soon as your balance is paid we will then release your voucher.

So what are you waiting for bag a bargain today.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Car hire insurance in the USA can be very confusing for even the most seasoned of travellers.

I thought now with the very busy Christmas period about to start, I’d knock up a quick post explaining what is included within our Inclusive and Gold rates, and hopefully point out the advantages of prepaying your USA car hire.

What’s Included

All our rates include the following (Inclusive & Gold).

• Unlimited Mileage.
• 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 traveling 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.
• All Taxes and Airport Fees.

At present our Budget Rent A Car rates include 1 additional spouse driver within the Inclusive rate in all USA budget locations.

At present our Alamo and Dollar Rent A Car rates include additional drivers within the inclusive package in California only.

Petrol policies differ per company but most are moving to a purchase full return empty scenario.

What does the gold rate offer me?

The gold rate offers all of the advantages of the inclusive rate plus

• Multiple drivers over 25.
• Your first tank of fuel.

Where not included within the Inclusive rate, suppliers will charge approximately $10 per day plus tax to add a driver to your hire, so prepaying those extra drivers makes sense.

The advantage of prepaying your petrol is purely financial, being able to budget for your first tank of gas takes the currency fluxation and petrol price factor out of the equation.

Its no surprise to me that our customers generally take the gold rate over the inclusive.

I hope this little guide helps, remember terms for our suppliers can change without much notice so please check our terms and conditions for the latest inclusions.

regards,

James

Hi all,

For the past 3 years we have been keeping a keen eye on the annual JD Power Rental Car satisfaction study.

Now in its 16th year, the study measures overall domestic customer satisfaction with USA car rentals at airports by examining six factors (listed in order of importance): costs and fees; pick-up process; return process; rental car; shuttle bus/van; and reservation process.

Overall satisfaction in 2011 averages 758 on a 1,000-point scale, up from 750 in 2010, driven by increases in satisfaction across all six factors compared to 2010.

“Rental car companies continue to build upon the improvements made in 2010 and are bouncing back from the lower satisfaction levels reported in 2008 and 2009,”

Stated Stuart Greif, vice president of the travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates.

“As positive as this increase in satisfaction is, there remains ample opportunity for rental car companies to further delight their customers in the future, particularly in leveraging technology.”

But who was top I hear you cry?

For the last few years Enterprise Rent A Car have run away as top of the car hire tree…. so did they finish top this time?…..The answer – NO

Well what about Budget Rent A Car?…again NO.

Dollar Rent A Car? – NO

Alamo? – NO

Thrifty Car Rental? – again NO…

The overall winner was little known independent car hire company ACE Rent A Car, a domestic specialist who although have been getting good reviews in the past have never quite managed to hit the criteria for entry as beaten all the muti billion pound companies…. so a massive congratulations to them. It appears they truly do live by their company moto of “Take care of the customer and everything will take care of itself.”

Top 10 Car Rental Companies

1. ACE Rent A Car
2. Enterprise Car Rental
3. National Car Rental
4. Hertz
5. Alamo Rent A Car
6. Budget Rent A Car
7. Dollar Rent A Car
8. Avis Rent A Car
9. Advantage Rent A Car
10. Thrifty Car Rental

Great to see the little guy coming out on top and showing that the advantage of being small is being able to look after the customer correctly.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Yesterday Nashville International Airport opened what has been described as one of its largest construction projects in its history.

The 1.2 Million square foot car rental consolidation facility is actually bigger than the airport terminal, is located across from the terminal in what was formerly part of one of the airport’s long-term parking lots.

The creation of the 3 level building increases Nashville’s USA Car Hire capacity to a  total of 2,400, an increase of 1400 vehicles. By moving the car rental companies to the consolidated facility frees up an additional 600 spaces in the short-term parking area, increasing its capacity by 30%.

Consolidation facilities

• On airport pick up.
• The additional of 9 available car hire companies.
• 2,400 ready/return stalls
• 10 car wash bays
• 21,000 square feet of covered walkways for customers walking straight from the terminal to the facility
• 900 linear feet of moving walkways

Timed with the opening Dollar Rent A Car have announced that Nashville International Airport has become the latest location to participate in the Dollar Choice Product.

About the Dollar Choice Product

At selected locations Dollar customers are given the chance to personally pick the model they would like from their category. So for example; if you are hiring a Convertible from Orlando Intentional Airport Dollar Rent A Car will point you to the Convertible bay where you can select the vehicle you like the look of.

A full list of Dollar Choice Locations can be found here.

Regards,

James

Hi all,

Most USA car rental locations in the America are run as franchises, this gives the owner of the particular franchise the option to work with tour operators, like ourselves, or not.

This morning we have received word from Dollar Rent A Car stating a couple of locations that have opted out of the tour operator program and will no longer be bookable for any tour operators; basically they will only be accepting domestic bookings.

Dollar Locations

The Miami car hire location has never really been that popular to collect from but the Fisherman’s Wharf location is a bit of a shame, although Dollar do offer an office out of O’Farrell street approximately 2.5 miles away.

Any rentals booked to collect from these rental dates after the date the service stop’s will be honoured.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Quite a few things happened yesterday but none that really warranted their own post so I thought I’d amalgamate them all in one bite size article.

Dollar Rent A Car

First off the bat is Dollar Rent A Car, who after receiving no bids within its 10th October deadline have decided to push ahead with its own stand alone plans.

Dollar’s plan of action is to begin its share repurchase program, in the next 4 quarters Dollar Thrifty plan to purchase $400 Million worth of their own stock and hope to repurchase stoke used in privately negotiated transactions.

Dollar also reiterated their expectations for 3rd quarter 2011 results. DTG still expects car rental revenue to increase by around 2% compared to the same time period in 2010. 3rd quarter revenues are expected to be around $110 to $120 million excluding expenses involving a possible takeover, compared to $93.7 million for 2010. The company noted that it expects gains from sales of risk vehicles to be approximately $18 million in the 3rd quarter of 2011, compared to approximately $10 million of gains in the 3rd quarter of 2010.

Alamo Rent A Car

Alamo’s Buffalo location seems to have been out bided, as 7 companies bid for the 6 available car rental slots at the airport.

usrentacar.co.uk understands that Alamo are unhappy with the way the biding has been handled and will be taking further actions.

Petrol

Strong statistic’s provided by Wexindex show although petrol has dropped slightly, lack of supply could see a  steady increase in USA petrol prices shortly.

Another good reason to consider our gold rate which includes your first tank of fuel.

regards,

James,

Hi all,

Christmas is fast approaching, have you booked your USA car hire yet? I ask this as I have a feeling prices will soon be about to shoot up….

Why?

Like everybody car rental suppliers are feeling the pinch, the second hand car market is bottoming out and the actually amount of vehicles on the road is down due to the knock on effects of the Tsunami.

Suppliers know Christmas will be busy, they also know that the U.S. domestic market will hire a huge amount of vehicles, more than they actually have.

So… checking pricing today I came across some worrying pricing if you’re a U.S. citizen.

All these rates are for Orlando International Airport from 20/12/11 for 1 week taken from the supplier’s .com sites today.

Now as you can probably see, the price for an economy vehicle is about £400.00 per week and a minivan at around £675.00 per week!!!!!

Now granted this is for U.S. resident’s…. however with suppliers thinking they are going to perhaps sell totally out, which market would you prioritise your cars for? The U.S. market who will pay £400 per week or the UK market where an economy car can be rented for just £112.00?

I feel very soon suppliers will introduce to the UK market either a black out period or stop sale, meaning no cars will be available over this period or they will look to introduce a Christmas surcharge.

If I were you, I’d be looking to book as soon as possible to avoid the inevitable increase.

Remember you can book online at www.usrentacar.co.uk and secure most rentals with a £50 deposit.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

If I don’t get my full 8 hours kip I generally turn in to the walking dead with a bad attitude and today is one of those days, thanks to teething and a baby…

This bad attitude has unfortunately manifested in the form of my latest post, my top 5 car hire USA pet peeve’s.

1. Grace Period – Back in the day when I first started in car hire the world wasn’t in recession and people seemed happier, in those days suppliers would give customers an hours grace on returns. For example if the customer collected at 1pm but returned it at 1:59pm the supplier wasn’t bothered. Now a days, technically if you’re a minute over your confirmed drop time the supplier has the right to charge you for an entire days rental.
2. Queues - I hate queuing, it doesn’t matter where it is or what I’m queuing for, I just hate it… So after a long flight, then immigration and then baggage claim, the last thing I want to do is queue for my car hire… Now don’t get me wrong I understand that there has to be a small amount of queuing but if the car hire suppliers worked more closely with us, we could take most of the required information here in the UK to speed the whole thing up. At present you can pre-register your details but not everyone knows this.
3. Hard Sell – Now I understand the guys on the desks work on commission I have no problem with this, everyone has to earn a living, and before I continue I have to say the large majority of staff are excellent, however I have heard of instances mainly from a supplier we no longer work with, of hard sell tactics to customers who are travel weary and keen to get going. To be fair to most suppliers they can’t monitor every rental procedure every minute of the day and most do offer a 24 hour money back guarantee, however it doesn’t stop it from annoying me. For more information on what to expect please see my previous post Will They Try And Sell Me Something Extra?
4. Petrol - Most companies have moved to the “buy up front return empty” fuelling policy, while this add’s a certain amount of simplicity to car rental, customers can end up paying more than necessary, for example if you hire for 1 day its unlikely you’ll use a whole tank of fuel. Why can’t we go back to the old days of giving the customer a choice?
5. Technology – If  technology was the premiership car rental would be in the relegation zone, car hire is notoriously slow to pick up on new technologies and idea’s which for an energetic, young minded company like ourselves is very frustrating.  I don’t have enough finger and toes to count the amount of idea’s that have come to nothing due to the fact our suppliers are not on the same wave length.

Well there they are, and to be honest my mood has actually improved… getting things off your chest is therapeutic after all…

What are your car hire pet peeve’s?

Tomorrow I think I’ll post about the Five Thing’s I Love About USA Car Hire…

regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we talk a lot about rental agreements, the rental agreement is your legally binding contract with the car hire USA supplier which you are asked to sign locally.

I thought it might be an idea to show you what your rental agreement will look like.

Alamo Rental Agreement

1. Rental Agreement No.

Designated by the Rental Agreement number, the rental agreement must be completed at the rental pick up location and should be carried with you in case you are required to prove you are legally in posession of the vehicle.

2. Car Serial Number

Designates the vehicle rented on the rental contract.

3. Rental Date, Time, Alamo Office

Shows the date, time, and Alamo rental station to return the vehicle in which the vehicle was rented.

4. Return Date, Time, City

Shows the requested date, time, and Alamo rental station to return the vehicle without incurring any additional charges.

5. Allowable Drivers

Lists the drivers who are authorized to drive the vehicle. Extra drivers may be added at the time of rental. Additional charges may apply for additional drivers or underage drivers.

6. Additional Options/Other Information

Lists the additional options that may have been selected, such as, an upgrade of car, personal protection options, fuel options, etc.

7. Charges

Lists the itemization of charges associated with the rental. Charges include the base rate of the vehicle, airport fees, state taxes, surcharges, other governmentally imposed fees, and additional options. A total line shows the balance due. This may be paid by credit card (American Express, Diners Club, VISA, MasterCard, EuroCard, traveler’s chaques or cash, United States/Canadian dollars. If you use a credit card, the balance due will be charged at the time the vehicle is picked up. Your signature on the Rental Agreement is also allows Alamo Rent A Car to charge your card with any possible extras at the end of the rental, such as late return of the vehicle.

If at the end of the rental you would like to pay the balance due in cash, Alamo will process a credit of the original charges to your credit card. This credit may appear on a later credit card statement.

The lead name on the confirmed reservation (the primary renter) must be the person whose credit card is used to pay the charges. If the credit card of another person with a valid drivers license is used, that person will become the primary renter and the original name on the reservation will become an additional driver. Additional charges may be applied for an additional driver.

8. Rental Signatures

Confirms the terms of the rental agreement by all persons listed on the rental agreement.

Remember the rental agreement is a legal document between yourself and the car hire supplier, please make sure you have fully read and understand it before signing.

Kind regards,

James