usrentacar.co.uk ® Car Hire USA Blog

Hi all,

Christmas is fast approaching and for USA car hire the festive period is extremely busy, you can tell how busy it gets by checking out our suppliers local prices over this period.

Checking our upcoming bookings we have over 1000 rentals collecting between the 20th December and the 24th December a lot of these rentals have been booked by repeat customers, those who have used our services in the past, enjoyed it and decided to book again, these customers are fully aware of the collection procedure and what to take with them. However for those who are new to car rental we thought we’d put together a Christmas guide.

What to take with me

To collect your hire vehicle you’ll require the following items;

Your U.S. Rent A Car rental voucher

This is available once the full balance has been paid, you can collect this by logging in to your account at www.usrentacar.co.uk or by using the U.S. Rent A Car voucher app. The car rental voucher is confirmation to our supplier that you have pre-paid everything described under the “what’s included” section, without this the supplier is within their rights to refuse you the vehicle.

Full Driving Licence

Anyone driving the vehicle must produce their full driving licence, UK residents will be required to show both the paper and plastic part of the licence.

Credit Card

The lead driver will be expected to leave an imprint of their credit card for security. The card must be in the name of the lead driver. Some of our suppliers will accept a visa debit card but please check with our reservations department before booking for more information.

Failure to provide any of these can result in the car rental company refusing your hire, in these circumstances no refund will be issued.

Upon Collection

When you pick up your car rental you will be asked to sign a contract with the supplier, this is a legally binding document between yourself and the supplier (not U.S. Rent A Car), it is imperative that you read and fully understand the rental agreement before you sign it.

Any additional charges will be laid out within the rental agreement, if there are additional fee’s and you don’t recognise the nature of them you should make this known to the car rental rep immediately. If you sign for something locally you are agreeing to the additional costs and we (usrentacar) will not be able to retrieve these funds for you.

Always check your rental agreement fully and do not sign it until you are totally happy.

What additional charges could appear on the rental agreement?

Not all additional charges are erroneous,  supplier can charge for one way rental fee’s (picking up in one place but dropping in another), child seat rental, GPS rental or adding additional drivers locally.

Just remember to double check what you’re signing for.

If you’re picking up over the Christmas period have a wonderful time, I’m very jealous

regards,

James

Hi all,

Anyone who’s collected a vehicle from Chicago O’Hare Airport in the last two years will have noted the local tax being levied for Airport improvements. One of these improvements earmarked for a 2016 finish is a consolidated car rental facility.

According to the City of Chicago, the facility will provide nearly 4,100 rental car company parking spaces, a customer lobby and approximately 2,000 public parking spaces. Each of the rental car companies will have customer service counters, self-service kiosks and back office areas within the facility.

In addition, the new rental facility will lead to the creation of nearly 3,000 design and construction jobs during construction and 100 concession and rental car positions upon completion.

As Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel put it;

This intermodal facility is one of the largest capital improvements constructed at O’Hare, and will further Chicago’s ongoing efforts to make O’Hare the most convenient international travel hub in the world

The Airport was able to secure a loan of an additional $288 Million by proving that the project will also reduce traffic congestion and increase transit ease for travelers through an extension of the Airport Transit System (ATS) at O’Hare. The total cost of the project is set to hit $800 million.

As one of our more popular locations we’re delighted to see the improvements being made and hope that the additional spaces will allow for additional competition in a market traditional dominated by the big 3.

We’ll keep you updated on Chicago’s progress.

regards,

James

Hi all,

I find myself constantly apologising for the lack of posts recently, we’ve been so busy here unfortunately I haven’t been able to find the time to write plus there has been a real shortage of news. I guess after last years Hertz/Dollar drama this year was always going to struggle.

Anyway today I received an email documenting Dollar Rent A Car’s 2013 fleet guide although these makes and models are not guaranteed they offer a good insight into what the supplier see’s as its main vehicle in each category.

Always handy to have information sent directly from the suppliers, and this guide offers a good insight in to Dollar’s fleet including MPG and luggage capacity.

Please bear in mind though that the guide above is just that, a guide and is not a guarantee of make/model/MPG/luggage capacity.

Hope this helps to plan your USA car hire, upgrading locally can work out very expensive so hopefully this guide will aid you in booking the correct vehicle first time

regards,

James,

Morning all,

Over the past few months we’ve been working closely with International Insurance Giant, Mrrgh Inc. to add additional coverage to our USA car hire.

Today we are delighted to announce that we have finally closed the deal that will allow usrentacar.co.uk to add U.Z.P to all our rentals, free of charge.

Here at  U.S. Rent A Car our rates already include CDW (Collision Damage Waiver), SLI (Supplementary Liability Insurance) and UMP (Unisured Motorist Protection) but we felt the cover didn’t go far enough.

Gavin Boswell CEO said;

We’ve been after such a cover ever since we first saw that AMC documentary featuring that bloke from Holby City. We take this type of cover very seriously which is why our UZP is not only the first in our industry but also represents the highest level of cover available from our partners, Mrrgh Inc.

UZP covers the whole of the vehicle including windscreen, under carriage and tyres as long as the damaged is caused in the usual way.

Karl Hendrie CTO said;

Granted you might not think you need UZP now, but imagine a situation where you’re attacked by Zombies and don’t have the relevant cover? I’m sure your first thought, like mine, would be OH NO! I should have booked with U.S. Rent A Car cos they offer Unlimited Zombie Protection!…

Long time customer, Ima Goner stated;

I feel much more secure knowing that my rental car is covered against Zombie attacks

Dave Smith of London added;

The last time I visited America my rental car was definitely attacked by Zombies and I wasn’t covered…. thank god for U.S. Rent A Car…god bless them one and all.

U.S. Rent A Car are proud to be the first car rental company to protect against a Zombie apocalypse and hope this vision and foresight will help our customers against unnecessary local charges.

Kind regards,

James,

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we are about to hit one of the busiest USA car hire pick up times in the year, Easter! Along with the Summer holidays and Christmas,  Easter will see the largest number of our customers collecting their hire vehicles from our suppliers.

So I thought it might be a good idea to go over the process of collecting your car rental and what to look out for in regards to optional extras.

Collecting your car hire

To collect your car rental you will require the following

• Your usrentacar.co.uk Car Rental Voucher – you can print this from our website or download our free voucher app.
• Your full driving licence – If you’re from the UK this means both parts, it also has to be the actual licence regardless of what the DVLA tell you a fax copy is not sufficient.
• A major credit card in the name of the lead driver. The credit card is used for security and must be in the name of the driver specified on your voucher.

At the desk

When collecting your car rental you will be expected to sign a rental agreement, this rental agreement is the contract between yourself and the car rental supplier, it is not the same as the terms and conditions offered by ourselves.

We appreciate you’ve been travelling for a long time but you must fully read and understand this document before signing it. U.S. Rent A Car can not be held responsible for anything you sign and agree to locally.

Remember you are the customer so take you time to read the document do not allow yourself to be rushed regardless of how long the queue is behind you.

Items you maybe offered

The guys and girls on the desks generally work on commission, they are paid a low basic wage and make up the remainder of their salary by up-selling customer. These add on’s are totally optional and refusal will not prevent you from renting the vehicle.

A few items that you might be offered are;

• GPS units.
• Advanced Roadside Assistance – your rental comes with basic roadside assistance, the supplier may offer you an advanced option which covers human error for example, putting the wrong petrol in the car or locking your keys in the vehicle.
• Upgrades - The option to upgrade your vehicle to a hire spec, generally upgrading your vehicle is cheaper to do so before collection. Remember any upgrade offered will be at a per day rate.
• Toll Passes - called various things like SunPass or Pass24 this optional extra is useful for those on a road trip or passing automated tolls. Prices vary from location to location and supplier to supplier.
• Personal Accident Insurance - generally covered by your own travel insurance it covers you for personal injury.

Remember to fully read your rental agreement and double check if any of these items appear in error, some suppliers assume you’d want to take advantage of these items.

Top Tips

A few other tips you might bear in mind are;

• Re-read your rental agreement when you get to your accommodation  anything you are unsure of is generally covered by the suppliers 24 hours satisfaction guarantee. Call them if you’re unsure.
• Use the pre-registration services offered by our supplier to speed up your collection.
• If possible, send once person to the car rental desks while the others get the bags sorted.

If you have any tips that I’ve left out please feel free to comment below. Have a great holiday and tell us all about it when you return.

regards,

James,

Hi all,

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, to be totally honest we’re at that time  of year when nothing actually happens, we are still waiting to see what impact Hertz’s purchase of Dollar Rent A Car will have on the industry and if further consolidation will occur.

While car rental is twiddling its thumbs the tech world is not and at this years CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Ford and GM gave us a glimpse in to what the next generation of vehicles will include.

In the past car manufactures have come to consumers shows like CES and given us talks about what the future may bring however this year they actually showed us, and its all about in car app’s. Both companies agree that the connected car is the future, interestingly though they disagree about how consumers will interact with their automobile.

Ford have opened their API/SDK to developers to build app’s for smartphones which then plug in to the car, GM have gone down a different route and have opened up their API/SDK for apps to be built within the framework of the car.

Ford tells us that more than 1,000 developers have already signed up for access to its SDK since it was announced earlier this week and that it is seeing high and sustained traffic to its developer site.

For me, Fords plan of building in to smartphones makes more sense, technology is moving so fast that a GM vehicle fitted with their technology could be obsolete within a year,  how often does someone update their smartphone compared to their car?

Here is a video of glympse an app already sync’d with Ford.

So all this great technology begs the question, how could USA car hire suppliers integrate their own apps in to the connected car?

regards,

James

Hi all,

As I reported on back in December I felt the next major player in the U.S. market could very well be German, in the form of new car hire USA supplier Sixt Rent A Car.

Today I got hold of a promotional email doing the rounds targeted toward potential car rental franchises from Craig Olson, Vice President Franchise Development at Sixt. I thought I’d share its contents to show just how committed they are to developing a U.S. product to match their impress European arm.

Greetings,

Sixt recently announced its plans to add franchise partners in the United States. This presents a great opportunity for independent car rental operators to take their business to the next level, and for entrepreneurs to get in on the ground floor of our US expansion.

Sixt is one of the world’s largest car rental companies with Franchise locations in 85 countries and counting. We have been in the business for over 100 years, are family-run, and have a strong balance sheet.

Sixt franchisees will enjoy the benefits of our world-class brand, global customer base, visibility on all major online and offline reservation channels, and state-of-the-art rental software and rate management tools. Both airport and local market franchises are available. Join the Sixt network now!

Click the “Learn More” button above for more information. You can also visit sixt-franchise.com or inquire directly at 1 (888) – xxx- xxx xxxx or xxxxx@sixt.com!

Craig Olson
Vice President Franchise Development
Sixt Franchise USA, LLC
1489 SE 17th St. Suite 2E
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

So Sixt appear very motivated to build an alternative car rental supplier to compete against the big 3.

They are already getting positive reviews from usrentacar customers could 2013 be the year of Sixt?

regards,

James

Hi all,

If you’re leaving your USA car hire for the Christmas period (December) until the last minute hoping for a late deal I’m afraid you’re going to be very disappointed. Every major car rental company in the U.S. has released black out (stop sale) periods across Florida and the USA. All of the suppliers I have spoken to have confirmed that they will definitely sell out in December. Vehicles are already being moved from down town locations to cover the airport demand.

A quick look at the local car hire pricing, which is always a good guide to how business is doing domestically tells a tale! Would you be happy to pay over £150 for an economy rental car for a week with no insurance? Well locally you can’t even get it that cheap!

Alamo Rent A Car

As you can see an Economy vehicle with no insurance included within the rate for a week will cost $437.42 locally approximately £275.00 !!!

Budget Rent A Car

Budget as you can see for our most popular vehicle the Intermediate SUV are $557.99 for a week with no insurance approximately £350.00 !

Dollar Rent A Car

7 Seater minivans in December are like gold dust, as you can see above a minivan for a week with no insurance will cost you $1659.00 approximately £1040!!

I would advise our customer if you need a car in December get it booked now, don’t wait because car rental is literally sell out fast!

regards,

James,

Hi all,

Although we offer a pre-paid USA car rental services there are certain items that can be purchased locally instead of in the UK. Today’s post is about 5 items that will probably work out cheaper to do before collection of the vehicle.

Upgrades

So you book the Economy vehicle but secretly you want a convertible, what you’ve decided you’re going to do is haggle with the person on the desk when you pick up the vehicle and get yourself a bargain…simple.

The only problem is, you’re not the only person to have this idea and even worse… the supplier know’s this! Don’t get me wrong you can sometimes pick up a bargain upgrade, however these bargains generally come around when you’re not after a specific category of vehicle; for example you could book the economy vehicle and be offered the “managers special”  for a 4×4 (mainly due to the fact that they have an abundant amount of sports utilities  that week) always remember though that the upgrade price offered is per day and not for the total duration.

The real problem comes when you want a specific category as the guys on the desk work on commission;  and you’re now at their mercy.

Generally I would say that if you want a specific category of vehicle then pre-book it here in the UK to avoid nasty surprises.

Additional Insurance (Tyres, Windscreen, Undercarriage)

Within our Silver and Gold offerings the insurances do not cover the tyres, windscreen, undercarriage or the keys.

Our suppliers offer an additional insurance locally to cover this, it is often called road safe or something similar and they will offer this to you at an additional charge roughly $6.95 + tax.

Our Platinum rate which you can prepay, covers these additions and can be purchased for as little as £15 per week a saving compared to purchasing locally of over £15 per week…

Additional Drivers

Pretty easy one this, if you need an additional driver on your rental its best to prepay it in the UK. Locally you will be charged $10-$15 per day plus tax on a 2 week holiday you’re looking at approximately$210.

Where as the difference between our Silver and Gold rates is a lot less than the £135 you’d  pay locally.

Sat Nav’s

You can rent a Sat Nav directly from the supplier for around $11.99 per day plus tax you have to take it for the full duration of your hire.

You can rent a Sat Nav from ourselves directly for £30 per week or prepay via our website to collect directly from the supplier prices vary but are generally more cost effective than purchasing locally.

Young Drivers

Now there’s really no comparison here, locally you will need to pay $25-$30 per day per driver plus tax if you are aged 21-24 to get yourself on the insurance. Over a 2 week holiday with 2 drivers that would cost an extra $840.00 !!!

However you’re in luck as usrentacarco.uk offers a young drivers package  that halves the cost of the fee. It is definitely better to prepay this fee.

If you can think of any further items that a better prepaid please feel free to comment below.

regards,

James

Hi all,

On Sunday I drove myself and the family up to Birmingham to visit the inlaws (don’t judge me), now the drive is only 3 hours but to my children it seemed like at least 10!

To pass the time we tried a few car games to keep them entertained and they seemed to work. The U.S. is such a huge place driving to theme parks and attractions are usually a minimum of 20 mins and if you’re on a road trip even longer.

Here are a few games you could try in conjunction with your USA car hire.

The Licence Plate Game

There are two ways to play this, the first one is very much suited to the U.S. Basically the idea is to spot a licence plate registered to every state in America, first to do it, or gets the most is the winner.

The second game evolves around making words out of licence plates incorporating the letters on the plate, the longer the word the more points you score.

The A-Z Game

This game requires the players to know their alphabet and is probably only suited to day time play. Players take it in turns to work through the alphabet, A-Z  spotting various things outside of the car – so the first player must find a sign with a word beginning “A” and so forth. A winner is decided when their opposition cannot think of a word.

Yellow Car Game

Now this one is strictly down to parental discretion but one me and my brothers enjoyed playing when we were young, but one my own children are banned from playing due to over eagerness.

However the idea of the game is simple, if you see a yellow car you punch your opponent on the arm stating “yellow car”. An incorrect punch earns the puncher a double punch. Punching hard enough to make some one cry is strictly forbidden.

Ghost

Players take turns at saying letters. If you say a letter which completes a word, or which means the letters can no longer be used as a word, you lose, so that play might proceed thus: “A”… “P”… “P”… “L”… “E”… The player saying “E” will lose here, having completed a word. An alternative might have been “I” which would leave the other players having to work towards “application”. The game is clearly named for its passing similarity to an Ouija board.

Guess the intro

In my day this was harder to play as we only had a cassette sterio, now a day the use of MP3 players makes this game a lot quicker.

This is how it works, the games master (usually the passenger in the front) play’s a few seconds of a given song’s intro, players then “buzz” in and guess the intro. Points are awarded for guessing correctly and subtracted for incorrect guesses.

I hope these games can help you pass the time. Are there any games I’ve missed or you could share?

regards,

James,