[Anonymous]

[RaymondThompson]

I made a reservation with Hertz with a pickup at Newark Airport, New Jersey and drop off Fort Myers Airport Florida. I was charged a £300 one-way drop off fee. I understand the drop-off fee is to cover the cost of returning the car to its original franchisee which in most circumstances I would accept. However the car I picked up in Newark had Florida licence plates. Therefore Hertz charged me $300 for the privilege of returning their car to Florida. I assume a prior hirer was probably charged the £300 for picking the car up in Florida and dropping it off in Newark.

To add further insult to my injuries, for various reasons I had to exchange my rental car at Florida Southwest Airport. Guess what? The car picked up had Newark licence plates. This car was not being returned to New Jersey but given to me on an extended rental in Florida. Again, there is a strong possibility a previous renter had been charged £300 drop off for this car. WHAT A SCAM.

[BigDog.]

Hi Raymond,
Have put up with similar charging regime you refer to across a number of rental companies and countries, so you are not alone.

It was explained to me that the traffic flow is seldom equal each way. More people start with the frenetic element, in this case New York then travel to the leisurely/relaxing place – Florida than vice-versa.

If you go to New Zealand, two thirds of tourists start or pick up their RV from Aukland (North Island) and drop off the RV completing their vacation flying out from either Wellington or Christchurch (South Island).

Sydney to Brisbane, Whit Sundays, Cairns is a far more popular drive/ride than the reverse.

They charge the premium to both pay for the rebalancing, paperwork transfer and because they can.

One could ask why the less popular sequence/routing doesn’t get a discount.

[NTarrant]

Rental companies in New Zealand don’t allow one way rentals that involve a crossing of the Cook Straight. There is one way traffic between Auckland and Wellington and vice versa on North island.

On south island, from what I was told there are few one ways with most tourists doing a circular tour of some kind.

[SwissExPat]

@ Raymond… You should have refused the car with the Florida plates and demanded a NY one! (given the surcharge!)

[RaymondThompson]

SwissExPat – You are right. My intentions were to contact Hertz when I got back to the UK and sort the whole thing out. That is still my intention but I have been unable to get through to their CR department since. The phone just rings or leads me round the “choose a number” system and when I try their online “contact us” system my messages just hang and go no where. I tried emailing their CEO without a response of any kind. I know it was stupid of me to expect anything else.

[AnthonyDunn]

What about the practice (that I have come across with Hertz, Avis and Europcar) of charging more for Airport pick-up/drop-off? Bearing in mind that throughput at an airport is presumably higher than in many other hire locations, I am mystified at this because I would have thought that this higher level of throughput would make for greater operational efficiency for rental operators.

Or would I be correct in thinking that they are simply operating a “what the market can be made to bear” pricing policy – as in, who is likely to travel into town to pick up a car rental after their airport arrival?

[AMcWhirter]

Hello AnthonyDunn

It’s partly because of “what the market can be made to bear” ie the convenience factor. And partly because airport rental charges tend to be higher as the firms must cover the costs of concession fees levied to the airport operator.

[NTarrant]

Anthony – I’d agree with LondonCity, you also have to factor that there may also be additional costs which are not present at city locations. Take LHR for example, they have to pay for a desk at the terminals, the base to park the cars and then a bus to get customers to and from base and teminal.

[AnthonyDunn]

@ LondonCity – 08/10/2012 13:16 GMT
@ NTarrant – 08/10/2012 14:02 GMT

Thanks for your explanation.

[Author]

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