No More Cheating When Returning A Rental Car

Clark Howard and Chris Elliott both have reported that car companies are starting to install technology to track the amount of gas in a returned car down to the 1/10th of gallon. Try to cheat by not filling the tank all the way, you will get a surprise on your credit card statement a few days late.

Howard reports:

Avis is using a new technology that can read the amount of gas in the tank down to tenths of a gallon. If you return it just a hair less than full, they will charge you at just under a dollar per tenth of a gallon of gasoline. That's the equivalent of almost $10 a gallon, when you factor out the numbers they're using!

Elliott uncovered the Hertz is taking it one step further by adding technology to shut down a car for unsafe driving:

Avis isn’t the only car rental company measuring fuel down to a tenth of a gallon. Hertz is installing this technology, which is referred to by the industry term electronic fuel metering, in its fleet over the next few months in an effort to ensure that every drop of fuel is accounted and paid for. 

Mark Frissora, Hertz’s chief executive, says that his company loses $50 million a year in fuel. Its new system, called Zibox, is capable of shutting off a car engine remotely and operating car locks from afar. It relays location data, tire air pressure and fuel-level information back to Hertz, too. In other words, it will know exactly how much fuel you have in the car at any given time. “This is going to be good for customers,” Frissora says.

Personally, I have rented cars which were not quite full on gas. A mile away from the car rental place the gas gauge drops to 3/4 of tank. Therefore, I am out gas & money.

Wikipedia.org

This new technology may help bring transparency into the whole process. On the other side, forcing customers to ensure the tank is fully full is not easy. Not all airports or rental car locations have gas stations right by the airport. For instance, on my trip to Colorado Spring, the closest gas station was 1 mile from the airport. Driving that 1 mile burnt gas and help move the gas gauge slightly off of full. Under the new system, I would be hit for that 1 mile of gas.

Elliott sums it up correctly:

If you’re renting a high-end, low-mileage car, your chances of having a vehicle with electronic fuel metering are good. You can either prepay for a full tank of gas through a rental company’s fuel-purchase option and time the return of your rental to the moment the tank reaches the “E” mark, or you can fill the tank to the top just before you return it and hope for the best.

It’s always a smart idea to save the gas receipt, which should note the time and the amount of fuel you added to the tank. If there’s a dispute, the invoice could prove to be useful.

In every advancement in technology, there are winners and losers. This advancement makes us consumers the big losers.
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Earn Miles While Renting A Car

Just like you should ensure that you can get the biggest bang for your buck while at a hotel by looking to see if you can earn both hotel and airline points for a hotel stay, you should also explore your options when renting a car.

United has a page full of their preferred rental car providers as well as other providers they have relationships with. The full list is available here.

Each company has their own offers but there seems to be a decent value from a few of the providers like Hertz and Avis where you can earn 75 miles per day and then 50 bonus miles per day. If you book through United.com (which I doubt is a good value) you can earn 150 miles. I don't rent cars that often, for one I am just about to turn 25 so it's quite expensive, but I usually go to places that have good public transit or try to rough it and not have a car if I don't have to so this doesn't do much for me. But if you can get a good rate and provide your United number to earn some bonus miles along the way, it's always a good idea!


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Car Sharing Companies

I live a car free diet. What is a car free diet? Well, that is a person who does not have a car and relies on public transportation, their two feet and other means to get to work, school etc.

I have not owned a car since I was 18. It's not that I can't afford a car. Rather its that a car in Washington, DC would cost me close to $500-$600 a month, with the car payment, insurance and parking space cost. (One building I lived in charged $250 a month for a parking space). I could do a ton of travel with $500 a month.

Well, back to the subject of my post, when I can't use public transportation to get somewhere and I need a car, I sometimes rent cars from Hertz or Dollar and other times I use car sharing companies like Zipcar or car2go. I use each for different reasons.

For example, I rent cars from traditional car rental companies (and bank airline points) when I need a car for more than a few hours. Traditionally, I can rent a car, in Washington, DC, for about $20 on a weekend, when I schedule a few weeks in advanced. However, I can not always plan, when I will need a car. Sometimes, I need to run some errands and need a car for a few hours. That is when I turn to car sharing companies for help.

I use Zipcar in this instance. I pay zipcar an annual membership fee and then pay for each hour, anywhere between $8.00 to $15.00 an hour, to use a car. Unlike rental cars, I do not need to travel to airports to pick up a car. Zipcar's cars are parked on the side of  the street in many locations around Washington, DC and the surrounding counties. In fact, there are 20+ cars in a 5 minute walk of my apartment, including one across the street from my apartment's front door. Similarly, I do not have to pay for gas when using Zipcars, its included in the hourly price.

If you are interested in joining Zipcar, check the various organizations that you are a member of, because being a member of certain organization may have lead to a discount on your Zipcar membership fee or free credits. I gained my membership through my alma mater and save money annually on my membership fee.

Why do I bring this up on a travel blog?

A few weeks ago,  I was thinking that I have never though about using Zipcar when visiting a city on vacation. Zipcar has cars in over 50+ cities around the United States. For example, in San Diego, I wanted to go visit, Cabrillo National Monument, but it would have taken 2 hours via a combination of a tram, 2 buses, and my feet. I decided not to go visit the monument, because I only had 4 hours until the monument closed.

I wish I would have brought my Zipcar card on the trip. I could have rented a car for a few hours (for probably about $30 total) and drove to the Monument in about 30 minutes. One might wonder why I did not rent a car on the San Diego trip from Hertz. The reason was the cost of parking at the two hotels I stayed at cost about $15 a night (or $30 for the two nights). Add in the cost of the car rental for two days and gas, the price for the weekend could have been close to $75. 

For future trips, I will be bringing my Zipcar card with me. One never knows when a spontaneous side trip might arise and the ability to visit something out of the reach of public transportation. I like the ability to take the track less traveled and car sharing programs like Zipcar will allow me to do this.

Have you ever used a car sharing program when traveling?