Do rental car companies try to keep cars in the state that they're registered in? (car rental, luxury)
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I was renting a car at Chicago O'hare yesterday and saw a ton of out of state plates in the parking lot - Ohio, Minnesota, Texas, California, Florida, New Mexico.. and so on.
It made me wonder what they do with all of these out of state cars. Do they try to give these cars to people who are traveling in the direction of the car's home state? Or do they tow the cars back there? Or does it not even matter where the cars end up? I would imagine keeping the car in their registered states would ease with registration/renewal and inspection but on second thought, maybe its a nonissue for rental car companies.
Just curious if anyone else had any thoughts or knowledge about this. Thanks.
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What a car rental company needs is a certain variety of cars, meaning, so many small cars, so many medium sized ones, and so many vans, etc. Then a variety within a variety as to how much luxury and so on.
So, often, they shuttle cars back to certain areas who are in need of some type of cars.
Being in the rental car business for a while will show the rental company what is most often wanted, so they adapt to that situation.
Where the car is registered is of no concern.
Any car, once registered *somewhere*, can be driven in any location depending on the situation of the owner.
seasonal variations in demand will have the rental car management shifting fleets around the country as needed. It's just a case of maximizing the utility/rentals of the fleets instead of having cars sitting around for months at a time.
Yes the cars do get moved around but it's typically due to volume needs. Lots of cars from up north get moved to Florida for the winter rush and then get moved back in the spring.
Sometimes the rental companies will offer driveaway rates for people willing to go one way or they load them up on trailers and ship them.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robr2
Sometimes the rental companies will offer driveaway rates for people willing to go one way or they load them up on trailers and ship them.
When I retired years ago, I did car rental shuttling for fun.
Nothing else to do and the longest distance was from one State to the next one.
About 5 or 6 guys, all knew each other, and a few days of *fun*, then back again in one car or van, depending on how many drivers. Pocket money !!
Rental car companies have crews of people, called shuttlers or transporters, whose only job is to pick up cars from one location and deliver to another location. They go in vans to a set location to pick cars up, and deliver to the next. Upon arrival to the drop-off place, the van (whose driver is called a lead-person, or head transporter) picks up the drivers and takes them to the next pick-up location, and the process is repeated.
IN addition to internal shuttling, rental companies also offer some *really* cheap one-way deals at certain times of the year to keep up with increased demand. The deals are usually only valid between limited pick up and drop off destinations (example: Chicago region and South Florida), but can be incredibly cheap.
This is a good thread. I have rented cars that were not licenced in the state ( airport) where I picked them up. I always wondered how they got there or what the circumstances were.
Not really cars are shuffled around to and fro via one way rentals.
Locations will often do their best to hold onto their more premium vehicles in order not to lose those out of their fleets. Vehicles like a Cadillac Escalade or an Audi A6 for example. If it's something like a Nissan Sentra, they just let it go.
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