Car rental firms adjust to new realities

Car rental firms are increasingly finding that they must adjust to new economic and business realities, as the record high price of petrol pushes renters to hire compact and economy class vehicles, over larger less fuel efficient models. The problem, however, is that this change in rental practices among clients has left many American car hire firms scrambling to find an adequate number of small cars, in order meet the spike in demand, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. Recently, Sabre-the parent company that controls the online travel booking giant, Travelocity–found that reservations for compact vehicles was up by around 10.2 percent, while the number of clients renting economy class passenger vehicles jumped by an even more impressive 14.3 percent, this past spring. At the same time, SUV and full-size rentals decreased by significant margins.

Mike Kane, who owns the US-based Vehicle Replacement Consulting Group, told the Los Angeles Times that until very recently, most people preferred an SUV over smaller vehicles. “Just six months ago, anybody would have taken a Chevy Trailblazer SUV in lieu of a four-cylinder Cobalt. Not now,” Kane pointed out. He also noted that this represented a historic shift for the car rental industry. Yet the problem is that major auto manufacturers are simply not able to produce enough fuel efficient cars that are also available to car hire firms at competitive prices in order to meet the spike in demand.

This dramatic change in rental practices also means that the business policy of occasionally offering clients free upgrades from smaller vehicles to larger ones may no longer be appealing to most customers.

Thank you to Ken Bensinger of the Los Angeles Times for the quotes in this article.