The complex process of renting a car

Have you rented a car lately? Not everybody knows how it’s done.

My niece, a college grad, mother of three, comptroller of a good-sized company, and a decidedly competent woman, decided to send her parents to Lake DeGray recently to revisit where they honeymooned some 40 years ago. She wanted it to be a semi-surprise, so after arranging air travel for them, she planned to rent a car so they could get from Clinton National Airport to Bismarck.

But she couldn’t do that.

To rent a car, the “renter”—the person paying to rent the car—must be present to sign the rental agreement and provide a credit card at the time of pickup. A renter cannot provide someone else’s credit or debit card.

You can pay for a rental car for someone else to drive, but you have to show up at the counter to rent the vehicle in your name and add them as an additional driver. Technically, you’ll be the primary driver, but you don’t have to drive at all if you don’t want to.

Or you can pay for someone else’s car rental reservation if you choose to reserve and pay online, but the actual main or primary driver—the person who signs the car rental agreement—will have to present a credit card for a security deposit in their name.

As an additional driver, the other person will be able to drive the car with no restrictions. As long as the additional driver is old enough to rent a car (the minimum age in most states is 25) and has the documentation needed (like a valid driver’s license), you’re good to go.

An additional driver fee will likely be charged by the rental company. Why wouldn’t they?

All this was news to my niece; she knows everything there is to know about using Uber and Lyft (which I don’t), but has never rented a car before. So her parents had to take care of it upon their arrival.

Renting a car from an airport location is usually more expensive than doing so from an off-airport site because of added taxes and fees. Renting at an off-airport location could save 20 percent or more.

Checking the rates at Clinton Airport’s Hertz location shows me that renting a small SUV costs around $100 per day. Memberships to the likes of AAA, Costco, and AARP, credit cards, and some employers offer discounts that can reduce that number.

The days of $10-a-day rentals are long gone. According to Chris Hutchins, creator of All the Hacks podcast (allthehacks.com), current market rates are $80 to $200 per day. That’s because low demand during the pandemic imploded the rental car market. Companies sold many of their cars to right-size their inventory with the plan to repurchase new ones when the demand came back.

Except when they started buying, they couldn’t, because there was a computer chip shortage (cars need 1,000-2,000 computer chips to operate). So it’s a whole new world for rental cars.

And while rates and availability have gotten better, there are still entire states and countries with extreme inventory shortages.

I found that out a few months ago when an accident landed my Hyundai in a repair shop to await a new rear fender. The car was completely operational, but once the fender had been removed, we had to wait for a new fender, and with supply-chain issues, it took a full seven days to arrive.

No worries, said a representative of my insurance company. You can rent a car. Yay! It’s always fun to drive a different ride. So I made a reservation online. But upon arriving to fetch the car, I was told there were no reasonably priced rentals available.

This is not unusual. Because most reservations are not prepaid, many people cancel at the last minute or don’t show up, so companies usually over-sell their inventory by up to 30 percent to ensure they’re maximizing utilization. There were cars available at an increased cost, but my insurance agent, usually so helpful, was unwilling to spring for a higher-priced vehicle.

I should have remembered to try a technique I learned once at the Palm Springs airport; our budget rental wasn’t ready to go when a snazzy Miata showed up as a return. The agent, sensing opportunity, offered us the Miata at the same price as the budget ride if we didn’t demand it be cleaned up. Sure, we said, and drove around the desert town in style.

With no Miata in sight, I spent a week in Little Rock getting around on my bike and forcing my husband to drive me around (which was enjoyable).

If a similar situation arises in the future, I’ll consult with my niece to figure out how to use Uber and Lyft.

Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.

kmartin@arkansasonline.com