Hard lesson learned from car rental

[pinkcess]

Lesson: READ the damn reservation agreement that you agreed to before you drive the car.

I rented a car from National for 5 days when my boyfriend and I took a trip out to Nova Scotia for $237 (the best deal i could find - all others were upwards of $350). We flew in to Sydney and were flying back through Halifax.
Now, I've made car rental reservations before and have never ever heard of this clause - perhaps it only occurs in Canada.
Well, little did I know that the reservation, it clearly stated that for every km we drove, we would get charged $0.25 - no free kms.
Today, when we saw our credit card bill charge for $718, we went through the roof and immediately called National to find out that this is a one-way clause - because it's a one-way drive from Sydney to Halifax. The customer service rep said that if we had driven back to Sydney to return the car, the kms would be unlimited.

That sucked. Really bad. We had really wanted this trip to be a cheap getaway and for the most part it was (total trip between the two of us was $875 for flight, hotel and food). This cost just skyrocketed the trip's costs and now, we figure we probably could've gone to the Carribbean for a week for what we paid for our 5 day trip.
Boo.

Just wanted to pass this advice on so no one else gets stuck in a sucky situation like this.

[bobbings]

That sux... but thanks for the heads up! =)

[Pete_Coach]

The cheapest rate for car rentals are almost always those with no free miles. That makes up for the low daily charge. You are right OP, always read before you sign. Know what you are paying for.
Tough lesson.

[tonychau]

Most Car rental expects you to return their car back to them or closest location (< than 10km). You should have asked them before hand about one-way drop off if possible. Ususally it is possible but with an extra cost.

If you have upfront about it to the car rental, you know they will charge you more on the insurance coverage, mileage and surcharge.

Call Sydney National Car rental again and ask about one-way drop off to Halifax, they will quote you about the same/slightly less rate.

[sexpuppet6000]

Sorry to hear.

[Impossibles]

One way car rentals are always super expensive, never do it. Each branch is independant and the car needs to be returned to that branch, and they sure as heck aren't going to do that for free!

[pinkcess]

The sucky-er part is that when we were in Sydney picking up the car, the representative told us this car had just come from Halifax. So not only were we doing them a favour, we were paying for the favour too.

[WesternGuy]

Yes, always best to check all the info and ask if things aren't clear...

In Canada I've found that with one-way rentals I've been either charged/quoted.
1. The per/km charge as the OP found out.
2. A flat higher daily rate but with unlmited km. I guess the higher daily rate compensates for the one-way drop-off
3. A flat one-way drop-off charge as a separate line item.

Over the years I've done all three and in every case I've known about the charges upfront so no surprises.

[fatpiggy]

Thanks for the info. I am actually planing a fly-in and drive back from the east coast. Now I think I will have to drive all the way with my own car to cut cost.

[new_vr]

One way car rentals are always super expensive, never do it. Each branch is independant and the car needs to be returned to that branch, and they sure as heck aren't going to do that for free!

They aren't always super expensive. When we went to California, I got the car in San Francisco, and returned it in LA. I went with budget, because they were about half the price of anyone else, for a one-way at the time

[{PolarBear}]

One way car rentals are always super expensive, never do it. Each branch is independant and the car needs to be returned to that branch, and they sure as heck aren't going to do that for free!

Hi Impossibles,

It is sometimes possible to get one way rentals without an extra drop-off fee. We've done it a few times with different firms on family trips, but it is not easy to find. It ma be more common within a state or province than otherwise, but I haven't looked into that.

Not all firms operate with the independent branch model, and I think that may be why.

I'm just pointing this out so others realize it may be worth checking if a one-way works in your situation.


As has been mentioned, pinkcess, best thing is to always read and understand what you are signing! I'm not a fan of how the car rental industry operates with these kind of fees, and this situation definitely sucks, but it is disclosed in the contract.

[dodger57]

It is a hard lesson to learn. I used to be a Regional Sales Manager for a car rental company in Nova Scotia. Most off-airport car rental locations are franchised or agency owned. And most airport locations are owned by the rental company. Either way, the location is allotted so many vehicles in their fleet. When a car is dropped off at another part of a province or state, it means that the location is minus one vehicle for their reservations. This problem is compounded when the drop off happens in high season, especially now since building a vehicle fleet has become much harder since GM and Ford are getting out of the leasing business.

If you're travelling between two major centres, (i.e. Montreal to Toronto) you may get a half decent one way deal because there is a good chance that somebody will want to travel back to Montreal within the next day.

However, in smaller centres, as in Sydney to Halifax, somebody may not want a one way back to Sydney for 4 or 5 days. Plus, the car rental company has to trust that the customer is going to do exactly what they say, instead of deciding to keep the car for a couple of extra days. All the while, there is somebody sitting at Sydney airport waiting for their car rental. If the rental company really needs to get the vehicle back, which happens quite often, they will have to send two drivers in a vehicle to Halifax to pick up the car. In total, that's almost 20 hours of combined labour costs and fuel for two cars just to pick up one car. Plus its two cars out of your fleet that you can't rent for that day. The one way charge that our friend paid may just cover the aforementioned costs.

And that's why its so expensive to rent a car on a one way basis in smaller centres.

Here's a quick one on a one way rental(s) that went to the extreme. First of all, you have to believe that the customer is telling you the truth when they say that they are bringing the car back on a certain date to the same location. This is what happens when they don't. When 9/11 occurred, a large number of US destined flights were diverted to Halifax. 7000 thousand passengers were stranded in Halifax. After a few days of being stranded, US bound people were booking cars to do "some sightseeing" around the area. Well, we never saw them again. They all drove to the US. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame them for wanting to get home and they paid through the nose for their drop offs in American cities. However, we had to hire four car carriers to travel to the US and pick up cars from Boston to Atlanta and most points in between. And since this phenomena was happening across the country, it took us weeks just to secure the carriers.

I'm not playing down the tragedy of 9/11, just pointing out how expensive one way rentals can be to a car rental company.

[fireguy9]

One way car rentals are always super expensive, never do it. Each branch is independant and the car needs to be returned to that branch, and they sure as heck aren't going to do that for free!

Only one ways I know are cheap are in FL! We do it quite often with the major agencies,,, no additional charges,,,,,, but always read fine print on that extra charge stuff:idea: