Like almost all travel related industries, car hire has been hit by the current economic downturn. Customers have spoken out complaining of higher rental car charges, getting cars with more mileage and having less staff on hand to help them.
Many major car hire companies have been forced to let staff go in the last year as well as having to close some pick up points. This has inconvenienced many regular customers who are now looking for new car hire companies to deal with.
• Avis cut two thousand, two hundred jobs last year (7% of their workforce)
• Hertz let go two thousand staff last year
• Hertz reported a ninety four percent drop in income last year
• Advantage Rent A Car filed for bankruptcy reorganization in December. Car hire is no longer offered at many of its forty eighty rental locations.
• Dollar Thrifty are reportably likely to file for protection from creditors in bankruptcy court
Experts however do not expect any of the major car hire companies to disappear. As long as they continue to trim staff and fleets they will survive. Due to a poor used car sales market, many companies are keeping cars on their fleet longer than usual.
It seems that cost comparison car hire sites are only going to grow in popularity as customers try to find the best value deal possible. Our cheap car hire Sanford Airport service sources rental cars from a wide variety of top car hire companies.
The current economic situation has forced Enterprise Rent-A-Car to lay off staff. In the past the company has reflected on its ability to retain staff in its 51 years of existence however it seems no jobs are safe at the moment.
In a cost cutting measure over one thousand workers have been let go. Enterprise Rent-A-Car employed seventy five thousand people last year. Patrick Farrell of Enterprise said “These types of declines are unprecedented”
Job security is a very difficult thing to find in the US at the moment. The travel sector has been hit heavily during the last year with many people tightening their belts. In October 2008, employment in the car hire industry was down by 3.3% on the previous year in the US* (Bureau of Labor Statistics*)
A car supplier in Michigan called Gentex Corp had to let go staff for the 1st time in thirty four years recently. Car hire companies are been forced to slash prices in order to compete in these tough times.
We source car hire Sanford Airport prices from many suppliers offering you the best deals around.
Some UK car hire companies are now asking customers to provide fingerprints when hiring a car. In the past a passport has always been an ample form of identification however a recent spate of car hire thefts at UK airports has caused some car hire companies to have a rethink.
This action have course raises the question of privacy and has caused some upset among the press and the public who already feel that big brother knows enough about them. Fingerprints are normally associated with police stations however certain car hire companies feel that it is within the customer’s interest to build a biometric profile of them. Stansted Airport is the 1st location to test the system. Under this system a fingerprint is a mandatory requirement in order to hire a car.
Some customers have no problem with these new measures however others have been strongly opposed and are concerned about how their personal data will be used. Car hire companies say the information will only be used if a hire car is stolen so the police will be able to track the culprit. Organised crime gangs have been using hire cars at UK airports for criminal activity.
Biometric data has also been used in some shops in the UK for credit card payments so this type of technology may be something that people are going to have to get used to more and more.
Several major car hire companies have recently had to up their prices to cope with rising costs. In a recent press release Hertz spoke of increased prices at many locations in Europe and North America which they say were necessary because of inflation, increased commodity expenses and a difficult 2nd hand car sales market.
Hertz are certainly not the only company being affected in these tough economic times with National Car Rental, Enterprise Rent A Car and Alamo also increasing prices recently at several airport locations.
The fact that fewer people are travelling on Airlines has hit car hire companies particularly hard. Hertz believe that car rental rates will rise by an average of 10% in many North American locations, up to 5% in off airport locations and 10% in Europe.
The increased rates at Hertz will come into effect from Nov 10th.
So if you are looking for the best value possible Sanford car hire deal then cost comparison sites like ours here at carhiresanford.co.uk may be you best option.
Through our broker partners we search the prices of many car hire suppliers to give you the widest variety of choice and value for your money. All the information is clearly presented in our simple to use booking engine.