Spies Online E-mail Newsletter http://www.spiesonline.net Issue #1, February 28, 1998 (Excerpt) Feature Article: "Understanding The Car Rental Industry" by: Ed McArdle Ever been tailing an individual, written down the license plate, run the plate and came up with either a rental company or some corporation that you have never heard of? Then you tried to get some information from a car rental company? Then you know how frustrating the whole practice can be. To understand the car rental industry you first have to understand some basics about how the industry is organized. There are companies that completely own all of their offices - such as Enterprise (and Alamo in the US) - and there are others that have franchisees or licensees. Franchisees or licensees are companies that do business under the banner of a car rental company but are owned by someone else. For example, Avis just announced that it was purchasing Hayes Leasing in Texas and they recently acquired Grand Rent A Car. If you rented an Avis car in Los Angeles you were really renting from Grand. If you rented at DFW, you were renting from Hayes. Most car rental companies have some locations that they own and many more that they franchise. The franchisee runs under the name of the franchisor (Hertz, Avis, National, Dollar, Thrifty, Rent-a-Wreck, etc) and pays them a commission (and other fees). Where do you go to get records and information? It depends. Do you have a franchisee operation or a corporate operation? If it is a corporate operation, the company's records will generally be kept at the home office for the company. This will include all computerized records. This is also where the custodian of records will be. If it is a franchisee operation, the records may be maintained at the local rental office or it may be at the main office for the franchisee. (It sounds confusing but it is similar to trying to figure own who owns the local McDonald's). If you are trying to get the information from the corporate office you had better have a subpoena. Car rental companies take their privacy responsibilities to their customers VERY seriously. In my former life, when I worked as Senior Director of Security for one of the major car rental companies, I had times when I had law enforcement on the phone looking for a needle in a haystak (or, more often, on a fishing expedition) and I had to tell them no way were they going to get an information without a subpoena. However, the local rental office may be more amenable to giving you the information because they may not be aware of their own company's policy regarding releasing information; they may be impressed with the fact that you are a private investigator; they may fall for you baby blue eyes; whatever. The reality is that you may get more information from an in-person visit - assuming that they have access to the information. What records do they have? Most car rental companies are fully computerized. Many car rental companies have databases on all of their renters' rental activities. However, the franchisor will, quite frequently, have no information about the rental of a specific vehicle or of a specific person. The corporate facility, on the other hand, should have everything. All car rental companies closely guard their customer's credit card numbers - so don't even go there. The types of records that they would have are: - History of all renters of each vehicle - History of all activity of each vehicle - History of all repairs on each vehicle - Rental history of each customer - Reservation history (these records are usually kept for a VERY limited amount of times - 90 days or so on the computer but they may be kept for years on Microfiche) - Specific rental agreements Who owns the car? Good question. Who owns a car registered to AFF? ( _____ Fleet Financing). Many car rental companies have set up subsidiary companies to handle the lease and the purchase of their vehicles. Very often, they use cryptic names. The address is usually the key. Most often they will register to a specific entity but the entity's address is the same as one of the corporation's locations. Some states will require that the vehicle be registered to an address within the state - even though the true ownership may be in New York. However, the address that is used on the registration will still end up being a facility of the company involved - either a rental office or an administrative office. The car rental companies used to lease a lot of cars (just like you and I do - only at much better rates). Changes in the tax code, however, have mad it much more desirable for them to own the vehicles. Many of the cars are "buy-back" or "program" cars. These are cars that the car rental company buys from the manufacturer and the manufacturer agrees to buy the cars back for a specified price during a certain window of time. This practice is very common in the industry and it is not uncommon for a car to be in a car rental company's fleet for only 6 or 7 months. So if you have a car that has been registered to car rental company A and the registration has expired a year or so ago, it probably went back to the manufacturer at one of the major auctions. (This would be especially true if the license plates do not go with the car, as they do in California for example). Because I was in the car rental industry for so long, chances are I can help you if you have a case that involves car rentals. Can I get you information on a renter or a credit card? No. Can I help you with someone to talk to? Probably - I know many of the people in the industry. Can I help you understand what is going on? Probably. You can e-mail me at edward_mcardle @msn.com or call me at (954) 421-4937. About the author: Ed McArdle is the founder of E & E Consulting (a licensed private investigative agency in southeastern Florida). Ed also does expert witness and consulting work in the areas of security and the car rental industry. Copyright 1998 by Spies Online. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy/forward this publication in whole or in part without permission of the list owner and the writer(s) of any particular article(s) in question. Disclaimer: This publication is for entertainment purposes, and the publisher of Spies Online will take no responsibility for the use/misuse of any information contained herein.