I was in Florida and flew back Christmas Eve. If I hadn’t had a reservation for a rental car, I would have been hosed. Southwest seemed to not have any cancellations where I was flying to and from.
In May, this shortage made our decision- we drove fr TX to SC. Cost was less than rental car for 5 days. We were gone for 9 days.
How does “switching from flying to driving, further deplete the supply of rental cars”?
Maybe there are fewer cars at Location A, but those cars move to Location B (if one-way rentals). But there is no change in overall supply.
Even if cars are rented more time, that doesn’t change the supply.
This is another case of an economic illiterate author tasked with writing an economics paper.
Local right wing radio guy said his friend had to go by car to a city about 2 hours away from the airport. Only available cars were electric ones. Others had been taken.
He said “Is there any place I can re-charge because the range is too far for making it back?”
“The biggest parking garage in town has a row of chargers you could use.”
The new era.
Many used car dealerships also rent cars
It might be 4 or 5 years old but generally cheaper and easier to find.
Maybe all those “Smash and Grab” events have placed a ton of cars in the shop for repairs, as well?
Someone wrecked my car and it took two days to get a rental
So they sold cars to take advantage of high resell values now claim it is high demand.
Someone in the Hertz executive suite made a brilliant decision ,at the beginning of the lockdown ,to sell half their fleet. Now they can’t replace the cars because of the chip shortage.
They’ve become the United Airlines of the rental car industry.