Posted on 10/24/2026 6:33:54 PM PDT by george76
In case you need some help with the math, that distance in that time would require averaging a continuous 107 miles per hour.
....
according to one Avis bill, a Toronto man's trip also involved the sort of non-stop driving that would interest an endurance racing team, as the company charged him for covering almost 18,000 miles in a week.
When one simply divides the mileage by the time allotted, the plausibility of the charge becomes comical.
...
Yuehao Huang rented a vehicle in Montreal on September 11 for a seven-day family trip. He says his phone recorded roughly 1400 km (870 miles) traveled during the journey, including walking. Yet Avis billed him for 28,933 km (17,978 miles), adding about CA $5900 (roughly $4200 at current exchange rates) to a prepaid rental costing more than CA $1000 ($710 USD).
Let's do the math. Seven full days contain 168 hours, so covering the billed distance would require averaging 172 km/h (107 mph) throughout every one of them. That's the average, too; every minute spent parked would require driving faster afterward to make up the difference.
We can look at it in the reverse way, too. Let's say he consistently drive 62 mph, never stopped, and somehow refueled on the fly. It would take roughly 289 hours to reach that mileage—more than 12 days. Allow eight hours a day for sleeping during a seven-day rental, and the required driving average climbs to roughly 258 km/h (161 mph). And again, these figures don't account for eating, sleeping, refueling, or anything else. In other words, nobody needed access to the car's tracking data to realize this was a silly figure.
Still, somehow, the charge apparently survived the initial complaint. Huang told CityNews that not only did his conversation with Avis not lead to recognition of the error, but said his credit card company American Express didn't help out either. Only after the media reached out did Avis reportedly admit there was a data entry error; it also claimed that it apologized, and issued a mileage refund. Consider this one more reminder to snap plenty of photos of the car, the mileage, and anything else pertinent both at the pickup and drop-off of any rental vehicle.
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On the Road Again
by Tom Rush (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp02twEvmCE&t=24s
As folk morphed into folk rock.
I saw him about five or six times. During one performance he suffered a collapsed lung on stage and was taken to the hospital. Recovered.
*** Yuehao Huang rented a vehicle in Montreal on September 11 for a seven-day family trip. ***
I’m inclined to believe Huang’s version of the story. When I was a kid my family went on a cross country trip, about 9000 miles round trip (central Florida to Anchorage, Alaska). It took several weeks, and we stayed overnight or for a few days in the various locations where Dad stopped for the day. We were gone for several weeks, about a month on that trip. I can’t see how anyone could do it faster than we did, or for more than that distance. Great education.
We try harder - Avis.
Don’t rent without unlimited miles on the agreement!
Reminds me of Blake Edwards’ “The Great Race,” (1965): https://youtu.be/9biklE2wA6M?si=Zc2gEzYDrqibMWl3
Sounds like he got a good per-mile rate.
You’d think their billing software would have some built-in logic checks.
Brock Yates would approve of that Cannonball!
Like the faces of every employee you deal with.
Roaming charges.............😆
I’d jump right to having the person who did the billing arrested for fraud.
-PJ
It must have been Canadian “miles” and Canadian dollars.
“Push the button, Max ...”
Six Days On The Road 🎶
Standard Procedure.
There is a good chance that the customer will decide that they may as well pay the bill than fight.
Note that his credit card company was also useless.
Only taking his story to the press got action from Avis.
Contrary to the Hollywood axiom "any publicity is good publicity". Being known for being patently unfair to your customers is not good for business.
I did a motorcycle endurance race in 2010 from Key West to Homer Alaska going out to New Mexico and zig zagging numerous states, up through BC and the Yukon to Fairbanks and down to Homer. 9,132 miles on mainly back roads in 246hrs and 15 minutes...roughly 900+ miles a day. First day I did 23hrs. Winner was 24hrs ahead of me..which was amazing.
So you know what that journey is like. Now add a wife, six kids, camping gear and towing a boat. We went up through Toronto because my dad had cousins there. This was back in 1970. Plenty of back roads then, too. As I recall, the Alaskan Highway was 500 miles of dirt roads. I can’t begin to tell you how many tires we changed, not to mention a few other problems that developed on that station wagon on that trip. It was an epic experience.
Did you come in second place?
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