Wiseguy850 said "Hard to believe a City this size still only has one car rental agency. "
Of economics. An average new car for a rental agency is roughly $25,000 minimum. Most Enterprise dealerships have cars, trucks, and economy transport vans. A small fleet of 10 vehicles would easily eat up $250,000 at least in overhead investment, which turns over every few years to update the fleet. Most dealerships run a fleet of 15-20 vehicles, so let's say a full lot is well over a half a million inventory. Add in staff costs, maintenance costs, insurance and building costs, and a dealership won't make all that much money, which is why they don't do very well financially. Most rentals are done during the winter months when accident season is in full swing, but it still doesn't offset the slow sales in summer months. Most of the money from "expensive" rental fees goes towards renter insurance, so again, the actual dealership doesn't make much money. Same goes with repair shops, they really don't see much return on their investment on fleet courtesy vehicles, which is why we don't see many rental or courtesy cars in Brandon, which, even though we have a population of over 50,000, is still a rural number. It isn't about supplying an industry because people want or need it, it still needs to turn money successfully throughout the full four financial quarters, which rentals rarely do. It's indeed very unfortunate for those who need an emergency vehicle during an autopac incident.
As for the OP's original question about where to find an immediate rental, I'm afraid it may be a tough wait it. I can imagine that if an autobody shop itself is out of courtesy cars, they might also be renting from outsource agencies if autopac is known to cover out of pocket coverage for a client, making it even more difficult to find a vehicle independently. Like another poster said, it may be necessary to look outside of Brandon.
Edited by brianathome99, 2019-12-13 22:02:21