Taxation Without Representation

The New York Times today addressed one of my biggest travel gripes over the years. High rental car taxes and fees that have little or nothing to do with travel. I have experienced this first hand seeing fees and taxes in the 40% range too often for my taste. As the base cost of rentals has risen these additional taxes and fees can be quite substantial. Enough so that on my limited corporate budget that I have often decided to take a shared van to and from an airport and use local transportation or my own two feet rather than pay these outrageous fees. Consider how much a car rental can cost you. Start with a $20 (sub-compact) rental rate that can occasionally be found. Add 40% in taxes and fees and now you are up to $28. If you are staying at a downtown hotel then it is likely the hotel will charge at least $15 a day for parking. Now you are up to $43 plus gas for stinking small car. Compare that to $15-$20 shared van rates and the cost of local transportation and the old reliable car renta becomes far less appealing.

Even though there is a revolt brewing like the Boston Tea Party of days gone by, this one will have very little impact unless they get a large number of travellers to stop renting cars to protest these taxes and fees. But we are very much addicted to renting a car despite the price and so I don't hold out much hope for any change.

For me I have gone from an automatic car rental on every business trip to calculating whether or not I can find a cheaper hotel than the convention hotel and add a car into the mix and still save money. This has resulted in my car rentals dropping about 75% compared to the past and that's not chump change being saved.