The last time I mentioned Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, he was demanding more federal subsidies for Amtrak because, well, he just loves taking trains and he thought everyone else should love it too. This week King is back with his unique, should-be-patented brand of economic illiteracy — this time redefining “price gouging” as “taking advantage of Peter King’s stupidity”:
Hertz Should Be Ashamed of Itself Dept.:
I rented a full-sized Hertz vehicle for my two-day trip to North Carolina and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Awards. Two days, $44 a day. Drove the car 169 miles. The tank read 5/8ths when I pulled into the Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s Hertz lot at 5:35 a.m. Tuesday.
“Did you fill the tank with gas?” the courteous check-in gal asked.
“No, sorry,” I said.
She noted the mileage and handed me the receipt.
The receipt for charges of $249.31.
The gas for driving less than a half-tank cost more ($89.40) than renting the car for two days, minus taxes ($88). Hertz charged $8.99 per gallon for refueling. That seems fair (he said sarcastically).
Then there was the $17.98 for NeverLost GPS (which did its job; I was never lost on the trip) and the usual collection of cloudy charges — “concession fee recovery,” $11.92 … “customer facility charge,” $7 … “vehicle licensing cost recovery,” 62 cents — that makes the renting of cars in America so joyous.
Three-eighths of a tank of gas for $89.40? If that’s not price-gouging, I don’t know what is.
So to recap, King was gouged because he chose to not to refuel the car and Hertz charged him a fee to do it for him. Hertz’s own website spells it out pretty clearly:
Hertz has three refueling options available to meet your needs:
- You may purchase a tank of gas from Hertz at time of rental and return the vehicle with as little gas as you prefer. Please be aware that we are unable to issue a refund for unused fuel. However, this method eliminates the need for you to refuel the tank prior to returning.
- You can let us refuel for you and only pay for the fuel required to replace the fuel you used, and for the service and convenience of refueling the tank. (Italics added)
- You can stop and refuel the tank yourself, immediately prior to returning the vehicle.
If King had just taken five minutes to refuel the car before returning it to the Charlotte airport — and there tend to be a lot of gas stations near airports — he would’ve only paid about $3.50–$3.60/gallon to refuel the car instead of the $8.99 Hertz charged him. But he couldn’t take the few minutes out of his day to save himself some money. (Actually, save his employer the money; as noted Kingologist Drew Magary said, “SHAME ON YOU, HERTZ. SHAME ON YOU FOR OVERCHARGING PETER FOR GAS HE WILL EVENTUALLY EXPENSE ANYWAY.”)
Of course, King had the time to write a lengthy section in his column denouncing Hertz for “gouging” him, which probably took longer then it would have to refuel the car before returning it to Hertz. But economic calculation doesn’t appear to be one of Peter King’s strong suits.
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It would be interesting to see what Mr. King thinks is a “fair” price and how it is calculated.
It doesn’t sound as if he is thinking at all; rather, he’s just emoting that it “feels” like gouging. And of course Hertz is supposed to provide this service to him for free since as a business Hertz obviously has an unlimited supply of cash that they’re selfishly refusing to share.
So Peter King paid someone roughly $50 to do 10 minutes work instead of doing it himself. Thats $300 an hour. Peter King’s time is worth more than $300 an hour, so Ricardo would say that he is better off paying someone else to do it.
Which is why, when I rent a car, I always gas up before returning it. Duh… Heck, at most rent places, they offer to sell you the tank of gas. They are nice enough to quote the local prices so you can figure out if its worth it. (I usually figure its not).
Oh, and as for trains. I thought a few times of looking into taking a train instead of flying for some recent trips. Based on where I am (south florida) and were I wanted to go, I found that in most cases there was no direct route to where I wanted to go, meaning that trying to take a train would take longer and be as expense as flying. sometimes way longer. Pass.
Had the TSA goons limited their sexual molestation to the airports, taking a train may have made sense. Now that they’ve decided to start groping us at train terminals (can sports stadiums and concerts be far behind?), train travel is not a viable option – at least not with AMTRAK running the show.
Took a train recently from the Leipzig-Halle airport to Leipzig. Cost 3.60 euros. Took 12 minutes for an 11 mile ride. The Leipzig station is the largest in Europe. I could not believe how large. And it now has a huge shopping mall underground.
Walked a few steps from the station to my hotel. Done. Never used a car in Leipzig. Didn’t need one.
Last year, I took a train from Newark Int’l to Penn Station in NYC. Not nearly as fast as the Leipzig train, but far more entertaining, as the conductors would seek out deadbeats, and in one case, demand a public confession in the car else he’d call the police.
Never used a car in NYC. Didn’t need one.
I had to get a rental when my vehicle was in the shop. The fuelling charge was right there on the lease agreement. On top of that, they had a large notice on the counter itself that I was signing the agreement on about the charge. There is no excuse to be remotely surprised by this. It costs more because they have to send an employee out to refil the tank, so you’re buying the gas and the service of the person that has to go fill it up, and that could take upwards of an hour depending on traffic conditions and the location of the nearest station.
I rarely drive a car, and have never driven a rental, but even I know that you’d want to return it with the same amount of gasoline that was in the tank when I got it, or else be charged significantly more than it’d cost me to fill it myself. This guy obviously thinks that because he’s a writer of some column, he’s not subject to the same conditions as us mere mortals.
What kind of idiot doesn’t know that you should refill the tank before taking back a rental? Was he born yesterday?
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