Rental Car Shortage in Boston? Blame the Brutal Winter

Attempts to reserve a car at many rental location in Boston turned up no available inventory. Flickr/Creative Commons

By Kelly O'Brien

March 3, 2015

2 minutes to read

Here is what you saw if you searched for an Enterprise Rental car in the Boston area this afternoon:

A similar sight greeted customers searching for a car at every Avis, Budget, Thrifty and Hertz location within Boston – more than a dozen outlets all together.

Dollar’s Copley Place location turned up a whopping two available vehicles.

TWO cars for rent. In the whole city of Boston. What is going on?

Well, if you failed to rent a car today, you can – as usual – blame this brutal winter for your problems.

“We’re hundreds of cars short in terms of the new cars we would normally have delivered this time of year,’’ Richard Broome, Hertz Holdings’ executive vice president of communications, told Boston.com. “They just can’t get in because of the weather.’’

Hertz Holdings operates Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty rental services.

Aside from delaying the delivery of new cars to the region, the harsh conditions are also knocking existing rental stock out of commission.

“We can’t get parts in fast enough’’ to fix cars damaged by bad weather, Broome said. He also said some cars are waiting on parts that automakers have recalled for safety reasons. “It’s sort of a perfect storm.’’

Enterprise also blamed the winter weather for rental shortages, describing a kind of blizzard hangover.

“Weather events like this often produce an increase in insurance claims several days and weeks after the storms have passed,’’ Lisa Martini, an Enterprise spokesperson, said in an email. Because Enterprise partners with insurance and repair centers, a lot of cars are tied up as replacement vehicles for people finally bringing their cars into the shop for blizzard-induced damage.

“Many of our rental cars had been sitting unused during the peak of the snow storm, so now there is increased demand while everyone catches up,’’ Martini said. She also noted that Enterprise is bringing in thousands of cars from around the country to meet demand, but for now reservation availability will still vary by day of the week.

Broome said Hertz and its affiliates have been dealing with a shortage throughout most of February, and that he hopes more cars will be on the road soon as the historically bad weather finally starts to turn around.

“We haven’t experienced anything like this previously,’’ Broom said from Hertz’s Florida office. “You guys have had snow before but not this much snow. It’s been cold before but not this cold.’’

Broome said Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty tend to have more stock available on the weekend when fewer people are on business trips.

The press office for the Avis Budget Group did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.