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So Zipcar When Are You Reducing the Rental Rate?
I’ve been using the Zipcar service for about 18 months. Zipcar is a shared car rental service where you can rent cars for an hour or more at locations that are typically nearby where you live or work. If you are new to the service, check out my video review from last year.
I’ve used the service in Philly and in San Francisco and generally find that those Zipcar cars are much cleaner and better looked after than the ones in NYC.
Several months ago we received an alert email from Zipcar that prices would be increasing because of the rise in fuel prices. Zipcar mentioned that the a good percentage of their costs come from fuel charges and that they needed to pass these charges along to us, the Zipcar customer. Fine, we are supposed to support this shared car, green, environmentally friendly service, right? At that point gas was over $4.50/gallon here in NYC.
Today I see that the average gas price in my neighborhood is approximately $2.30/gallon and it continues to drop. So Zipcar, when do you plan on dropping the price of the hourly rentals back? You see, you told us that it was gas price increases that forced you to increase the price. Therefore now that the price has dropped, you need to remove the increase. That’s how it works.
Of course we know that airlines and deliver couriers also need to drop the surcharges they added when fuel prices increased. I hear that they can’t drop the surcharges because of their contract and option pricing. Eventually their contracts will run out – will the surcharges go away? Of course not.
I certainly hope that Zipcar will return the car rental rates to the price before the gas price increases earlier this year. If prices go up again, let’s talk Zipcar. Until then, do the right thing.
Not removing surcharges when they aren’t needed is going to hurt this economy bad – because the next time (fuel) prices go up, companies will push the surcharges even higher.
I was giving a lot of thought as to how to structure my comment on this, and some serious consideration to its content. Then, Allen, I realized you had not given that consideration to your readers, so why was I bothering? The above post is a perfect example of why blogs have yet to gain mainstream acceptance as a viable and trusted news source. Why? Research your issue. Fact check. Explain a problem or a percieved injustice. Then subject me to your writing. This blog is not your personal bitching platform, and what you have above represents irresponsible and lazy standards. I suspect with a bit of research, you might find this issue isn’t worth even writing about. But, you failed to educate mr on the issue, so I don’t know for sure.
JMS – Sorry you didn’t find this post at the level you would like. Perhaps a blog like Techcrunch might be more to your liking? Not sure, maybe…
Also – could you point me to the page where it says that this blog isn’t my personal bitching platform? While this post wasn’t a bitching post, I haven’t been able to find where it says what I can and can’t post.
Anyway thanks for your comment – all feedback is appreciated.
Yeah, Techcrunch is in my reader, too, though I’ve found Om Malik to be my favorite online pundit.
Good point–there is nowhere (that I’ve found) that says you can’t post a random complaint here. The expectation is that you’ll read considered opinions on this blog, though, which is perhaps a better way of making my point.
With that, tho, I’ll be returning to fried turkey and putting the soapbox away. Thanks for your reponse; I do appreciate knowing that attention is paid to readers.
I agree with this sentiment. I have been an avid ZipCar user in the past (both at the hour and the daily rate) but earlier this month my wife and I looked for a car to take to her grandfather’s house in Brooklyn, and just looked at the rates and said no.
We were ok with paying a premium from the start but now it’s just gotten, well, uncompelling.
ZipCar, please get wise. $10 an hour is your base and you need a stock of cars at $8.50 for the cheapos out there. If your biz dev guys says anything about “upscaling the customer”, show him the latest headlines and then the door. There’s world of business just below your price point.
I agree!! In fact I wrote to Zipcar and advised them that if they’re going to base their claims on increasing the rates on their cars on the price of gas, the opposite should happen as well. Otherwise, you’re going to see further increases when gas increases again to the $3.50-$4 levels and will probably have to raise the rates again.
If their pricing model is largely based on the price of gas, we should be seeing that variability on the rates of the car. Perhaps for cars whom are more gas-efficient, the rates wouldn’t swing as much, but for other cars, you’ll probably see a $1 swing on hourly rates if gas moves from $2.50 a gallon to $4 (just an example).
Yep – I agree – also mileage should play a role – for example I use a car for 2 hrs a week probably put 10 miles on it – big difference than someone putting the car on the highway for 100 miles, etc.
I wouldn’t consider this “bitching” at all — it’s a legitimate question for the company. I emailed them as well, asking if there were plans to roll back the price hike now that gas is at a four year low.
The reply was most likely a canned message, but said that rates wouldn’t be changing anytime soon. “Our pricing model is based on total operating costs, including parking, insurance, vehicle leases and fuel. An increase in multiple variables (including gas) led Zipcar to increase its prices earlier this year. We don’t frequently change the rates based on the time or year or trends but rather we look at total cost over a period of time.”
I think you could still make an argument that in a recession, operating costs shouldn’t be going up at all. Fuel is now incredibly cheap, dealers are desperate to unload new vehicles and labor costs should be contained. Property values are also down with the collapse of the housing market, so I can’t imagine parking costs have gone up astronomically either.
Of course, airlines have kept their fees in place because it’s such an attractive revenue stream at a time when the industry is struggling. I can’t say I blame Zipcar either — the company has struggled to return a profit for years. However, it will be hard to get more members if the rates remain so high.
LOL – so quick to blame gas for the increase, but so willing to blame everything for no decrease. the real issue is that the rate will go up again when gas goes back up – just watch.
I enjoyed the 5 to 8 dollar hour rentals. However, if they keep rates this high, it’s more than likely that I will NEVER return. The company is beginning to cater to people who enjoy luxury as opposed to convenience.
What went wrong over at zipcar? Gas is at it’s all time LOW. I drove in New Jersey and a tank of regular gas was at $1.15
What’s staggering about this blog, is that it was created in November. 2 months later, and zipcar is still reluctant to modify its prices.
Of course not Diana – and they won’t even reply to my questions. It sure is disappointing but we have no choice and they know it.