Starting July 4, travelers at Baltimore/Washington International who are returning rental cars with a partially filled gas tank will get a price break.
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Following an investigation by the attorney general’s office in Maryland, rental car companies operating in the state agreed to cut their refueling costs — which can be as much as $8 a gallon — by up to 40%.
Maryland’s investigation began six months ago, and found that “some of the rental car companies had increased their refueling charges drastically in recent months, far in excess of gas prices found in the Baltimore/Washington/Philadelphia area,” the attorney general’s office said, in a statement.
The rental car companies agreed to lower their charges within Maryland to about 135% to 142% of current retail prices, or about $5.85 per gallon as of last week.
“Maryland will have among the lowest, if not the lowest, rental vehicle refueling charges in the nation,” the statement said.
Enterprise and its affiliated companies — Alamo and National — were not part of the negotiation because they had lower refueling fees prior to the investigation. Enterprise spokeswoman Christy Conrad says its companies never charge more than 33% beyond the local market rates.
Shortly before the settlement was announced, Hertz said it will start a new refueling pricing policy nationwide. Customers returning cars with a partially filled tank will be charged local retail prices, plus a one-time refueling fee of $6.99. They can also choose to buy a tank of gas at the outset and receive a 15-cents-per-gallon discount.
Why should costs be other than the lowest non-self-service available in the local market?
If every car is filled, how can a customer purchase a tank of gas at the start? Where do they put the gas if the tank is already full!
sorry but what they obviously mean is that u pay for the value of the gas.
so if u took a car with a full tank of gas, then u would pay 15 cents less per gallon than the street value.
so if say for example gas was 4 dollars a gallon and the car has a 20 gallon tank, the u would pay $77 instead of $80 .
that’s the whole deal.
hope that helps you to better understand.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION: opting to purchase “a full tank of gas and bring it back on empty” is just a gimmick/ruse! Because it’s impossible to drive on empty… and you’re most likely going to have a generous amount of gas upon return although gas tank reads “empty”! – L. dafka –
ladafka:ur a very smart man!!!
i wonder what kind of car u drive?
are u woring on a new technology that would make cars not have to run on gas?
To : I understand 🙂 : I ride a bicycle most of the time. 😉
The guy at the rental company that fills the tank of the rental car that you bring back is not a volunteer. He gets paid by the hour.
Car rental companies are not in the gas station business, it is a extra headache for them to deal with refueling and that is why you pay more.
No one is arguing with you, However if they’ve never been in the refueling business up until now They certainly are now! (that is up until they got too greedy and were a bit regulated. ) and now the “a full tank of gas and bring it back on empty” gimmick.