Message to rental car companies: FFVs matter

November 24, 2014

BY Holly Jessen

Back in October, when I traveled to Hugoton, Kansas, for the grand opening of Abengoa Bioenergy’s cellulosic ethanol plant, I discovered that Hugoton isn’t the easiest city to travel to by air. I ended up driving an hour to Fargo, North Dakota, flying into Dallas and then taking another flight to Garden City, Kansas. On the way home it was even worse. I had two stops. One in Dallas and another one in Colorado before I got back to Fargo. I heard from the locals that it was a blessing when the airline added a flight from Dallas. Still, it’s a pretty odd route to get to Kansas from North Dakota via Texas and Colorado.

But that’s not even the most frustrating part of my trip. It was renting a car to drive the 75 miles to Hugoton that left me seeing question marks. Before I left I called Enterprise and asked if they had any flex-fuel vehicles available. As the managing editor of Ethanol Producer Magazine, I didn’t see how I could neglect that question. I was told the answer was no, and besides, the representative on the phone told me I couldn’t pick the car up until the next morning at 8 a.m., after I needed to leave for Hugoton. (Even though I found out later there is an Enterprise location at the airport that would have been open when I arrived at the airport the night before.)

I then called Hertz. The answers were better all around—yes, there were FFVs and, yes, I could pick it up at the airport when I arrived. Unfortunately, when I was handed the car keys I was told that it was not a FFV. Apparently some, but not all, of the cars at that rental location are FFVs. Perhaps I should have been more specific that I wanted an FFV when I asked if there were FFVs available?

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So, I tried, anyway. But, since I’m a reporter, I couldn’t help but want to know more. So I looked up the email addresses of the media departments of the car rental agencies, Hertz, Enterprise and Avis Budget, for good measure. I sent each a list of questions about how many FFVs they rent out and why the companies do or do not have FFVs available to renters. A media representative from Hertz was the only one that replied but only to ask what my deadline was. I didn’t receive answers from any of the three car rental companies.

I’m always interested in numbers, so I would have liked to find out how many FFVs each of the companies has on hand. But what I really wanted to know was the answers to these questions: What would it take to convince the company that it should purchase more FFVs? And, if someone like me, a customer, desires a FFV how can they make sure the car they rent is an FFV or how can they give feedback on not being able to rent one?

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Maybe the car rental agencies haven’t heard the news that E85 sales are forecasted to at least double, or, possibly increase by 20-fold, by 2023. To come up with those numbers, researchers evaluated the sales performances of 300 stores that sell E85. We at EPM have written about some pretty amazing success stories for E15 retailers so it makes sense that retailers that sell E85 would be doing well too.

An upcoming report will address the question of consumer perception, researchers said. I suspect that the findings will confirm that more and more drivers recognize E85 as a cost competitive and more environmentally friendly fuel that they want to buy. And if they want to buy E85 they probably want to drive a FFV when they rent a car too.

So next time you rent a vehicle in one of your trips, consider asking for an FFV. And if you can’t get one, let the company know you aren’t happy about that. I know that’s what I plan to do. I suspect that the only way rental companies will make this a priority is if we, the customers, speak up. 

 

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