Finding a safe hired car abroad can have “worse odds than Russian roulette”, Britons preparing for their summer holidays were warned yesterday. They could find themselves driving away with a vehicle with dodgy tyres, sloppy servicing, faulty headlights or missing indicators, according to a survey carried out for Holiday Which? magazine Of 57 cars inspected in Corfu and Spain last autumn, 17 were condemned as dangerous. The inspectors estimated that the chances of hiring a car that a customer would be happy with were less than 50-50.
ASCRATCH on the paintwork of your hire car this summer could cost you as much as pounds 1,000 if you havent read the small print. Thats because the insurance you buy as part of your package covers you for very little when you drive abroad. And most hire firms dont flag this up when you book. Its only when you collect your car that you could find an additional charge that can cost up to pounds 140 for a fortnight. Its called the Super CDW (Super Collision Damage Waiver) which covers your insurance excess if you have an accident.
As this issue goes to press, the railroad industry will have had almost six months to digest the impact of the ICCs car-hire deprescription rules. Assuming you start counting from the date these rules were first promulgated in 1993, railroads have had sufficient time to react, and we should be seeing the first faint stirrings of how things will be in the future. Our industry sources tell us that while there have been some dramatic overtures by some of the railroads that were deprescriptions greatest proponents, there is a lot that hasnt yet occurred but which will likely shake out in the near future. Like the weekend partygoer who overdid it on Sunday evening and has to face Monday morning eventually, the railroad industry has come to grips with the reality of car-hire deprescription. The attitude seems to be, “Its here and even though we did (or did not) support it, we now have to get on with business in a new environment.” And getting on with business has been what most railroads have been actively involved with since the first of the year. For instance, as of this writing, about 47,000 railcars have been deprescribed and converted into market rate cars by their owners. Generally speaking, these cars have either been voluntarily deprescribed ones that, due to their age, would otherwise have continued to earn a low stated per diem under the old rules (in the face of a shortage of the car type that would allow a higher market rate - about 21,000 cars total), or they have been cars that have been rebuilt and have become market rate cars as a result.
