2

Whenever I drop off a rental car, the front desk asks me to state the latest mileage on the car. This would make sense if I rented a car with limited mileage but almost every car rented out by major rental companies has unlimited mileage, thus the final price you pay always remains the same.

So what's the reason for asking this question even if they see you've had unlimited mileage? Is it so that rental company employees don't take the car for a drive after you drop off the keys?

Improve this question
6
  • 1
    They'd also want to keep track of the mileage to know when maintenance is due, and to forecast how long they will be able to keep the car in service.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Mar 10, 2019 at 16:36
  • @NateEldredge I've always assumed rental company employees check the car after you're done and could thus record this information by themselves.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Mar 10, 2019 at 16:40
  • Yeah, but having it immediately might help streamline their operations ("skip standard check on this car and send it straight to the service bay for an oil change").
    – Nate Eldredge
    Mar 10, 2019 at 16:45
  • 3
    Another point: some rental agencies have a policy that if you have driven the car fewer than XX miles, they demand to see a fuel receipt. (Otherwise you might be able to get away with not refueling the car, since the gauge may still be pointing roughly to "full"). So depending on the mileage you tell them, there might be a followup request for a receipt.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Mar 10, 2019 at 16:48
  • UK's Nationwide car hire terms & conditions has a "fair use" clause for cars rented with "unlimited mileage". It is similar with my internet service provider.
    – Weather Vane
    Mar 10, 2019 at 23:37

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
8

There is no single answer for this question, as there are probably dozens of reasons that they record the mileage after every rental. There are the obvious ones :

  • The mileage is recorded on the receipt given at the end of the rental, including details of the distance the car was driven.
  • As you've said, some rentals are charged per-mile so they need to know the mileage. Having the staff only collect this information if it's needed adds an extra complexity - plus they will generally use the end mileage from one rental as the start mileage for the next.

Then there are some others :

  • Having a good record of the mileage helps them manage their fleet, including knowing when vehicles will need to be taken out of service for regular maintenance, or when they will be removed from the fleet due to age.
  • Even for rentals that are not charged based on mileage, most providers will track renters who drive "excessive" miles and may refuse to rent to them in future (especially if they believe the vehicle might be being used for things disallowed by the rental contract such as certain commercial uses)
  • If the vehicle is not returned full of fuel, the price for fuel is frequently based on the distance traveled. eg, one of my recent rental agreements states that I will be charged for fuel at a rate of "$0.370 per mile" if I do not refill the car.
  • For short rentals (often below 75 miles in the US), many rental companies will ask to see a receipt for fuel to confirm that you have re-filled the car. Obviously in order to do this they need to know the mileage. (This is done as the fuel gauge may still show full for such short rentals, even if it was not refilled)

There are likely many more reasons, but it's fairly clear that there is sufficient reason for them to track these details - and in particular for them to ask you to provide them so that they can minimize the effort required by the staff. If you do not provide the details then the staff will obtain them - but this will generally require them to go to the vehicle to do so. At major return locations like airports this will be a standard part of their workflow, but at small locations it's simply easier to ask the renter to provide the details. In most cases they will check these details at a later stage (eg, when cleaning or re-renting the vehicle) so if you have provided incorrect information it will still be corrected.

Improve this answer
1

Strangely, I have rented cars in at least 100 times in over 20 countries and was only asked to do that once. So, it could be dependent on where the rental happens.

  • Surely if they charge per mile, they would want to record the mileage themselves. If they have customers do it, then that might be used to immediately generate the total but they probably check later and charge for the balance.
  • For the unlimited mileage case, it could be used to estimate fuel costs when they either cover for gaz or don't and the car is returned with less.
  • Most likely they need to known approximate mileage to ensure the car follows scheduled maintenance.
  • Depending on local laws they may have to use mileage to record depreciation for tax purposes. In this case, it would be unnecessary to get mileage at every trip but since they don't necessarily know which will be the car's last trip, it gives them the date needed anyway.
  • Lastly, the car rental company could be a franchise renting cars from another company who is charging them for mileage.

Most of these are speculation on my part as I do not operate a car rental agency but all these seem possible.

Improve this answer
1
  • The fact that they don't check it but ask you to record it definitely suggests it's not important for billing or other business-critical purposes, but they may find it useful to keep a general record of mileage. In the UK you are asked for mileage by the government on various occasions (paying annual vehicle excise duty, and it's probably recorded with the annual roadworthiness test) all of which helps detect fraud such as adjusting odometers. It might even help avoid the unlikely situation where you swap the plates and return an entirely different car.
    – Stuart F
    Feb 23, 2023 at 11:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .