I don’t know about you, but I’ve been following the issue of travel since we’ve been under the threat of the COVID-19 contagion. There’s been much media coverage of the dangers in air travel because of the close proximity of passengers, and certainly the airlines have been terribly affected.
I keep seeing headlines about the lack of passengers at local airports, and the business pages are filled with reports of the financial failures of airlines across the world. It isn’t just in the United States. People are staying home for a variety of reasons, and the fear of illness is certainly the major one.
But here’s an aspect of the travel issue media seemingly have ignored, but it’s one I’ve wondered about – and that’s the issue of rental cars.
Over the last years I have had a regular routine of some domestic travel for family obligations. It involves a shuttle to the airport, a plane ticket and a rental car at my destination. Needless to say, with the recent health concerns, I have not traveled.
But, now that it’s becoming clear that it may soon be safer to travel by air, I suddenly realized that no one has reported anything – at least that I have seen – about the health safety of renting a car.
Think about it. You get a key to a vehicle you’ve never seen before. You put your suitcases with your belongings in it and you get in, all set to drive to your destination. Most of us have been concerned that that the car looks clean, but now, with the VIRUS, we are concerned about the surfaces inside the vehicle. Who was in there before? What did they touch? Did they cough or sneeze? Did they have COVID-19? Did anyone decontaminate the vehicle?
At this point, I have no idea because I’m not traveling, but I admit, I have been wondering – and when I travel again, it will be a major concern for me.
Apparently, other people have had the same concerns. The lack of air passengers has had a major effect on car rental companies. Their business is down, and like other retailers, it has an effect on the corporate finances.
Not only have we seen the bankruptcy filings of such major firms as J. Crew, Nieman Marcus and JC Penney, among many others, now it’s Hertz. The car rental company, which also runs the Dollar and Thrifty car rental firms, has seen its business drop off dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic. People aren’t traveling and thus have no need for a rental car.
Hertz, which is the second-largest car rental firm, has seen its share value drop nearly 80% this year. The lack of business has also resulted in the firm laying off thousands of their employees and a shuffling of top executives. It’s been reported that Hertz has $19 billion in debt. Clearly, it’s a company in deep financial trouble.
But in addition to the financial woes, it also faces the clear problem of how to deal the sanitizing the cars when rentals begin again. Just how will they do that? It’s the same problem we face when we get into a taxi or sit in a bus or ride in a subway. With the dangers of COVID-19, do we even want to do those things now? I admit, I think twice about it.
New York City is facing that issue with the subway, attempting to sanitize cars daily, but it is a major task, time-consuming and expensive. How effective is it? Who knows?
It is a dilemma police and emergency vehicles – ambulances, etc. – now face daily. When they transport patients, the vehicle has been exposed to the virus and must be decontaminated before it is used again for other people.
I can understand the demands on them, and there are guidelines from the CDC for such decontamination. But I’m not sure I would be confident that rental car companies would be as diligent as they should be when dealing with such decontamination. Sorry, but I’m a skeptic at heart, and it would be too easy to cut corners.
Will I ever rent a car again and feel completely safe? Probably not, I’m sorry to say. At the very least, I would use anti-virus spray before I would get in. It’s interesting, I have never before thought about “health issues” with a rental car. Now, that would be my main concern.
Thank you, COVID-19 – you’ve made out lives even more insane and unsafe.
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