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I just returned from a trip to Boston. While there I rented a car from a major agency. I've rented cars plenty of times over the years and it is usually a mildly annoying experience: you wait in line for 30 minutes, you get 10 minutes of upselling at the counter, you get FUDed about having "secondary insurance", you have to inspect the car with the representative - if you miss a dent then you're responsible, etc. This is the normal level of annoyance I am used to.
This time, I encountered another annoyance: cashless toll roads and bridges of which there are apparently many on the East Coast of the US. The toll fees are a couple of dollars if you pay cash but very often there is no cash option and you just see a sign telling you you will be billed by mail. Uh oh... you know that is going to hurt. True enough, if you happen to cross one of these cashless tolls you will get billed by the rental agency for $14.95/day of your rental plus the $1.75 actual toll charge. This is a bridge too far and I am looking for alternatives.
With Uber eating into the taxi business, I started wondering about peer-to-peer car rentals. A little duckduckgo-ing turned up a wikipedia article with a couple of companies looking promising, e.g. getaround and hubber. Has anyone used these? Are there hidden fees and annoyances? Dare I ask... what about tolls? ;)
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:07AM
get billed by the rental agency for $14.95/day of your rental plus the $1.75 actual toll charge.
Am I misreading something here? You paid what you agreed to, and they didn't pick up the toll, nor apparently add any padding. Or did i misunderstand?
How were you planning to handle the tolls in some borrowed car scenario?
(You can probably get your own toll transponder, even without owning a car. Lots of the eastern seaboard states use compatible systems. But its annoying as hell to wander into some other state's toll system with no common payment capability. Something smart phones might be able to solve someday.
But for some kind off the grid car share/rent/borrow/membership system, the options are a bit more limited, as some require membership and some sort of insurance that would cover the cost of the car should you wreck it or someone steals it or such. You're asking for the use of a 20-40,000 capital investment.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Informative) by dcollins on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:30AM
I'm pretty sure he's saying that he agreed to pay ($x per day)... but if he drives through a toll, then he gets billed ($x per day) + ($14.95 per day) + (amount of toll).
(Score: 1) by albert on Sunday June 21 2015, @04:02AM
Most of the car rental companies at San Francisco Airport seem to go with the same deal, seemingly due to a contract with a toll payment processing company. The deal was this: any toll during your trip will increase your per-day payment FOR THE WHOLE TRIP by $20 handling fee, even for toll-free days. Woah. There are no cash lanes on the Golden Gate bridge, and I think this applies also to the other bridges that are in the area.
Needless to say, I was mighty displeased about this for a 2-week rental. Since tolls are only charged inbound to San Francisco, I ended up making a giant clockwise loop all the way around the bay.
(Score: 1) by Mike on Monday June 22 2015, @05:06PM
There are no cash lanes on the Golden Gate bridge, and I think this applies also to the other bridges that are in the area.
Just as an FYI, the other bridges in the Bay Area do have cash lines. The Golden Gate is a fairly recent exception.