A New California Law Could Make Your Next Car Rental More Expensive – The New York Times


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For more than 30 years, California had prohibited rental car companies from charging for additional drivers. Not anymore.
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Californians renting cars may want to watch out for new charges on their bill now that a longstanding provision banning fees for additional drivers has quietly been removed.
Those fees — the biggest rental companies charge between $13 and $15 per day for each additional driver — had been prohibited in California for more than 30 years. In fact, California was the only state to ban such fees as of 2021, according to the bill’s analysis.
The updated law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, still prohibits car rental agencies from charging for additional drivers in some instances, such as if the driver is the renter’s spouse, child, sibling, parent or grandparent, or if the driver is a co-worker or employer.
But consumer protection groups say fees that are not included in the initially advertised price can add significantly to the cost of services. (Many of the companies’ websites still state that there are no additional driver fees in California.)
“It’s just another way to get additional money without having it show up in the rack rate or the base rate on the car,” Robert Herrell, the executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, told me.
“We just find this fee creep to be misleading for consumers,” he said, adding that such fees “disproportionately impact lower-income renters.”
The bill, A.B. 901, was introduced by Assemblywoman Lisa Calderon, a Democrat representing parts of the Gateway Cities of southeastern Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Valley. She said that car rental companies were struggling because of the “devastating toll” of the coronavirus pandemic and “numerous price caps and restrictions that are burdensome.”
The bill was introduced at the behest of the car rental giants Avis, Enterprise and Hertz, which also own Alamo, Budget, Dollar, National and Thrifty.
The consumer federation lobbied against initial versions of the bill but removed its objection, Herrell said, as a show of good faith after provisions like the ban on fees for certain additional drivers were added.
“The bill had been flying through the process” before the federation and others opposed it, he said. “Even when we tried to engage the author’s office early on, it just became painfully obvious that it was the rental car industry driving the train here.”
As the pandemic caused travel to crater in early 2020, the rental car industry sold off vehicles to make quick cash; Hertz, which was bloated with debt, filed for bankruptcy protection.
But when travel bounced back a year later, prices for rental cars shot up as the agencies were unable to buy enough new vehicles to build back their depleted fleets. Hertz made $600 million in profit in the three months ending in September 2021, and Avis Budget Group made nearly $675 million in profit in that period, a record.
A spokesman for the American Car Rental Association, a lobbying group, said the fees covered the cost of insuring the additional drivers. “The assumption is that if you have different drivers driving the vehicle there’s going to be different risk than if there’s one driver,” Greg Scott, the spokesman, told me.
Sharon Faulkner, the executive director of the association, told Auto Rental News, “This is a great example of what can be accomplished when A.C.R.A. members band together to seek a common legislative goal.”
The updated law also allows companies to double the fee if they find that the car has been driven by an unauthorized driver, and it raises the cap on damage waivers to $25 a day for most smaller cars, up from $11 to $17 depending on the car’s model. That cap will now rise with inflation.
Hertz referred questions to the car rental association, and Calderon declined to comment beyond her statements during the bill’s passage. Avis declined to comment.
Here are the typical fees for each additional driver for the biggest car rental agencies and any exclusions they make in addition to the California-mandated exemptions for spouses, family and co-workers.
Avis and Budget: $13 per day, up to $65.
Enterprise, National and Alamo: $15 a day.
Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty: $13.50 per day, up to $189.
Hertz’s website says it exempts unmarried partners who permanently reside together at the same address and who are members of its loyalty program, and Avis’s website says it exempts life partners. But representatives at locations for those companies said that only spouses could be added as additional drivers for free. Enterprise said it verified spouses and domestic partners by matching the addresses on the driver’s licenses.
The takeaway? Be sure to review all the paperwork you sign, and be prepared to push back on any unwarranted charges.
William P. Davis is an assistant editor on The New York Times business desk, based in Los Angeles.
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Truck caravan: A trucker demonstration that left California for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday appears to be tightly aligned with far-right organizations and activists.
Drought: Federal officials announced on Wednesday that they would not deliver water to farmers in the Central Valley, a major blow to the agricultural economy, The Associated Press reports.
QAnon: A survey released on Thursday found that 16 percent of Americans believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory that thrived during the Trump administration, including that Satanist pedophiles control the government.
The doctor behind Gov. Ron DeSantis: Florida’s new surgeon general is a former U.C.L.A. researcher who has vowed to “completely reject fear” in managing the pandemic.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
L.A. mask mandate: Starting Friday, people in Los Angeles County who can show proof of vaccination will no longer have to wear masks at indoor public places.
Abrupt resignation: San Diego’s Housing Commission chief unexpectedly resigned on Tuesday after more than a decade leading the agency, Voice of San Diego reports.
Police lawsuit: A Dodgers fan alleged in a lawsuit this week that he suffered permanent eye damage when a Los Angeles police officer fired a projectile at him during an unruly World Series celebration in 2020, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Coronavirus: Rancho Santa Fe School District in San Diego County has decided to defy state law and make wearing masks at schools optional, NBC 7 San Diego reports.
U.C.L.A. threats: A former university lecturer pleaded not guilty to charges of making violent threats against the school, The Associated Press reports.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Weather warning: Below-freezing temperatures are expected in the San Joaquin Valley and other parts of the Central Valley through Saturday.
Cancer concerns: Veterans of Fort Ord, a former U.S. Army post on Monterey Bay that is considered one of the most polluted places in the nation, have a 35 percent higher rate of multiple myeloma diagnosis than the general U.S. population, The Associated Press reports.
Shooting: Sheriff’s deputies shot a person Wednesday in Lompoc during an incident that locked down a nearby high school, The Associated Press reports.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Weather warning: Below-freezing temperatures are expected in the Bay Area and surrounding regions through Saturday.
Ghost guns: A “sophisticated ghost gun factory” was found inside a San Jose home where residents have been accused of churning out high-powered, custom-ordered guns, NBC Bay Area reports.
Plus, Santa Clara County is considering an ordinance that would ban the possession of these so-called ghost guns, The Bay Area News Group reports.
The Tenderloin: The Washington Post dove deep on San Francisco’s Tenderloin, a neighborhood that “helps define the sharpest edge of this rich, troubled city at the epicenter of Blue America.”
San Francisco police: Following a slew of complaints, the San Francisco Police Department has stopped using DNA from sexual assault survivors to investigate unrelated crimes, The Associated Press reports.

Apple ombré pie.
Today’s tip comes from Mary Anne Salsich:
“While I appreciate the natural beauty in California, I like the indoor beauty also. One of my favorites is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which has an overwhelming art collection from so many different styles of art. I could spend a whole day or an hour every day just taking in not only beauty but amusing pieces of modern life. Give it a try, even though it has an admission fee.”
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
“Snowfall,” an entirely under-the-radar drama about a South Los Angeles family’s cocaine empire.
Today we have not one but two stories of pets finding their way home after years away.
The first: A cat that went missing in Riverside County seven years ago was found and reunited last week with its family, which has since moved to Tennessee. “We never thought we would ever see her again,” the owner said.
Also this month, a dog that had been reported missing in the Bay Area 12 years ago was rescued 60 miles from where it had originally disappeared. It, too, was returned to its owner. “I’m still in shock,” the owner told KTLA.
Thanks for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Spanish for “fire” (5 letters).
Soumya Karlamangla, Briana Scalia, Mariel Wamsley and Geordon Wollner contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.
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