Hertz United Arab Emirates Scraps Unlimited Mileage

Hertz United Arab Emirates has scrapped their unlimited mileage scheme after a surge of customers started using Hertz vehicles to travel between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. As a result, Hertz has now introduced a 4,000kms cap on mileage per month from the start of September 2010.

The mileage limit applies only to customers who rent cars by the month, not by the day, and has since been increased to 5,000kms since it was first introduced. Hertz car rental claims the larger mileage allowance means that 98 percent of their customers will not face additional charges due to the scheme.

Hertz United Arab Emirates has spent months studying their customers’ driving habits before imposing the new mileage limits. General manager Nigel Johnson said that strategy was designed to avoid passing on price increases to those who are not over using the cars.

Mr Johnson claimed that one customer was driving 16,000kms a month, which seemed to suggest the car was being driven for 24 hours a day. As a comparison, Dubai is only 13,000kms from San Francisco in the US.

Mr Johnson added that such heavy usage was increasing the company’s maintenance costs so the mileage cap was introduced. Johnson believes more Dubai residents are travelling to Abu Dhabi for work.

The new of Hertz introducing a mileage cap has also spark interest in the other leading Car Rental Companies such as Europcar, who look as though they will be introducing a similar scheme.