Taylor Ragers and her partner Will Perry were looking forward to their honeymoon in Newfoundland this summer before realizing they couldn’t move around the country.
The couple, who live in Port Hope, Ont., Tried to book a car back in February for a trip they planned to take in late June, but were unlucky.
“I probably called five or six places and then everything online I could find, and they [all had] nothing available, “Ragers said.
The lack of car rentals means that Raggers will not be able to explore Perry’s home province and meet family members who live there. Instead, the couple will travel with their own vehicle to a closer destination: Nova Scotia.
“Will really wanted to show me where his family came from. And I really wanted to see Newfoundland. That’s big on my list, “she said.
Taylor Ragers, right, and her partner Will Perry, left, shown with their daughter Delaila Perry, were planning to travel to Newfoundland in June for their honeymoon, but could not find a rental car in the countryside. So they decided to drive their own vehicle to Nova Scotia. (Hope Dawn Photography)
The story repeats itself when the “carpocalypse” of last summer returns. As travel increases and more Canadians plan to leave this summer as the pandemic weakens, car rental companies are trying to provide more vehicles, said Craig Hirota, vice president of government relations and services for members of the Associated Canadian Operators for cars for rent.
“Our best estimates show that we are probably still 15 to 20 percent lower than before the pandemic,” Hirota said.
Where’s my chip?
Earlier this month, Statistics Canada published the first in a series of reports on the car rental industry, the first focusing on British Columbia.
The report found that the size of car rental parks in the province fell by more than 30 percent in 2020. And while fleets began to recover in 2021, they did not return anywhere near pre-pandemic levels as companies struggled to find vehicles.
The main contributor to the shortage of rental cars is the slow pace of production of new vehicles. Carmakers have lagged behind in production as they continue to face a shortage of semiconductor chips, a part needed for digital technology.
“This was exacerbated by the fact that our industry had to reduce our fleets … when demand fell in March 2020,” Hirota said at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Montreal-based car rental company AutoPlateau is facing just that challenge. Gabriel Raymond, who works for the company owned by his family, said he had to cut his fleet when the pandemic struck. Now, as he tries to expand, Raymond said it’s hard to find cars.
“Car manufacturers are running out of car chips. So car dealers are running out of cars. So car rental companies can’t upgrade their fleet,” he said.
Gabriel Raymond, on the right, shown with his grandfather, Rodrigo Derosier, owner of AutoPlateau, says the car rental company is helping customers struggling to find rental cars elsewhere. (CBC)
But Raymond said the company has managed to overcome the shortage by keeping vehicles around for longer, choosing to fix them instead of replacing them.
Although there is no marketing budget, he said AutoPlateau has attracted customers who are unlucky enough to rent a car elsewhere.
“It is [stressful] because we have a lot of demand coming from everywhere that we wouldn’t have otherwise, because we’re a small company, “Raymond said, adding that the company relies on word of mouth to attract customers.
The lack of rent has significantly increased the cost of renting a vehicle. According to Canadian statistics, car rental prices rose by 30% in 2021, while the overall inflation rate was 3.4%.
Hirota said the higher cost of renting a car was partly due to demand outpacing supply and inflation raising the cost of cars and repairs.
Travel planning this summer
As summer approaches and most restrictions on COVID-19 are lifted across the country, tourism is expected to increase again. The World Trade and Tourism Council predicts that Canada’s contribution to GDP in Canada’s travel and tourism sector could recover to $ 157 billion (Cdn) in 2023, just 0.8% below pre-pandemic levels.
This means that more passengers, such as Taylor Ragers, will be looking to rent a car.
Raymond advises travelers hoping to rent a car this summer to make plans as soon as possible and beware of companies that book more.
“Rewriting, especially in [a] The period of high demand means that they will put more customers on the same car, “he said.
Some passengers are also turning to a less conventional transport option: car sharing.
Like Airbnb, car-sharing services allow people to rent out their vehicles to others. The American car-sharing company Turo says its services help customers secure vehicles amid a shortage of rents.
“What we are seeing is that our hosts in Turo are intervening to fill the gap,” said Cedric Mathieu, vice president and head of Canada at Turo.
Mathieu said the car-sharing model is more flexible than the fleet model, which faces challenges when it comes to increasing or decreasing the number of vehicles offered for rent.
Cedric Mathieu is Canada’s vice president and head of Turo, a US-based car-sharing company. Turo currently has more than 50,000 vehicles in more than 350 cities in Canada. (CBC)
“As demand begins to grow, we are able to acquire and persuade more hosts to join,” he said.
Turo currently has more than 50,000 vehicles in more than 350 cities across the country. Most recently, the company expanded to Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
As for when the car rental industry can be expected to recover, Hirota of the Associated Canadian Car Hire Operators said it was difficult to predict given how quickly things could change. But as carmakers continue to increase production, he said the challenges will continue over the next few years.
“I think it will remain a challenge to drive vehicles next year and probably next year after that,” he said.
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