Pascagoula Redux

Can someone explain the economics of the car-rental industry to me?

I flew back to Pascagoula this morning, despite the fact that Delta cancelled my flight to Mobile. Since Pascagoula is located halfway between Mobile, Alabama and Biloxi, Mississippi, I took a slightly later (20 minutes) flight to Biloxi instead.

The catch was that I had reserved a rental car to be picked up that morning in Mobile. I called Hertz and arranged to rent a car from Biloxi, with return to Mobile. However, the cost for a one-way rental was almost $30/day more than the original round-trip rental out of Mobile for each of the five days I was to be renting.

Since the company was picking it up anyway, why did I care? Well, first of all, I did have a project budget to abide by. Also, I consider it bad client service to run up expenses that could otherwise be avoided.

So I called Hertz back and told them I would pick up the car in Biloxi in the morning, and then return it to Mobile that evening. After I returned it, I wanted another car from Mobile to rent for the next four days, which I would then return when I flew out on Friday.

That seemed to be a reasonable compromise to me. I pay the higher rate for only one day, due to the circumstances of the cancelled flight which were quite beyond my control, but the next four days were back at the normal rate. So I picked up the car, a Nissan Altima with Arizona tags, and drove from Biloxi to Pascagoula.

Well, here's where the mystery began. When I got to Mobile this evening, first I wound up arguing with the counter jockey over the price of gasoline. Specifically, she wanted to charge me $20 for refueling, even though I used less than an eighth of a tank of gas. We finally got over that impasse by compromising on the base rental rate, with the provision that the actual refueling cost will be added later.

Whatever.

So, the car picked up in Biloxi was finally turned in. Now was the time to rent a new car out of Mobile for return to Mobile. We filled in the paperwork and forms and when she handed me the keys, guess what?

It was the same car. Parked right where I left it. Still with 7/8 of a tank of gas.

Now, why does it cost me $69.99 a day to rent the car out of Biloxi with return to Mobile, when the exact same car only costs me $40/day ten minutes later? What did Mobile do with the car that made it economically unfeasible to rent it to me at $40/day when I picked it up in Biloxi, but made that rate reasonable when all that happened was that I parked it in the return lot for 10 minutes?

And who pays for that eighth of a tank of gas?

So, I'll be driving around Pascagoula this week with Arizona tags, wondering about the economics of car-fleet management.