drop charge
 

I know that Dollar allows one-way rentals between certain locations in the NY metro area with no drop fee. Their one-way rentals elsewhere, however, are either not allowed (like Enterprise) or come with hefty, separately itemized, drop fees.

For instance, Dollar allows a NY-LA rental with the usual low base rate, ex $35/day with unlimited miles. This sounds way better than everybody else, who quote $150/day. But Dollar then adds a separate $1,000 drop charge, which is always the same regardless of day and season.

I know that if you take somebody else's car from NY to CA (or anywhere else in the country), the car will stay in CA (or its final destination), and vice versa. For instance, when I visited SFO I saw a minivan from NJ, and cars from MD and PA. In Iowa (believe it or not), there was a minivan from MD, a medium sedan from PA, and most surprisingly, a Chevrolet Aveo sedan from NY! In Greensboro I saw a Toyota Yaris from NJ, of all places. Likewise, I've seen a whole row of Chevrolet Impalas at EWR, several of which had CA plates. For this reason, the drop charge is included in the price, which depends on supply, demand, and estimated mileage. As such, the hidden drop charge can fluctuate daily.

Does Dollar use a corporate fleet that randomly criss-crosses the country, or does each franchise own each individual car, in which case the car would have to be returned to NY from LA? If you go to a Dollar rental lot, will you see the random mix of out-of-state license plates everybody else typically has, or does it look an Enterprise lot with only in-state plates?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Dollar has a special promotion seasonally- NY to FL for $1/day, with no drop charge. If it's a franchise fleet, how can they offer that?

Franchises own their own cars and don't do one-ways. Corporate locations use a national corporate fleet that randomly criss-crosses the country.