cathdolla

Hi there -

This is my first time posting, so forgive me if I break any rules unintentionally.

A coworker of mine was traveling on business when he unfortunately needed to be hospitalized. He had rented a car through Hertz and picked it up at the airport on his way out, and now he has no way to return it to them. He is not cleared to drive and will be flown directly from his current location back home. There is no one else in the area who is authorized to drive the rental.

I've tried to reach out to Hertz to coordinate with them to retrieve the vehicle, but the employee has the keys. I've arranged for someone who can hold the keys and meet Hertz where the car is, but the earliest that can happen is a few days from now. Hertz keeps telling me to call Emergency Roadside Assistance, but I am afraid they will immediately retrieve the car without waiting for the keys and then on top of the fee for the retrieval we will have to pay a fee for the missing keys.

I also tried calling the Hertz location where he picked up the rental, but they don't answer their phone.

Does anyone have experience with Hertz having to retrieve a vehicle from you? Did you call Roadside Assistance and what was the process? Are they willing to wait a day or two before retrieving the vehicle?

For context, the Hertz location where the car was rented is 5 hours from where the car is currently parked. The closest Hertz is 2 hours away.

Update: I called Roadside Assistance on the day that I wanted the car to be towed and explained the whole situation. They immediately set up the tow and had the car towed to the closest Hertz location. The tow company called me on their way to the car, so I knew that they were in fact retrieving the car. I also received the final receipt from Hertz, and they only added a $100 charge for returning to a different location. It felt too easy, and I expect that I will receive a follow-up call at some point from Hertz asking for some sort of proof of the medical condition that caused the driver to abandon the vehicle, but for now all is good.

guv1976

Assuming that he is still hospitalized, I would reach out to the hospital's Social Work Department to see if it can come up with a solution. If Hertz is willing to disclose the name of the towing company which will retrieve the vehicle, perhaps that company will be willing to retrieve the keys from the hospital, or at least agree to have the keys overnighted to them from the hospital before going out to pick up the vehicle.

I don't see any harm in contacting Hertz Roadside Assistance now, and discussing the problem with them. I doubt that they are going to attempt to retrieve the vehicle before getting an explicit go-ahead to do so.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

notquiteaff

Especially since you don’t have to disclose the location of the vehicle. Hertz may know where the vehicle is from vehicle telemetry, of course.

Is roadside assistance included in the rental rate, or would the company have to pay Hertz? Perhaps finding a towing company independently and arranging with them to first pick up the key and then the vehicle with key to Hertz would not be more expensive than arranging the tow through Hertz?

Or could another employee travel to the location and drive the vehicle back? The corporate rates I had seemed to include other employees of the company as free additional drivers (don’t think they had to be included on the contract).

Also, welcome to FT. Hope your coworker will recover quickly and fully. Don’t think you are breaking any rules - your type of situation is exactly where Flyertalkers often jump in with excellent suggestions and offers to help.

cathdolla

He was just released but he's still on bedrest until he flies back. I will likely call Roadside Assistance to get an idea of what they can do based on your advice, but initially I was spooked by the promise on their website that they will get to the vehicle in 90 minutes. I definitely don't want them to rush there without preparing the employee ahead of time so that I can make sure the keys will be handed off. I tend to imagine what the worst case scenario is in these situations because as an EA it's my job to make sure situations are handled without any hiccups Thank you for the reassurance!

Yup, my worry was that they would go ahead and locate the vehicle and immediately start the process of retrieval. But it sounds like you and guv1976 don't think they would do that, so maybe I'm just being paranoid.

We don't have any other employees who can get there and drive the vehicle, but I do think that roadside assistance is included with our corporate rate. Even if it isn't, I've been given the go ahead to pay whatever fee is needed for the retrieval itself - I'm just trying to minimize any additional fees / headaches. I'd also like to reassure the employee that this will all be handled so he doesn't feel the need to worry about it.

Thank you! Yes, it seems like it - the responses have been super helpful so far and I appreciate it!

notquiteaff

I would definitely research if roadside assistance and towing over largish distances is included in the rate, or what fees your company may face

It might also help for people here to know what the location the rental originated from is, and what the location two hours away is. Where I am going with this - if both are corporate owned, it might be possible to have the vehicle towed to the closer one. If the vehicle belongs to a franchisee (i.e., the pickup location wasn’t corporate) and the close by location isn’t the same franchisee, perhaps towing there isn’t an option.

Others here will have more knowledge about this, so just throwing this out for others to run with it (or correct it). I wouldn’t assume that Hertz and their roadside assistance is necessarily interested in minimizing your expenses.

DutchessPDX

I would have the keyholder put the keys inside the vehicle and lock the door right after calling roadside assistance Let roadside know the keys are in the vehicle. This can't be the first time this has happened.

cathdolla

That's what my colleagues keep saying - there's no way this is the first time someone has been unable to return the car for medical reasons.

If I were able to have someone put the keys in the car I would, but unfortunately the one person who can bring the keys there won't be able to do so until two days from now. I am going to call Roadside Assistance beforehand anyways just to explain the situation and see what they say.

pinniped

The only thing that worries me is that it's Hertz, and when they don't get a car back on time, they sometimes report it as stolen. There have been lots of cases where renters have been arrested and put in jail - even after they returned the car - because somehow the Hertz system "lost" it.

My first thought would have been to call and get someone added as an authorized driver and take it back to Hertz. Sometimes for business rentals, other employees of the same company can automatically drive the car - it's part of the contract in some cases.

And to be honest, if faced with the prospect of potentially having Hertz think I stole their car and driving it back to them even when not authorized, I might actually be tempted to do the latter. I do not trust Hertz in the slightest.

For any other agency that doesn't have a habit of getting their renters thrown in jail because of their own system problems, I'd totally go the roadside assist route.

m907

The simplest solution seems to be to have it towed now and just mail the keys overnight to the location. It'll cost $20. If you're nervous, you can insure it for a few extra dollars.

guv1976

Is there any evidence that the car is overdue?

Firstboss

In the worst case, Hertz as an owner will order a new key at any official dealership at a price of a few hundred dollars depending on the vehicle brand. This cost will be lower than towing long distance plus late return plus overhead fees.

If they do not have a business process set up to retrieve keys in this situation and outsource everything to the roadside assistance, then the phone support agent has no helpful options to select in their software user interface. Often, our modern digital economy blocks common sense solutions in non-standard cases.

Does your corporate travel insurance cover these unexpected car rental fees due to medical emergency on a business trip?

cathdolla

No, I continued to extend his rental so that it wouldn't be marked as missing at any point.