Start your engines for the last leg of summer, when folks flee their hot and humid neighborhoods to head for the cooler hills or a breezy beach. And this year, it seems, they’re driven to get away, literally, with many in rented vehicles. But these days it’s tough to even find a rental.
“I took it for granted there would be a car waiting for me,” said South Orange resident Jane Felton.
Like many parents, Felton tried to rent an SUV to pack up campus supplies for her daughter and drive to a midwestern university.
“They had no cars available. That even when they had cars available, there’s often minimal rental periods for 10 or 11 days, although maybe he could do it for eight days. And then he said he’d put me on a wait list and call me if something becomes available,” Felton said.
“You know, kind of a perfect storm there. Growing demand, at a time when supply is being squeezed,” said NJ CAR’s Jim Appleton.
According to Appleton, the pandemic lockdown hit car rental companies hard. After cratering during the COVID shutdown, when rentals dropped 76% according to Kayak, the business has accelerated, spiking this month at 5% over last year. Car sales have rebounded, too.
“We’ve seen literally that V-shaped recovery that people talk about. We’ve seen it in the car business,” said Appleton.
He says people rushing to buy cars will find slim pickings, all because of COVID-19’s impact on the global economy.
“The disruption to the supply chain, and the forced shutdown of manufacturing facilities has meant inventory is in very short supply,” Appleton said.
On the flip side, mass transit’s seen business slide with NJ Transit rail ridership into New York City down 80% from last year, bus service off 67%. It’s driven by fear, analysts say. People now view cars as an extension of their COVID-safe bubble, safer than mass transit.
Rutgers expert James Hughes says 88% of New Jersey residents don’t depend on public transportation.
“Somebody who had comfortably pre-pandemic taken mass transit into Manhattan now needs an automobile,” he said.
Combine that with the recent trend of people fleeing the city to buy suburban houses where they can safely work from home offices, but need a car.
“There’s a lot of reinforcing trends going on that really are pushing toward more automobile transportation,” Hughes said.
Tri-State Transportation’s Janna Chernetz says people are returning to work, but there’s been a shift and it’s not confined to the U.S.
“Public transportation is still a safe form of transportation during COVID, ” Chernetz said. “We did see an uptick in China, in Wuhan, people buying vehicles to not go on public transportation. It’s what makes people feel the safest.”
For now, at least, many folks feel safer in a car. Felton finally found an SUV rental at Newark Airport.
“The price was like $160 a day, instead of $70. I wasn’t interested,” Felton said.
She’ll drive her daughter to school in their small electric vehicle.
