While most people associate renting a car with a business trip, a family vacation, tourists visiting our great City of New York, there are times when cars are rented to commit a crime. Local New Yorkers may rent a car rather than use their own car or those coming from out of town may chose to rent a car here in New York City to conduct their “business”. Having been in the car rental business in New York City for 30 years, I have experienced individuals or groups of people renting cars to commit crimes ranging from drug dealing; both buying and selling; armed robbery, shop lifting, prostitution and others.

There are times our offices are visited by the New York City Police Department or other law enforcement officers inquiring who had a specific rental vehicle on a specific date. Before we ever release information we always verify the authenticity of the law enforcement officers and review all documentation they bring to our office.

From the perspective of the law enforcement community, the need to physically visit or contact the car rental company for the information on the renter can take a few hours or a few days. It involves the manpower of sending officers or detectives to the rental car office and hope there is someone on duty who can assist the authorities. Otherwise they need to wait and come back at a later date; all the while the alleged suspects have the time to flee.

This week, the City of Boston implemented a new law which requires all car rental companies to provide the Boston Police Department with the names of all car rental customers so the Police have all customer information available to them immediately and do not need to wait to contact the rent a car company.

While the idea sounds interesting, I wonder if New York City or New York State will ever implement such a policy governing New York City rent a car transactions. I wonder what the reactions would be of the New York Civil Liberties Union and other consumer advocates and those looking to preserve privacy.

It certainly will be interesting to see how the new law affects the crime rate and the ability of the Police to solve and apprehend criminals. I guess we just have to wait and see.

I thought our New York car and van rental customers would be interested in this latest development in the world of car and van rentals.

New York City has one of the highest fee structures for parking tickets, if not the highest such rate of all cities in the United States and possibly the world. The least expensive parking tickets in New York City begin at $65.00 and reach as high as $185.00. Many cities and municipalities which surround New York City assess parking fines starting at $15.00. A couple of years ago I had been to the resort town of Lake George, New York. Parking fines were $5.00. Every few blocks there was a drop box attached to one of the light poles where you can drop your parking summons and payment so as not to inconvenience the tourists who make up the economy of the resort/vacation town.

Living in New York City is expensive. Food, rents, gas and most expenses cost more in New York City than they do elsewhere. In recent years the parking violation fines have doubled and even tripled.

However, there was a provision in the system which allowed those incurring most parking violations in New York City to reduce their fine. If you received a parking citation and sent in a response to the New York City Parking Violations Unit that you were not guilty, the City of New York would offer the parking offender a deal; pay a reduced fine and close the case or proceed to a hearing on the merits of the not guilty plea. Should the parking offender be found guilty, they would be required to pay the full fine. Should they be found not guilty they would pay zero.

However, there was the third option, to accept the reduced fine and not proceed to the hearing. In reality, anyone receiving a parking violation in New York City could plead not guilty and get a reduced payment, even if you knew you were guilty. The parking offender benefitted from a lower fine and the City of New York benefitted in processing less hearings as people accepting the offer did not need to appear before a New York City parking judge; either in person or by the mail.

The reduced hearing did not apply to all summonses; those New York City summonses issued for parking in a bus stop, on a sidewalk, in a handicap reserved space or a fire hydrant were exempt from reduced fines.

All these savings however have quietly come to an end December 23 2011. The City of New York has decided to end this program which means that all New York City parking offenders issued parking summonses will be required to pay the full fine to New York City. While the savings were welcome, the base fines were always high. The cost of parking illegally in New York City has just risen by 40% in some cases. Watch the signs and feed the meters. Otherwise, you will be contributing mightily to the budget of New York City.

Earlier today the National Highway Transportation Board issued a recommendation to the Governments of all 50 States which states that States should ban drivers from using any electronic device. Currently, most States prohibit drivers from talking or talking on cell phones or portable electronic devices. The exception is drivers using an ear piece, bluetooth or a hands free device. Talking on a typical cell phone while on speaker phone is prohibited in New York State. Texting or sending or reading of emails is also prohibited.

While most States allow the hands free devices, the NTSB now recommends that even though drivers are not physically using their phones they remain distracted just be the fact they are engaged in a conversation. According to the NTSB, 3,000 people were killed in car accidents attributed to the driver of the car being distracted.  I think we can all agree that no text, email or phone call is worth a human life.

The NTSB statement is a recommendation and not a law or regulation nor is the NTSB looking to write a proposed law for States to adopt. How each State wishes to adhere or adopt the recommendation is up to each State. In my opinion, while it may legal to use a hands free device, we should all use discretion and either ban usage or limit the calls to ones that are absolutely necessary. A self imposed bad should be applied when driving at night, in bad weather, when one is stressed or a bad mood. If one knows a call will make the driver agitated or aggravated it is better not to make the call when you arrive at your destination.

The NTSB is asking companies to prohibit their drivers from using cell phones in an effort to begin implementation of this recommendation even without actual laws passed by the States.

I find it amazing that so many Cities and States look to tax car rental transactions as a means of balancing their budgets or adding to the revenue of the City or State.

Often times Legislatures look at car rentals as a service used by foreign tourists, out of state tourists and business people with expense accounts that need to rent when they arrive in a City and need a car. These three groups are considered captive audiences who have no choice but to rent a car. What’s more, Legislators look at these three groups as non voters. Those from another country or another State do not vote in the State which imposed the car rental tax. The thinking is that local residents do not rent in their own Cities and States so they will be least affected by the imposition of the tax and pay little or no attention to it. In New York State the car rental tax and sales tax combine for a total of 19.875%. That means when you see a quote for a car rental in the State of New York, you the consumer must add another 20% to the cost. That is a hefty add on expense.

I would hope that Legislators in all States and jurisdictions realize that many local residents rent vehicles in their own towns, villages and cities. While places like Las Vegas and Orlando clearly see a very high number of tourists, local people rent cars to go on vacation or as a temporary vehicle when their car is in the shop for repair.Allcar Rent A Car offers a great advantage over most of its competitors in offering the lowest insurance replacement rates. I am proud of the fact that Allcar has always accepted direct billing with insurance companies and offers our customers car rentals for the amount covered by their insurance policies which minimizes our customers need for out of pocket costs. Allcar offers insurance replacement rates starting at $30 a day, which is several dollars a day lower than all our major competitors. Aside from the lower rate, the taxes to be paid by the consumer are also lower as 20% of a lower Allcar rate computes to less taxes than a higher rate elsewhere.