Magazine for the professional car and truck rental industry.
MICHAEL
Michael LaPlaca will be remembered as 'the' auto rental industry's lawyer for his legal counsel to hundreds of car rental fi rms, his legislative advocacy, his written contracts and guides, and his roles as adviser, mentor and friend. BY CHRIS BROWN
● Do I need a limited license to sell a
supplemental liability insurance policy? ● Are dealer loaners covered by the
Graves Amendment? ● Why has there been a recent increase
in negligent entrustment lawsuits? ● Should an international driver's permit
be accepted as evidence of a valid license? ● Does economic loss need to be proven to recover for loss of use of a rental vehicle?
I
f you didn't know the answers to these questions, chances are you knew who had them — Michael LaPlaca. LaPlaca, "the" auto
rental industry's lawyer, died in January. His passing leaves a hole in the industry. It removes a counselor to hundreds of auto rental operators, a trusted authority on auto rental law, a business adviser, an advocate for the industry, a voice of logic and reason and wisdom, a steady hand. LaPlaca's career was almost entirely devoted to the auto rental industry. He began at a time when auto rental essentially constituted busi- ness travel through airports. He helped shepherd the industry as it evolved into leisure travel and insurance replace- ment, then neighbor- hood rentals and new business mod-
els such as car sharing. "When I started in the business, only 5% of drivers had ever rented a car," LaPlaca has said. "Now the percentage may well be reversed."
Early Transitions
LaPlaca was born and raised in the Wash- ington, D.C. area. He landed a rare full-ride scholarship to Georgetown University in 1955, though aſt er graduation he detoured into Army service that took him overseas to Korea. Fresh out of the Army in 1965, LaPlaca was recruit- ed to join a startup car rental company, Val- car, which was going aſt er a new business niche, the value-minded customer in the local mar- ket. Valcar was owned by Hertz, but Frank Olson, in charge of the D.C. area, couldn't re- cruit from within Hertz for antitrust reasons. "I interviewed Michael," Olson recounts. "He was bright, enthusiastic and enjoyable to be with. I said to myself, this guy has talent." LaPlaca joined Valcar's sales force in D.C., and was later transferred to San Francisco. "You al- ways enjoyed being with Michael LaPlaca," Ol- son continues. "He was the type of personality that you felt at ease with. And the customers felt the same way. He was a great asset." Hertz divested Valcar when the compa- ny was taken over by RCA in 1967. Olson was transferred back to Hertz corporate, on the path to becoming Hertz's chairman and CEO for more than 20 years. And LaPlaca's career was ready for a new direction as well. LaPlaca stayed in San Francisco to get his law degree at the University of California/Hastings College of Law. Upon graduation, he rejoined Hertz and became national sales manager for the corporate offi ce in New York. T ere he was part of the team that developed an automat- ed rental system that would later become the
14 ARN • MARCH / APRIL 2012
Hertz #1 Club, which pioneered customer data capture that is omnipresent today. Enjoying his sales job but not the heavy trav- el schedule, LaPlaca decided to put his law de- gree to work. He fi rst joined a large law fi rm in D.C., and then teamed with Sol Edidin, former general counsel for Hertz Corp. and director of CATRALA (Car and Truck Rental and Leasing Association) to open a practice in 1976. Edi- din mentored LaPlaca in franchise law, rental agreement draſt ing and compliance and rental insurance. Edidin died in the mid-1980s, and LaPlaca continued the practice. LaPlaca later gained expertise in motorcycle and recreation- al vehicle rentals.
An Industry Advocate
LaPlaca took on legislative advocacy as he grew the practice. He formed the Car Rental Coalition (CRC) with Bill McPike, a former at- torney for Avis licensees. CRC was organized to fi ght federal legislation that would have for- given renters of all responsibility for damage to rented vehicles.
LaPlaca served as the group's executive di- rector from 1989 to 1993. During this period, bills seeking to eliminate collision damage waiv- ers (CDW) were introduced in three succes- sive sessions of Congress. LaPlaca successful- ly orchestrated a grassroots campaign based on personal letters to Congress written by car rental business owners. Each bill was defeated. Longtime T riſt y licensee Ken Elder remem- bers LaPlaca's advocacy on a tax issue in Vir- ginia, where car rental companies had to pay a Virginia titling tax on every car, plus a large personal property tax to the county. To avoid the tax, RACs were registering and housing cars in other states. LaPlaca helped Virginia CA- TRALA to develop legislation that changed the
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