Magazine for the professional car and truck rental industry.
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dures are, do it the same way, every time. If you do background checks, for example, don't only run licenses for renters that seem like they might have a checkered background. "I have my employees look at every person the same way," says Kristopher Tucci, owner of a T riſt y & Dollar franchise in Syracuse, N.Y. Tucci performs a driver's license check for ev- ery renter — except for corporate accounts — from states that have this information avail- able. "We get middle-aged drivers to senior citizens that have issues with their driving re-
cords," he says. "Age is not a factor." 7. Document everything. If you refuse to rent to a customer, for whatever the reason, let your associate take a few minutes imme- diately aſt er the incident to record what hap- pened during the transaction and each rea- son as to why you ended up refusing to rent
to the customer. 8. If you refuse to rent to a customer be- cause they don't meet your age requirements, help the customer fi nd the nearest rental car company that will rent to them. T e bottom line is to go with your gut. Tuc- ci says that he has no problem refusing to rent to someone who is clearly an at-risk driver as according to their driving record. "I'm not in the business to turn people down — I'm not going to generate revenue that way," he says. "But at the same time, I have to protect my in- vestment and my employees who need a job, and I'm not going to put that at risk for a one- or two-day rental." Running driver checks isn't cheap, though. Tucci says he spends $2,000- $3,000 per month to run licenses. Sharon Faulkner, executive director of the American Car Rental Association, remem- bers in her days as an operator an incident in which she wished she had listened to her intuition. Faulkner rented to an older man who seemed to have diffi culty understand- ing directions at the counter. And while she spent extra time with going over the vehicle, once she handed him the keys he made a leſt turn into traffi c and was T-boned — right out of the rental lot.
"I really regret that I didn't listen to myself and say 'he seems distracted' and really isn't responding well to the questions I ask him. I should've turned him away," she says. "So I learned a lesson that sometimes you have to bite the bullet and be embarrassed and risk having someone hate you, yell at you and scream at you, because — of course — you've hurt their sensibilities."
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MARCH / APRIL 2012 • ARN 23
