A car rental or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time for a fee. It is an elaborate form of a rental shop, often organized with numerous local branches, and primarily located near airports or busy city areas and often complemented by a website allowing online reservations.
Car rental companies operate by purchasing or leasing a number of fleet vehicles and renting them to their customers for a fee. Rental fleets can be structured in several ways, they can be owned outright, they can be leased, or they can be owned under a guaranteed buyback program arranged directly through a manufacturer or manufacturer's financial arm. At the end of a rental vehicle's useful life, rental companies will often sell them into the used car market to dealers across the country via several methods, including direct-to-dealer and via specialized wholesale auctions companies. Dealers generally will go through an inspection of the vehicles to make sure they comply with the safety standards of that dealership and then sell the car to the public. Many of these are known as program vehicles in the representation by the selling dealer.
Budget Car rentals or car rentals are subject to many conditions which vary from one brand to another. The vehicle must be returned in a good condition and must not exceed a maximum driven distance, otherwise extra fees may be incurred. Additionally, some companies set a minimum age for the vehicle driver, which in some cases is as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower. In all cases a valid, current driver's license is required in order to rent a vehicle. Recent conditions have used the GPS technology to limit maximum speeds or driving to specific regions.
