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In article , (R.K.) wrote:

New York Times
January 13, 2004

Some Rental Cars Are Keeping Tabs on the Drivers
By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT

Byungsoo Son's recent western trip was mostly for pleasure. But
the
car rental bill he was hit with at the end is a cautionary tale
for
the business travelers who make up the bulk of the auto rental
industry's customers.

Mr. Son, who manages a grocery store in Georgetown, Ontario, and
his
wife, Junghyun, picked up a Ford Escort at a Payless Car Rental
outlet
in November in San Francisco - their son, Jaehwa, is an intern for
a
credit card company there - and embarked on a 12-day road trip
with
him.

First, they drove to Las Vegas, 50 miles east of the California
state
line, and from there 200 miles to the Grand Canyon in Arizona,
before
circling back to Palm Springs, Calif. They then traveled west to
the
coast to drive on the scenic state Highway 1 back to Northern
California.

Mr. Son received a shock when he returned the car. The $259.51
bill he
expected had ballooned to $3,405.05 - most of it a result of a
$1-a-mile fee for each of the 2,874 miles driven. It turned out
that
by crossing the state line, he had violated his contract with
Payless.


"If we had known we couldn't drive the car outside California, we
wouldn't have rented it," Mr. Son said.

I guess this Mr. Son doesn't travel much. Disallowing a rental car
to cross state lines is a common practice with rental agents. I have
rented cars many times and the rental agent has always informed me
about this limitation verbally. What's new is that the rental agency
is now tracking their cars remotely, but that is their right. Mr.
Son should have asked about any limitations when he arranged for
the rental car.

For the record, I'm a frequent renter in the Eastern U.S. and have
never encountered this "common practice." Is it primarily a creature
(a) of the West, where there are generally greater distances between
states, and (b) of smaller rental companies?