Average Length of Rental Increases Slightly in Q2

Enterprise Rent-A-Car released its replacement rental data for the second quarter of 2015, which was tracked by Enterprise’s Automated Rental Management System (ARMS).

The national average length of replacement rental (LOR) rose slightly in the second quarter of 2015 to 11 days overall, reversing a downturn seen in the first quarter’s data, according to the report. Compared with the second quarter of 2014, the LOR increased 0.3 days and was up 0.5 days over the five-year average.

The quarterly report, gathered by Enterprise’s ARMS data, tracks the length of time replacement vehicles are rented to collision center customers.

The Northeast region led the nation with the highest LOR at 12.3 days, while the Northwest region had the lowest LOR at 9.4 days, according to the report. The Mountain region saw the largest increase in LOR at 1.2 days, due in part to the recent hail catastrophes in Colorado. Widespread hail events tend to leave auto repair shops inundated with work for several months and bog down the repair process, according to Enterprise.

An increase in accidents due to weather may have played a role in the second quarter LOR increase, but there were likely other contributing influences, according to Frank LaViola, Enterprise’s assistant vice president of collision industry relations.

“While some regions, such as the Midwest, experienced wetter than normal weather conditions, others were below normal and still increased in LOR,” said LaViola. “So, we need to look at other factors that may be driving longer cycle time. Those could include technician shortages and training, the complexity of newer vehicles being repaired and other issues, such as parts delays.”

To learn more about the ARMS Automotive Suite, visit www.armsautosuite.com.