Rental car strike
On Monday, Uber no longer works
November 9, 2024 – 4:42 p.mReading time: 2 min.
A rental car strike next Monday could cause problems for Uber users in Frankfurt. (Source: IMAGO/Rüdiger Wölk)
More than 2,000 rental cars will go on strike next Monday to draw attention to their difficult financial situation. Uber is partly to blame.
Next Monday, more than 2,000 rental cars that otherwise travel with their chauffeurs for Uber, Bolt or Freenow will remain in the owners’ garages. The reason for this is that the Rhein-Main rental car association with 300 members is going on strike.
The entire fleet should be shut down in order to draw attention to the difficult situation in which Uber and similar providers find themselves, says Sunny Gahre from the Rhein-Main Rental Car Association, according to information from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The rental car companies that handled the trips would receive less than 50 percent of what the customers paid to the agents via their app, says the managing director of the rental car company RJCabride GmbH. If around 40 euros were charged for a trip from Frankfurt city center to the airport, his company would only receive 14 to 18 euros. This doesn’t even get you to the minimum wage, explains Gahra to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The aim of the strike is “fair competitive conditions”.
Uber itself finds the allegations unjustified and points to a partnership with the rental car companies. Uber refers to a study published a few days ago by the German Economic Institute (IW), which analyzed the business figures of rental car partners. According to the figures, Uber’s rental car partners would pursue a profitable business model, Uber quoted IW director Michael Hüther.
The average return on sales is twice as high as the industry average. Uber also points to high profitability through higher utilization. Uber partners have a vehicle utilization rate of more than 50 percent. The dynamic pricing mechanism also ensures that prices are adjusted to the respective demand and that utilization and sales are thereby optimized.
