Month: July 2024

Australian Car Rental Ombudsman?

Fergus YoungLeave a comment

Personal opinion only as an ordinary consumer and occasional traveller.

I don’t believe there is a car rental ombudsman as such in Australia. There is the Australian Car Rental Conciliation Service run by AFIA (Australian Finance Industry association) which may be an option to take before lodging the issue with xCAT in your state or territory and prior to taking it to court.

AFIA I understand is an industry membership body and the Australian Car Rental Conciliation Service I understand assesses things according to their own “code of conduct” which may or may not necessarily align with Australian Consumer Law in all areas.

Read the ACCC PDF in relation to “Fair Trading in the car rental sector” to understand the rights and remedies available to car hirers under Australian Consumer Law.

It is also important to note car rental hire agreements do not override Australian Consumer Law provisions.

As an aside and to be honest, the car rental industry in Australia I feel in my opinion overall has not been overly upfront with some of their conduct. Some of these less than honest business tactics I feel are more pronounced with some of the independent franchises for some reason.

It is also important to understand that Car rental agents as friendly and helpful as they may appear are not your friends. Many of them are trained up as salespeople (coerced by management along with being offered monthly bonus incentives) to upsell extras to hirers and again the upselling aspect appears to be more pronounced with certain outlets run by independent franchises. It is important to carefully check the hire agreements to ensure they haven’t snuck on any unwanted adds ons.

Car rental horror stories examples (with a happy end for the car hirer concerned)…

  • Post on Whirlpool – A case of a hirer involved with an at fault traffic accident where the car rental company tried to wiggle out of their responsibilities.

I’ve even had my own spat (though a lot more benign than the two examples above) with a large Dandenong based independent car rental franchisee (formerly Thrifty, now Sixt) whom I caught sticking on charges that were clearly outside of the written hire agreement and who I also caught writing their own 5 star testimonials.

Some of the stories regarding SIXT Australia I feel are pretty disappointing considering the network crows about being a division of the NRMA Motoring and Services group (I have my own thoughts about the NRMA brand and believe they’re now a far cry from their hay days having simply turned into another for profit focussed corporate these days, but that is for another post)

The Issue is that quite a few companies “try things on” in order to turn a profit (and hope people don’t challenge it or take it further) and rental car companies in Australia are no exception.

Many car rental companies I feel try to cut their headline pricing in order to get customers through the door and then attempt to turn a profit through upselling extra and at times with other less than upfront antics (suspicious damage claims). I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that quite a few car rental places turn most of their profit through damage repair fees, selling extra “peace of mind” add ons and other ancillary revenues as opposed to the actual hiring out of a vehicle.

Australian Car Rental Ombudsman?

Enquiry sent to KiwiRail regarding regular Auckland wide rail network shutdowns

Fergus Young, , , Leave a comment

Curious about the ongoing rail network shut down in Auckland (and admittedly, tired of the circuitous and slow Rail bus replacement services), ended up sending an Email to KiwiRail for more information including a possible timeline as to when we might see a conclusion to the Auckland wide Rail network shut downs that occur regularly during the weekends.

This is their response… (Published with KiwiRail’s permission)

Mōrena Fergus,

Thank you for contacting us.

Closures of rail lines are necessary to integrate and test City Rail Link systems, deliver a huge scale of other upgrade work to prepare for CRL and to deliver a backlog of overdue renewals and maintenance. The overdue work is the result of funding not keeping up with wear and tear from increasing rail traffic and a key factor in the requirement for regular lines closures. We know this is frustrating for passengers and neighbours to the rail network.

Auckland’s mixed network running both freight and passenger trains was originally not built for the kind of passenger frequency we’ve seen in recent years which will intensify after CRL opens. So it doesn’t yet operate like modern metro networks in other countries, which allow trains to run in some areas while other parts of the rail line are closed for upgrades or maintenance.

We are carrying out work which would normally take a decade but is being delivered in three to four years. This includes major rebuilds of the rail network foundations across the network (the Rail Network Rebuild), upgrades like the new third main line and electrification to Pukekohe, as well as new track infrastructure to provide more flexibility for train operations.

All of the upgrades, maintenance and renewals catch up work aims to lift the network to a modern metro standard running train services that are reliable and at a higher frequency carrying more passengers following the CRL opening. These line closures to upgrade the network will also enable maintenance to shift from the current reactive approach to proactive, resulting in fewer disruptions, more reliable services and fewer full network shutdowns in future.

Thanks,

In a nutshell. Rail network was never built to handle both freight and the volume of passenger services we see now and expect to see upon opening of the CRL. Historical lack of investment has been blamed. Lack of redundancy in the system (which I believe the 3rd Main line is aiming to alleviate).

That said, like many of our infrastructure projects in this country (road, rail and otherwise), still reckon there are places we could (drastically) improve on delivery (Both speed and quality wise). Whether the entire network needs to be shutdown as regularly as it has, I believe is still debatable.

Enquiry sent to KiwiRail regarding regular Auckland wide rail network shutdowns