Costs and staffing pressure
Hertz said Q3 2026 direct operating expense per day increased 6%, with collision and maintenance among the drivers, and that it is working on repair costs and labor productivity.1
Avis Budget Group said Q3 2026 per-unit fleet costs were $316 a month excluding exchange-rate effects, up 4% from a year earlier but within its expectations. CEO Brian Choi pointed to fleet management and field operations as the path to better transaction economics.2
Enterprise Mobility said that in fiscal 2025 more than 20,000 team members were promoted or took on new roles, and that the company earned a 2025 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award for the third consecutive year.3
Zipcar’s UK shutdown, confirmed in January 2026, closed a car-sharing operation that The Independent reported had about 650,000 UK drivers and 71 UK employees at the end of 2024.4
What this means at the counterWhen DOE is under the microscope, overtime, extra lot staff, and “we’ll just eat that damage” all get harder. When utilization records are being set with a smaller fleet, every no-show and every late clean hurts the next customer in line.
Tariffs, fuel, EVs, and tech
Cox Automotive’s Jeremy Robb wrote in Auto Rental News that from April through June 2025, wholesale values increased sharply as tariffs raised wholesale prices and pushed new-vehicle prices higher, with year-over-year gains peaking at 6.3% in June.5
Hertz completed a 30,000-vehicle EV fleet reduction announced in 2023; that work was marked complete in its Feb. 13, 2025 fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results.6 The company later said EVs still have a role where demand and infrastructure fit, especially rideshare.
In October 2025 Enterprise said it was on track to transition to more than 800,000 connected vehicles by the end of that calendar year, and that Enterprise Fleet Management had over 200,000 customer vehicles connected through a third-party telematics provider.3
Avis Budget Group’s brand page says the company has one of the largest fleets of connected vehicles in the industry.7
What this means at the counterConnected cars can mean keyless unlocks, remote status, and better theft recovery — and also more “the app won’t unlock” conversations. EV questions never fully left: range, charging, and whether the unit even exists in your local fleet after the big sell-downs.