Car rentals soaring
23/5/2003 15:29
Fear of the possible spread of SARS on public transit has sent car rental
business soaring, statistics of the Yotech Auto Rental Co Ltd
indicate.
The mid-term auto rental business of the company has surged to
a record high since the SARS virus entered the city in April.
More than
50 of the company's sedans have been rented out for a term of two to three
months since late April. Nearly all the customers are white-collar women with
driving licenses. They rent the cars mainly for going to office jobs in the
morning and back home in the evening.
The monthly rental fee for a sedan
is just within the transportation allowance many such women get from their
companies, ranging from 1,000 yuan (US$120) to 2,000 yuan on
average.
Besides such mid-term auto rentals, short-term rentals such as
weekend rentals are also hot these days, the company said.
In May, nearly
95 percent of the company's autos were rented out on short-term leases daily
(including work days and holidays), a considerable 10 percentage points higher
than figures recorded in the previous months.
During the weekends and May
Day holidays, all of the automobiles were rented out.
The new trend of
driving to the suburban forests for fresh air among local families could help
explain the boom in auto rental business.
Vicky Xu / Shanghai Daily news
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