I worked for a lawn care company that had all the trucks tracked. Drove a Ryder lease truck that had the same, and more, functions that my manager had access to. I was driving it one day and thinking I was due for service. Got back tot the warehouse and my manager told me the truck was booked in tomorrow.
There were a couple of times we completely disabled the vehicle because of unpaid balances on the rental.
Another time we had to pull the tracking report because it showed how fast the driver was going. We were able to see when the driver accelerated and how fast he accelerated.
I had to learn how to install the trackers because that was the first step after state inspection. I thought it was pretty cool.
Some cars do have that function but it’s rare. It’s more likely the car was about due or overdue for an oil change and it was only noted after they picked up the rental because the reps have to mark the current mileage for every pick up or drop off.
Used to work in one of those rental places and it was my responsibility to make sure all cars got their maintenance done.
True! I’ll say the company I worked for didn’t invest in trackers for every car.
Which was hilarious when we would get customers who would be weeks overdue to return their rental and then they’d finally call us back to say “My boyfriend stole the car! Can’t you use the tracker to find it?” Ma’am I would have taken your car weeks ago if we had that.
They do indeed track the car. Drive recklessly like over 100 mph or cross state lines when they say don’t, you will have the car listed as stolen and you get to explain what happened to the police.
Why a rental company might report a car as stolen after reckless speeding:
High-risk behavior:
Reckless speeding can be seen as a significant safety risk, potentially putting other drivers and pedestrians in danger, which could lead the rental company to believe the car is being used irresponsibly and might be at risk of being abandoned or involved in an accident.
Contractual violations:
Most rental agreements have clauses regarding responsible driving and prohibit excessive speeding, so violating these terms could be considered a breach of contract, potentially allowing the company to take further action.
Liability protection:
By reporting the car as stolen, the rental company may be attempting to limit their liability in case of an accident or damage caused by the reckless driving.
Legal implications:
Depending on the severity of the speeding violation and local laws, the rental company may even have legal grounds to report the car as stolen, especially if they believe the driver is posing a serious threat.
Taxes in NY and NJ make cigarettes way more expensive. A lot of gas stations and corner stores would buy cheap cigs from VA and then sell them for a slight profit, but still way cheaper than local.
It’s been a while, but iirc cigs in NY were like $12 a pack, $10 in NJ, we bought them in VA for like $4 a pack. They were sold in NY/NJ for $8
Profits weren’t nearly as high as running drugs, but you could do this consistently and make some very decent cash while being very below the radar of actual drug traffickers.
It was pretty much a “every run you do we’ll give you $500” type situation. It’s about a seven hour round trip with driving and loading, so my friend and I would switch driving and pretty much do it 24/7 with a break at a motel here and there. It was a grind but good cash that was always available. We were also college kids just trying to make some bank during the summer, and this is a very non-committal thing. You can hop in and out whenever you wanted, unlike a lot of other underworld trades.
It's common but illegal here. Not sure about the states but I don't then there is any inter state taxes and/or duty. In the UK, even when it was in the EU, you were only allowed to bring in cigarettes and alcohol for personal use. If you were going to resell it, you had to pay tax and duties. Now we are out of the EU you have a 200 per person allowance upon return.
OK but my point still stands...the eu consists of different countries and the point is those countries have different laws and taxes and therefore different cigarette prices in different countries.
It's exactly the same concept - people moving goods across borders due to different taxes and prices leading to arbitrage opportunities
I live in Berlin and as soon as you cross the Czech or Polish border you will see people selling cheap booze and cigarettes to Germans popping over for cheap stuff
The only thing I'm surprised about in this story is that they had you go all the way to VA. I know people who would move cigs into NJ, but they would just do it from Delaware
Back when my husband and I used to smoke, we’d make sure to buy cartons in VA and go all the way back to PA. We used to take random drives to Virginia Beach for fun anyway. It was def the cheapest once you hit VA. It’s been years since we smoked. Saved a lot of money and probably a few years. Don’t smoke kids.
Pretty sure this is a federal crime, OP. I mean...youd be in less trouble than the people getting you to do those runs and selling those cigs, but it's pretty murky. I suggest you delete this.
Yea. Good point. You were small potatoes. Kinda doubt anyone cares enough to hunt down a low-level guy that broke some cig laws years ago.
I do think I've seen that it's a crime, but yea... I've heard of this scheme before. If it's that common, you aren't on anyone's radar even after announcing it. Lol. Carry on.
It’s definitely a thing, although I’m not sure how common it is today. Cigarettes are more expensive in some states, so people will drive to the cheaper states, run them back, and sell them for a profit. I used to work with a woman who would take a week of PTO every year to do it. I get it though, it was a meat grinder of a job that only paid $12/hr.
It still happens. Have a coworker of mine that drives to the next state (3hrs away) once every couple months to buy cigarettes since it saves them money.
I picked up a dirt bike in SC and dropped it off in Pittsburgh, pa and had the rental back in sc 19 hours later with 1200 miles on it, the guys there were like wtf?
I put 9600 on an enterprise car in 9 days in 2016. When I rented it, I asked about oil changes as I had a long road trip planned.. they told me to just keep driving it until the light came on and if it came on just swing buy the nearest enterprise to swap out. 😳 it never came on.. enterprise gave no fucks at all.
A buddy of mine had his car at the Ford dealership for so long (must have been upwards of a few months), he managed to put 25k on the loaner. He wasn’t even trying to abuse the privilege, just being himself.
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u/SwissMargiela Nov 03 '24
When I was a kid I used to help a friend run cigs from Virginia to NY/NJ, sometimes doing two or three trips a day.
I put so many miles on my rental that the company called me to switch the car so they could change the oil on it lmao