Haven’t we had enough of the largest rental car scam in the history of business travel? It used to be over paying for insurance and since American Express and Diners Card (when was the last time you saw one of those) offered coverage this scam began to fade. Only the uneducated traveler falls for the insurance scam these days. No it is not insurance, but the refueling of the tank or the threat of paying 5x the rate for fuel. This is a disservice to their customers, a real fleecing and it borders on thievery. All the rental car locations have pumps at major locations, it is located right where they clean the vehicles for the next renter. They purchase gasoline at highly reduced rates , so why do they over charge for the gas? Simple – it is a huge profit center for them while they take advantage of their best customers – the person on the go, swinging in that last appointment, the business traveler. I have been trained like Pavlov’s dog,  to refill before dropping off the car and I do this religiously. But sometimes, the airports or “someone” makes this very difficult. Case in point, my last trip to Chicago, there was no gas station to be found near the airport (O’Hare). So, we drove and drove and finally came upon a Mobil station. “There,” yelled my colleague, Dick Evans, as if we were looking for an opening to a port in a deep fog and our lives were at risk. Dutiful, I filled my tank, which only needed a few gallons of gas. Did I ask for a receipt? Of course not because hey, the environment does not need another 7 inches of paper with too much ink on it. Off we went to Avis to drop off the car having successfully completed our task and somewhat proud of our accomplishment. Like a snail on a hot summer day the Avis “checker” slowly came to my car without as much as a hello. As I was removing my suitcase from the trunk, he asked “Did you buy gas?”  “Yes,” I replied. “Do you have a receipt?” “No.” He handed me my receipt, which besides my expensive rental charge for a lousy Pontiac G5, was a fuel refilling charge. “What is this,” I asked. “Under 45 miles we automatically charge for refueling without a receipt.” Wrong day, wrong person for that comment. I told him how we drove from here to kingdom come looking for a gas station and that this was simply not acceptable. The “checker” said he would let me go this time, but next time I would need a receipt. Again, wrong comment to the wrong person. I said “No, you will not let me go, you will remove the charge as it is the right thing to do, I filled the tank and it reads full.” And off I went, furious with the idea that they would not believe me or General Motors about the tank. Do we really need this from our service providers? The answer is no! -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO