Budget has decided at a rather inopportune moment (right before Burning Man 2003), to decide to phase out cargo vans. People who have reserved moving trucks, pickups and regular cars do not appear to be affected.

Jon Marcus reports from Troy, NY, saying "I finally got someone knowledgeable on the phone from Budget."

"Apparently, during the entire year outside of burning man, the cargo vans are not very popular and, subsequently, are being phased out. there may not be any next year."

"The word came straight down from corporate to Sparks/Reno that they would not be sent any vans and should cancel all the reservations. i specifically asked about cleanliness and was told that it was not a problem and has actually gotten better over the years."

"I don't believe that they hate burners. i do believe that they have HORRIBLE timing. the woman on the phone from sparks felt really bad for me/us."

The rest of the earlier report is included below for background.

I have two separate reports, one from Jon Marcus in Ithaca, NY and one from Andy Wing near Philadelphia, PA that when they called Budget (Jon on August 8, 2003 and Andy on August 9, 2003) they found that their rentals had been cancelled.

Jon Marcus reports, "The Budget/Ryder in Sparks (and possibly others) just canceled all van/truck rentals for the week of burning man. i am not sure if this applies to airport cars. they didn't even bother to call me, we found out while calling and double checking all our reservations."

Andy had made his reservation in March 2003 -- six months ago!

Now at least the two of them are scrambling to make alternate plans. Andy went with Thrifty, but the vehicle is significantly smaller than the one he had expected, without a lot of hauling room, which is significantly hindering his plans.

Jon urges everyone to check their "reservations" as soon as possible.

Jim Glaser wrote on on August 10, 2003 to say that his truck was also canceled. He said, "They did call me and left me a (message) yesterday."

August 11, 2003 - Tigger reports in from New York, NY: "I also have had my reservation cancelled. It seems that they are not cancelling all BM reservations, just cargo van reservations. Our camp had one van and one truck reserved. The truck is still reserved, my van cancelled."

"It seems that the Budget corporate office decided that they would not be sending out any additional cargo vans to Reno so they just don't have them to rent. Apparently, you can still get some of the large trucks."

August 11, 2003 - Clarification on the rental policy from Sheldon Drake, who writes that he "called the national number, they said my reservation is completely confirmed and i should have no trouble at all." However, this doesn't mean that a truck will be waiting. The national office also told him he will have to keep in touch with the local office as the time gets closer to know for sure if a truck will be available.

"I spoke with a guy at Reno and he said we shouldn't have any problem because we made the reservation a while ago, but he said he's going to have to be calling some Burning Man people to cancel, there's just too many."

Another report in from Tacoboy in New Jersey. Tacoboy has a full size car rented from Budget at the Reno Airport. He writes, "Spoke w corportate (775)785-2690 x100. Was told that she heard something about truck rental for burning man. Said the dust causes the engine to break down faster and there is a possibility of getting stuck out there - just so I'm aware. Apperantly (sic) my reservation is ok for now. ?? She said that she will have to look into this."

Sheldon Drake did a little more research and checks back in with the following report. "I called the guy (whose voice i recognized from before, he told me BMan in noooo problem as long as i wipe it) at Reno Budget (775 825 8833); he told me since our reservations are almost a month old we should be okay, BUT he said he is going to have to call "some burning man people" to cancel, so everybody concerned should make damn sure."

"When i called the national line, they said a local dealer might allowably have problems with a guarantee if a truck was supposed to be returned to him by a previous client who made last-minute changes, held over or went to a different dropoff. If anybody claims this is the case, tell them you will be filing a report with his regional manager, and that he should be prepared to provide documentation of the specific rental client who forced the failure. That way it'll only work once, if that, and either way, he has to file a report with said regional on every cancellation."

"They also said if they know there is a big puddle of reservations forming at a specific office, they can move trucks there. There are two weeks to go, this is more than enough time for them to figure it out. Anybody getting cancelled might try to get the national office involved, but I'd do it right this second. be proactive, don't wait for the phone to ring."

Jon Marcus again: "Just talked to budget in Sparks. The lady said that I could not rent a van because all the vans were already being rented out to people going to Burning Man."

Someone reposted this article (without permission) to DC Indymedia (including "fancy script"). This was not my doing, although I welcome the traffic.

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