The pandemic-spurred reduction in chip manufacturing has been in the news for months, but on-the-ground effects are becoming startlingly clear just as meeting professionals are planning how to get attendees from the airport to the hotel and back: there’s an unprecedented price increase for vehicles, whether purchasing a new or used car—or renting one. Rideshare prices are also on the rise for completely different reasons. Here’s what you need to know for planning purposes before you take off this summer—and likely for the rest of 2021.
What’s Going On?
With the pandemic shutdowns, people had to stay put, and that meant rental car companies had no customers. To keep things running, many companies sold cars and streamlined their inventory. As vaccines roll out, infection rates drop and the economy returns, the demand for rental cars is surging. This is partly because of an increased interest in domestic travel due to cautionary attitudes towards air travel and varied restrictions on travel abroad.
However, rental car companies can’t revive their inventory fast enough to meet demand due to those microchip shortages you’ve been hearing about. Chip manufacturers largely switched from making auto chips to making the kind that were in demand mid-pandemic, like those that power laptops, cell phones, home appliances and gaming systems. It’s not a quick switch to flip production back to auto chips, and these shortages may result in as many as 1.2 million fewer new cars being made this year, according to an article in SFGATE.
With fewer new cars available and retail prices for used cars up 25 percent, rental car agencies are now operating with smaller fleets, shuffling cars from low-demand to high-traffic cities. With domestic travel roaring, the demand for rental cars is soaring—and so are the prices.
Julie Hall, public relations manager for AAA, confirmed this in an email to Smart Meetings. “We [looked] at rental car prices leading up to the recent Memorial Day holiday weekend. Daily car rental rates had doubled compared to last Memorial Day, topping out at $134 for the holiday weekend.”
In some markets, that’s still a steal. An article in the Honolulu Civil Beat cited rental car prices as high as $700 a day in some areas, with additional tales of cars unavailable at any price and residents waiting 90 minutes for an Uber.
Why Rideshares Won’t Save the Day
In conjunction with the surge in vehicle prices, rideshare prices are rocketing, too. When it comes to Uber and Lyft, it’s not a lack of cars pushing prices up, but a lack of drivers. Another pandemic effect of stasis was that rideshare drivers didn’t have riders—so they quit the platform and started driving for food delivery or receiving unemployment. Now riders are returning, but drivers aren’t. In a recent article for NBC4 News, driver and blogger Chris Gerace cites Covid safety concerns and low wages for rideshare drivers as reasons for the reticence. If a new driving job or unemployment benefits are paying the same or more, why return to rideshares?
The Workaround
So, what’s a traveler to do? The first piece of advice no matter your favored mode of transport is to plan ahead. An industry insider for SFGATE recommended booking your rental car two weeks to a month before your proposed trip, and still, to expect to pay 25 to 30 percent more than usual for it.
Other options include alternative rental platforms like Avail, which lets individuals rent out their cars and takes care of the key exchange, car cleaning and insurance that would be deterrents to renting your neighbor’s car. There’s also Uber Rent, which works through traditional car rental companies to offer service through the Uber app with perks like 10 percent cash back to your Uber account. Yet another option is Get Around, a car share platform that lets you find, book and unlock your chosen car all from your phone.
Doing your research and comparing your options ahead of time is a necessity this summer if you want to avoid transportation sticker shock. Carpocalypse could also be a reason to change your travel plans to a city with stellar public transit—or, perhaps, to use the fleet of free buses, shuttles and monorails as a great excuse to pack up for Walt Disney World.
Distinct from beliefs, are organizational norms, or the expectations—formal or informal—about how to behave. Norms are often unwritten elements of culture that define the “fit.” I often reference Charlie Chaplin when I think about unspoken norms. Several years ago, I was getting my hair done and a guy came in to get Charlie Chaplin make up done for an upcoming Halloween costume. He shared that almost a year ago he had started working as the Chief Financial Officer of one of the biggest employers in my hometown. His first week on the job included Halloween, but no one told him that the office staff dress up and take Halloween very seriously. For a year, he has been plotting his Halloween costume out of humiliation that he showed up in street clothes instead of an elaborate costume. He didn’t know what he didn’t know, but more importantly, the co-workers didn’t either. They didn’t realize how much Halloween has become a norm in the office, and they didn’t think to explain this unspoken expectation to a new hire. The CFO’s attention for a year had been distracted to “make up” for the unknown norm for a year.
One of the first areas that will need adjustment is the actual language used within organizations or workforces. Language structures our thoughts, including the opportunities we perceive and the threats we feel.
Lastly, but oddly where most leadership’s think is the starting place is your Organizational Style—This not only communicates what your organization cares about, but determines what your people are allowed to do. How do you share your culture outside of your organization? Who is permitted to share? Is what is allowed to be shared tightly controlled for uniformity? If all were in alignment, what else within your organization would you be able to control?
LVCC’s West Hall began construction before the pandemic, but when things began to close down, the convention center went through a very tough time, much like the rest of the industry. To finally have it happen is a relief, says John Schreiber, vice president of business sales for LVCVA. “It’s almost surreal,” he says. “For the last couple of years, we’ve watched [the convention center get] built, then we entered the pandemic. We struggled, were constantly moving show dates and losing shows, but to actually have a show in the building, it’s just a great sense of relief. It’s wonderful.”
Kristin Twombly shakes her head when she thinks about where she was 16 months ago. “January 2020 feels like a million years ago,” she says. She was new in role at Capital Group, starting to put a strategy in place for doing in-person events. She was also preparing to take over as chapter president at MPI Southern California.
Corinne Youngholm had found her forever job. After discovering DMC life over a glass of Chardonnay at a party in 1998, this travel and leadership manager launched her career at PGI in San Diego before joining a scrappy startup and making her 20-year career with 
January 2020 was the beginning of the unknown for Cindy Hartner and her 42 DMC clients all over the world. “It was a real scramble to find out what the repercussions would be of rescheduling or canceling or all those things,” she recalled.
