The first time I heard about age discrimination was in my high school economics class. We learned that it is perfectly legal for movie theatres to charge different prices for children, adults and senior citizens to see the same film. I'd forgotten this lesson during my years at Penn, but now it's back on my mind.
I've been driving since before I was 17, but when I recently tried to rent a car in California, just a couple of months prior to my 21st birthday, I found this task to be nearly impossible. The problem is that most major car rental firms don't rent to people younger than 21 -- and some don't even rent to people younger than 25. The topic isn't discussed often, but this is age discrimination, plain and simple.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects certain applicants and employees 40 years of age and older from discrimination on the basis of age in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation or terms, conditions or privileges of employment.
This doesn't really help those of us who want to rent cars. In fact, there is no federal law that requires companies to rent to people under the age of 21.
The minimum driving age for Avis and Budget rental car companies (both owned by Cendant Corp.) is 21. However, this policy hasn't been enforced nationally since 1997, when New York state law created much unrest against car rental firms. In 1997, the ruling in the case entitled The People of New York State vs. Alamo Rent A Car, Inc. (which was later upheld by the New York State Supreme Court and an Appeals Court) stated that it was in fact discriminatory to deny car rental to people under the age of 21. In fact, since 1977 New York has had a law against all forms of age discrimination, a law that rental car companies tried to circumvent.
According to Thomas Conway, Chief of the New York State Consumer Frauds Bureau, who served as one of the lawyers for the State of New York against Alamo, "Since 1977, the claim of the rental car companies was that they couldn't get insurance for the young drivers. As a factual matter, that simply wasn't true."
"New York, at the time the law was passed, was the only state that had the age discrimination law," said Conway.
And today, New York still stands alone.
The major car rental firms and insurance companies use statistics about teen drivers wreaking havoc on the road to justify why they don't rent to young folks. This logic is flawed.
Because none of the major rental car companies will rent to people between the ages of 18 and 21, many shady, illegitimate companies rent cars to people between the ages of 18 and 21 at exorbitant prices. These firms are ripping off America's youth, while at the same time they are also failing to provide adequate insurance; they use no-name insurance companies with the fine print essentially saying that any injury worse than a paper cut will not even be covered
Would car rental companies rather have a 50-year-old ex-convict with a half dozen accidents to his name or a 21-year-old college student with a perfect driving record renting from them? Shouldn't we get the record straight and judge people by their abilities rather than by their ages? Not according to Susan McGowan, Director of Public Relations for Avis and Budget. She said, "The only thing we check, besides age, is to see if people have a valid driver's license. We don't care about your personal background. We only care about this segment of their life. The rest of their life is their private business."
Jeff Gliner, a senior at James Madison University who passed his driver's test at age 21 after two failed attempts, said, "I have little experience as a driver, and I don't see why my cousin, who is twenty but has been driving for four years with a perfect driving record, can't rent a car when I, with two failed driving tests under my belt, can."
Why not a minimum number of years of driving experience rather than a minimum age? Wouldn't that make more sense?
Our local Congressman, Chaka Fattah, said, "As a matter of fairness, if you can go off to war, you ought to be able to rent a car." Until Congress takes action on this issue, inconvenience will rule. Sadly, legislation to protect young drivers from fraud and age discrimination has never been introduced in the House or the Senate, and no committee is working on the issue either.
Whether you have a family emergency and need a car or need to get to a job or internship interview, it's only natural that those in the 18-21 age group should be able to rent cars. It shouldn't cost you a $110 under-age fee to rent a car to get somewhere to conduct research for a class.
It's expensive to rent cars -- and it's not like we're doing it every day. And so the issue goes straight to the back burner. There's no lobbying organization called "Driver's Aged 18-21 Unite PAC (DA18-21UPAC)," but maybe I'll make that my vanity plate and get it started soon.
Guest columnist Stephen Morse is a College senior from Oceanside, N.Y. His e-mail address is morses@sas.upenn.edu.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
