Dollar Ends Program to Fingerprint Car Renters
Dollar Rent a Car pulled the plug Tuesday on a trial program that required customers to be fingerprinted.
Dollar instituted the practice after Sept. 11, saying the terrorism attacks were such a disaster for its bottom line that a bold approach was required to combat fraud.
Banks sometimes require a fingerprint for certain transactions, but Dollar’s foray into fingerprinting marked the first time a corporation routinely demanded that consumers submit to a procedure associated with criminals.
Dollar required customers at 14 airports, including Los Angeles International and San Francisco International, to ink their thumbs and put their imprint on car rental contracts. The thumbprints were filed away with the contracts, though customers were given the option of having the thumbprint torn off when they returned the car.
“There’s a stigma associated with putting a thumb on a pad,” conceded Jim Senese, Dollar’s vice president of quality assurance. “But 99.8% of the customers were supportive.”
Even so, the three-month test ended 22 days early because fraud, which costs the company $1 million a year, didn’t appear to be shrinking. “The anticipated savings just weren’t compelling enough,” Senese said.
Based in Tulsa, Okla., Dollar is part of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. Dollar is the sixth-ranked car rental company by revenue. Since Sept. 11, it has cut its car fleet by 17% and reduced headquarters staff by 20%.
Civil libertarians and privacy experts had criticized the experiment.
“There are a lot of options out there in car rental, and I would deal with companies that do not begin with the presumption that its customers are potential criminals,” said Charles Whitebread, a professor at University of Southern California Law School.
Law enforcement experts also were dubious, but mainly because they didn’t think it would work.
“Dollar was doing this for the right reason: to combat fraud,” said Robert J. Castelli, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “But it was introduced without the proper preparation.”
Nevertheless, Castelli said he expected many similar experiments. “If there’s one thing 9/11 taught us, the heightened security that exists all over the rest of the free world is there for a reason. This trend toward increased security is going to continue.”
Several customers waiting for their cars at the San Francisco airport last week said they hadn’t been warned about the fingerprinting, a fact that increased their disgruntlement. Neither the Dollar Web site nor the telephone customer service employees had told them a thumbprint would be required, they said.
“This is a bit of nibbling away at our civil rights,” said Ian Bolton, a tourist from Melbourne, Australia. “It’s Big Brother.”
Jason Bunge, a Harvard student, said it didn’t bother him. “If a thumbprint is going to get me a car faster, I’m all for it,” he said. But Ivy Tam, a San Francisco State student, was dubious. “It makes me kind of worried. No other company is doing this.”
That was another reason Dollar canceled the program. It had hoped the industry leaders, Ford Motor Co.’s Hertz and Cendant Corp.’s Avis Group, would announce similar programs, but neither did.
Although several San Francisco customers said they would think twice about renting from Dollar again, the company’s own tracking revealed extensive approval.
Dollar said that in the first month, 55 customers complained and refused to rent; 150 complained but rented anyway; and about 50 people sent in angry e-mails. Results from the second month were similar.
It’s impossible to know how many potential thieves were deterred. As Senese noted, some of the people who walked away might have had plans to keep the car.
