To whom are the fees payable for a Dollar Rent A Car franchise?
Dollar_Rent_A_Car Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
dable, except that the Travel Industry Commissions may be collected by us or an affiliate on behalf of a third party. We may apply any payments you or your affiliates make to any amounts you or your affiliates owes us or our affiliates even if you have designated the payment for another purpose or account.
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- The Franchise Fee is based upon Gross Receipts from Your Franchised Business. "Gross Receipts" means and includes the gross amount of all sums, whether such sums are cash or credit, billed or charged by you (whether or not the same shall have been paid or collected, and including for purposes of clarity amounts received in connection with prepaid reservations for which a rental does not actually occur) as time mileage or use charges, intercity charges or revenue splits or reimbursements, loss and collision damage waiver charges or fees, insurance charges such as personal effects coverage, personal accident insurance, supplemental liability insurance or uninsured or underinsured motorist protection (with no deduction for any premium paid to the insurance company in connection with any of the foregoing insurance products), vehicle licensing fees, prepaid fuel, charges for services such as cellular phones, GPS, wi-fi, tablets, baby seats, ski racks and other special equipment or any other products or services rented, leased or sold by Your Franchised Business, additional and/or underage driver charges, drop charges (oneway), parking fees, and transportation fees, and all other charges and fees and all other income of every kind and nature derived from Your Franchised Business or any business operated in violation of Section 12.18 of your Franchise Agreement; but shall not include the amount of any federal, state or municipal sales or other similar taxes separately stated and collected from customers and paid to government entities as a result of such collection, concession or consolidated facility fees or charges to the extent paid to a third party, any refueling service charges separately stated and due as a result of the vehicle being returned with less than the fuel required upon return by the rental agreement, any parking violation fees and administrative charges associated with the processing and collection of fines, impound fees, receipts from sales of used vehicles, nor any sums received as insurance or otherwise to reimburse you for damage to your vehicles or other property or to reimburse you for the loss, conversion or abandonment of such cars or the costs to return the vehicle to the designated location in rentable condition (but inclusive of proceeds of any business interruption insurance policies maintained by you), or any fees collected as a result of disposal of a vehicle no longer deemed to be rentable.
The revenue target and minimum annual Franchise Fee that you must pay to us will be determined based upon an assessment by us of a variety of factors, which may include the following: (1) the total car rental market, according to publicly-available data; (2) the percentage of that total car rental market of the Dollar brand; (3) your anticipated fleet size; (4) the anticipated average revenue per vehicle per year, based on your anticipated fleet mix (that is, the mixture of compact, mid-sized, full-sized and other vehicles); and (5) the applicable Franchise Fee percentage (that is, the Airport Rental percentage of 8%, and the Non-Airport Rental percentage of 6%). Other factors that may also be taken into account include (a) the area population and population growth trends; (b) the area economic strength and growth trends; (c) existing national account customers located in the area; (d) existing and potential future growth trends for local airport and off-airport passenger traffic in the area; and (e) our experience in the area and in other similar areas. The revenue target and minimum annual Franchise Fee will be presented to you, and you will be provided with any explanations related to it as you may reasonably request, before you sign the Franchise Agreement.
If you are a transferee of an existing Dollar Business, your monthly franchise fee may be different than the fee described above, and other fees (as well as other terms and conditions of your Franchise Agreement, such as its duration) may also be different.
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- We may decide to initiate an assessment (a "Program Assessment") related to any "Program." Such Programs could relate, for example, to advertising, sales promotion, marketing, reservations, centralized billing, charge cards, travel industry commissions or tour arrangements, operating programs, customer satisfaction programs, account programs, coupon programs, experimental or test programs, and such other programs that we may prescribe in the Operating Guide. Such Programs may be modified, replaced or instituted by us from time to time in the Operations Guide or otherwise in writing. We are currently not charging any Program Assessments to new franchisees, although we reserve the right to do so in the future. We reserve the right to allocate a portion of the Franchise Fee to assessments related to Programs. If all other Dollar franchisees are required to participate in, support and service a Program, then the expenses incurred by you will be on the same basis as other Dollar franchisees.
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- We have the right to suspend your access to our Reservation System and your listing at www.dollar.com if you do not pay your reservations fees timely.
Source: Item 6 — OTHER FEES (FDD pages 39–46)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 Dollar Rent A Car Franchise Disclosure Document, various fees are payable to Dollar Rent A Car and its affiliates. Dollar Rent A Car may apply any payments made by the franchisee or their affiliates to any amounts owed to them or their affiliates, even if the payment was intended for a different purpose.
The franchisee is required to pay a franchise fee based on Gross Receipts, which includes all income derived from the franchised business, but excludes certain taxes and fees collected on behalf of third parties. If a customer uses a travel voucher, the franchisee will receive payment from Dollar Rent A Car for the net proceeds of the voucher, less a 5% service fee.
Dollar Rent A Car may also require franchisees to post a security deposit to secure their obligations to Dollar Rent A Car and its affiliates. If the Franchise Agreement is terminated early, the franchisee must pay an Early Termination Fee to Dollar Rent A Car as compensation for lost future franchise fees. If a franchisee purchases or leases from an unapproved supplier, they may have to pay for the cost of any inspections and testing that Dollar Rent A Car requires.
In the event that a franchisee transfers their franchised business, Dollar Rent A Car has the right to require a transfer fee of 5% of the average annual gross sales for the three years preceding the transfer. If the franchisee continues to operate the business after the initial term without renewing the agreement, Dollar Rent A Car may impose the then-current franchise fee and any other applicable fees. Dollar Rent A Car also has the right to offset any money owed to them or their affiliates by the franchisee or their affiliates.