Average Length of Rental for Repairable Vehicles: Q4 2020
The quarterly LOR summary is produced by Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Through its ARMS® Automotive Suite of Products, Enterprise provides collision repair facilities with free cycle time reporting with market comparisons, free text/email capability to update their customers on vehicle repair status, and online reservations. More information is available at armsautosuite.com. 
U.S. Length of Rental—Q4 2020
As 2020 drew to a close, Enterprise Rent-A-Car analyzed results by state and vehicle condition to determine any significant increases or decreases in Length of Rental (LOR). Historically, LOR starts an upward trend in October that peaks in January.
“Our data shows that delivery quote days as well as quotes per part in Q4 2020 were also identical to Q4 2019. This indicates a robust parts supply and delivery environment.”
Repairable vehicle average LOR in Q4 2020 was the same as Q4 2019 in the US: 13.1 days, despite lower accident volume. Similarly, PartsTrader’s Chief Innovation Officer Greg Horn observed, “Our data shows that delivery quote days as well as quotes per part in Q4 2020 were also identical to Q4 2019. This indicates a robust parts supply and delivery environment.” Significant increases in LOR were seen in Louisiana (+2.1 days), Iowa (+1.7 days) and Alabama (+1.3 days). Idaho and South Dakota also saw increases of +1.1 days and +1 day, respectively. Louisiana’s dramatic LOR increase isn’t surprising, given their historic storms (Cristobal, Marco, Laura, Delta and Zeta). Neither is the increase in Iowa, given the 2020 derecho that caused such extensive property damage. Alabama was also affected by the same storms that hit Louisiana, so an increase there doesn’t surprise. Five other states saw increases between a half day and 0.9 of a day (AK, CT, MS, NJ and OK). For drivable vehicles, states with LOR increases were in line with the country’s overall LOR results. Louisiana saw an increase of +2.2 days, Iowa +1.9 days, South Dakota +1.6 days, Alabama +1.4 days, Mississippi +1.2 days, and Oklahoma +1 day. For non-drivable vehicles, Alaska tied with Louisiana with an increase of +1.8 days. Idaho saw a significant non-drive increase of +1.6 days, while Connecticut was +1 day higher. Six other states (AL, IA, ME, MT, NJ and SD) all recorded non-drive increases between +0.5 and +0.9 days. Notable LOR decreases were seen in the District of Columbia (-2.0 days), Colorado (-1.8 days) and Minnesota (-1.1 days). Colorado’s decrease is not unexpected given the impact hailstorms had on the 4th quarter of 2019. Six other states saw a roughly one-half day decrease (HI, KS, MD, NH, NM and TX). These results were also mirrored with drivable vehicles; DC saw a -1.9 day decrease, Colorado -1.7 days, and Minnesota -1.0 day KS, MD and ND were the only other states to see a half day decrease in drivable LOR. The largest non-drive decrease seen was in DC, where it dropped -3.8 days from the prior year. Non-drive LOR decreases were also prominent in Colorado and Hawaii, which both saw decreases of -2.2 days. Quite a few other states saw a non-drive decrease between -1.0 and -1.9 days (KS, MD, MN, NM, OH, SC, TX and WI), while other states saw a decrease of at least one half day (CA, GA, IL, IN, MO, NC, NV, OR, UT, WA and WV). Excluding DC and Puerto Rico, North Dakota holds the lowest overall Q4 2020 LOR at 10.2 days while Rhode Island comes in at 15.9 days. North Dakota also has the lowest drivable LOR at 8.4 days (almost a full day better than HI), while Louisiana has the longest drivable LOR at 14.0 days (although this can likely be considered an outlier given their significant year-over-year rise). Wisconsin has the lowest non-drive LOR at 16.4 days while Wyoming has the longest non-drive LOR at 22.6 days. 
Canada Length of Rental—Q4 2020
Excluding Total Losses, overall LOR in Q4 2020 was down by -0.6 of a day (12.3 days in Q4 2019 vs. 11.7 days in Q4 2020). Among all provinces (excluding the crown provinces of BC, MB and SK), Alberta was alone in recording an LOR increase. LOR in AB was up +1.7 days year-over-year, which can be primarily attributed to the historic levels of damage to insured vehicles caused by summer 2020’s hailstorms. Despite the results in Alberta, LOR decreases in the other provinces, particularly Ontario (which saw a year-over-year decrease of -1.5 days), balanced out the country’s overall results. For drivable vehicles, LOR in Canada was down by a half-day year-over-year. Alberta’s drivable LOR (at +2.0 days) was again the only increase at 12.7 from previous year’s 10.7. Non-drive vehicle LOR saw small increases in both Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, while Alberta’s increase was at +1.1 days (20.0 vs. 18.9 prior year). Ontario’s Q4 2020 results were significantly lower than Q4 2019 in both drivable vehicles (-1.5 days) and non-drivable vehicles (-1.9 days). While summer and fall of 2019 saw a number of weather events in eastern Canada that raised LOR last year, 2020’s lower results may also be due, in part, to the current pandemic climate with fewer damaged vehicles, leading to improved repair cycle time. [dkpdf-remove]
Length of Rental analysis comparing 2021 to 2020 may bring additional insights to understand how state, provincial, regional and national results have been impacted by the pandemic conditions, and whether or not these results are a new baseline going forward.