• A summary of how airport operators (Chapter 5) and state governments (Chapter 6) regulate P2P carsharing businesses.
• The financial implications of P2P carsharing businesses to airport operators (Chapter 7).
• An explanation of how traditional rental car and P2P carsharing companies operate on airports (Chapter 8).
• Recommended terms of business agreements, policies, and fees airport operators charge P2P carsharing businesses (Chapter 9).
• A review of the facilities and procedures needed to provide for and manage the safe, secure, and efficient operation of P2P carsharing businesses on airports (Chapter 10).
• A summary of potential next steps and future research needs (Chapter 11).

The material in this report incorporates the results of a survey of 51 airport operators and the findings of 10 case examples conducted as part of this research. Sample agreements, the survey, and its results are provided in the online appendices to this report.

1.2 Quick Start Guide

The following quick start guide provides an overview of the recommended business agreements between airport operators and P2P carsharing businesses, as well as recommendations to allow for the safe, secure, and efficient exchange of carsharing vehicles at airports. Relevant chapters of the full report, which provide greater detail and supporting information, are referenced.

P2P Carsharing and How It Differs from Traditional Airport Car Rental Businesses

A P2P carsharing businesses is a business providing customers the ability to reserve, pick up, and return (i.e., lease) a motor vehicle, commonly but not always personally owned, for a fee. P2P businesses provide and maintain web-enabled applications (or apps) that make it possible for vehicle owners (or hosts) and customers to broker transactions and exchange vehicles. Carsharing businesses also offer insurance and provide customer support. Vehicle owners, not carsharing businesses, are responsible for maintaining the vehicles.

The cost of renting a P2P carsharing vehicle varies greatly depending on the type of vehicle rented, location, and length of rental. Depending on the P2P carsharing company, customers may be charged a variety of fees, including a booking fee, fees for any mileage exceeding the amount included in the base rental, late return fees, tolls, airport parking fees, re-fueling fees, and fees for cleaning the vehicle.

There is limited information about the profile of P2P carsharing customers. Customers may lease vehicles for vacation or business travel; car replacement; flexible month-to-month access; hyperlocal, instant access; try-before-you-buy extended test drives; dream drives in luxury or exotic cars; outdoor adventures in camper and conversion vans; and moving and running errands in trucks and vans. One source estimated that in 2021, approximately 32 percent of a P2P company’s transactions were bookings 7 to 30 days in length, and approximately 5 percent of transactions were bookings greater than or equal to 30 days in length (Turo Form S-1 and Amendments No. 1 and 2, 2022). P2P carsharing has become increasingly popular, particularly among younger consumers, especially those under 25 who are unable to rent a car from a traditional rental car company or must pay an additional fee to do so (Finnegan 2022).

There is also limited information available about the hosts who use P2P carsharing services to list their vehicles for rent. However, the available information indicates that a small number of hosts account for a large number of the cars rented out on P2P carsharing platforms, with some hosts acquiring automobiles for the sole purpose of renting them to customers via the P2P app

(Getaround 2022; Turo 2022; Turo.com, n.d.). One P2P company states that a significant majority of its overall revenues depends on individuals who rent out eight or more vehicles (Turo 2022). (See Chapter 4 for further information about P2P vehicle owners and customers.)

Both P2P carsharing and traditional rental car companies lease a wide variety of vehicles to airline passengers on airports. While there are numerous differences in operations between P2P carsharing businesses and traditional car rental companies, key differences include those described in Table 1-1.

Why Airports Regulate P2P Carsharing

Airport operators should regulate P2P businesses for both financial and operational reasons. The financial motivation of airport operators is because airport operators universally seek to maintain or enhance their non-aeronautical revenues for two main purposes:

• To better serve their customers and the local community by providing, maintaining, and enhancing the required airport facilities and operations, and
• To attract new airline service and maintain existing service by offering the airlines competitive rates and charges.

Typical non-aeronautical revenues at an airport include parking, rental cars, and terminal concessions. Non-aeronautical revenues also include revenues paid to an airport by its airline or general aviation tenants. To maintain or enhance non-aeronautical revenues, airport operators require all companies benefitting from the presence of the airport and access to airline passengers, including all companies leasing vehicles to airline passengers, to have a business agreement and to pay fees as part of these agreements. These agreements are typically in the form of concession contracts awarded to on-airport rental car companies and airport-issued permits required of P2P and off-airport rental car companies.

The revenues airports receive from traditional rental car companies are a major source of non-aeronautical revenues. As shown in the FAA’s Certification Activity Tracking System (CATS) database, traditional rental car companies represent about 22 percent of total non-aeronautical revenues at U.S. airports—the second-largest source of non-aeronautical revenues behind public parking and ground transportation. This revenue source could be threatened if an airport were to place traditional rental car businesses at a competitive disadvantage by failing to charge P2P companies doing business at the airport similar fees. Consequently, airport operators require P2P carsharing companies to have a business agreement to operate at an airport and to pay a fee pursuant to such an agreement (e. g., a fee calculated as a percentage of gross receipts).

Table 1-1. Key differences between traditional rental car business and P2P carsharing business.

To illustrate the need for comparable fees, if the fees an airport charges P2P carsharing companies were to be less than the fees charged traditional rental car companies, the revenue collected from P2P carsharing businesses would not completely replace the fees paid by the traditional rental car companies, assuming the P2P customer would have otherwise rented from a traditional company. Such a reduction in rental car revenue would directly affect an airport’s overall non-aeronautical revenues and could present a challenge to an airport’s revenues and business model.

Consequently, to maintain existing revenues and potentially increase these revenues, airport operators require P2P carsharing companies to pay fees to conduct business on the airport. These fees are often similar to fees paid by traditional rental car companies.

Airport Operator Regulation of P2P Carsharing

Some state legislatures have established laws regulating P2P carsharing. Legislation varies from state to state, as described in Chapter 6, but states typically regulate P2P carsharing insurance provisions, consumer protection disclosures, and taxation.

As part of their regulation of P2P carsharing companies, airport operators should ensure that P2P businesses are not given a competitive advantage over traditional rental car companies. The financial and operational terms that apply to P2P permits should place P2P businesses on similar footing to traditional rental car businesses. To offer an example, some of the surveyed airport operators suggested that

• If traditional rental car companies pay a 10 percent gross receipts fee and transport customers by shuttle to a consolidated rental car facility (CONRAC), then P2P companies should also pay a 10 percent gross receipts fee and operate from a location accessed by shuttle.
• If P2P companies operate from a more desirable location, such as a parking lot closer to the terminal, then the P2P company should pay a higher gross receipts fee than the traditional rental car companies.
• If P2P companies operate from a less desirable location—for example, a rental car company is in the terminal, but the P2P company’s customers must take a shuttle—then the P2P company may be charged a lower gross receipts fee.

At airports where P2P carsharing exchanges are required to take place in public parking facilities, the carsharing host and customer are required to pay applicable parking charges. An airport operator may also choose to require P2P companies to pay rent for space at the airport (i.e., designated parking or pickup spaces), fees associated with the use of shuttles and other common transportation, and other user fees. The financial and operational requirements will vary from airport to airport, but the goal remains the same: to place P2P companies and traditional rental car companies on similar footing, which will serve to maintain and increase non-aeronautical revenues and achieve fair competition.

Business Agreements with P2P Carsharing Companies

Details of the recommendations for business agreements between airport operators and P2P carsharing companies are presented in Chapter 9. The following paragraphs summarize these recommendations, which were prepared on the basis of a review of business agreements provided by the staff of several airports, namely those serving Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Ontario (California), Richmond (Virginia), Salt Lake City, San Jose, Sarasota, Tallahassee, and Tampa.

1. Term. Generally, a 1-year term is recommended with options for annual extension, or terms are on a month-to-month basis until terminated by the P2P carsharing company or airport operator.

2. Requirements of the P2P carsharing company. Figure 1-1 lists the requirements typically incorporated in an airport’s business agreement with a P2P carsharing company.
3. Reserved rights of airport management. These rights include
   1. Revising the size and location of the designated area (the area where the company’s drop-offs and pickups and any other permitted uses are to occur) from time to time;
   2. Suspending a vehicle owner from the property for violations of the airport’s rules and regulations; and
   3. Inspecting the vehicles operated under the agreement with respect to passenger access, vehicle registration and license, owner’s driving license, vehicle insurance, and other matters pertaining to the legal, efficient, and safe operation of the owner and vehicle at the airport.
4. Airport fees. It is recommended that the agreement require the P2P carsharing company to
   1. Pay the airport a privilege fee or concession fee calculated as a percentage of gross receipts derived from the company’s airport operations. A privilege or concession fee of 10 percent is the typical fee in the airport agreements reviewed for this report. Among the factors airport operators consider when determining the appropriate privilege fee to charge are
      1. The convenience of P2P handoff locations compared with the locations of traditional rental car ready and return spaces.
      2. The need for traditional rental car company customers to ride a rental car shuttle bus.
      3. Whether P2P companies are allowed to provide curbside drop-offs and handoffs, which may warrant fees higher than those charged traditional rental car companies not permitted to operate curbside or which may warrant higher fees based on an applicable ground transportation policy regarding curbside access.
      4. The unique characteristics of their airport and the passengers the airport serves.
   2. Require hosts and customers to pay any parking fees for use of the designated airport parking facility.

3. File a monthly report indicating airport-related gross receipts, the number of P2P transactions with airport customers, the number of vehicle-use days during the month, and the average P2P carsharing price during this month. Some airports require that on a monthly basis, the P2P company report each transaction, including the vehicle license plate number, make and model, total gross revenue for the transaction, and the privilege fee due.
4. Work with the airport to implement a technology solution enabling the airport to monitor and audit compliance of the P2P carsharing company’s operations (if the airport develops or acquires such technology).

The airport operator’s existing agreement with traditional rental car companies can serve as the starting point for an agreement with a P2P carsharing business. A typical process for developing an agreement includes (1) developing policies and procedures, (2) confirming the fee structure, (3) drafting the agreement, (4) meeting with the P2P company, and (5) finalizing the agreement. Chapter 9 presents a detailed description of the contents of a typical P2P carsharing agreement and the process for developing such an agreement.

Providing for P2P Carsharing at Airports

Airport operators should regulate P2P businesses to ensure that P2P vehicle exchanges occur in safe locations and do not impinge on the space allocated to other transportation services (e.g., shuttles, taxicabs, and other ground transportation operations) or on public parking facilities, especially any having limited capacity. P2P operations should be limited to locations that will not exacerbate traffic congestion.

Furthermore, just as P2P carsharing and traditional rental car businesses should be placed on similar footing financially, they also should be placed on similar footing operationally. This does not mean that the operational requirements for rental car businesses and P2P businesses must be identical, but that P2P businesses should not be given a perceived competitive advantage over traditional rental car businesses through more favorable operational requirements. Given that existing P2P agreements tend to be of a shorter duration than the term of traditional rental car agreements, airports can monitor the evolution of P2P businesses and their operational needs versus those of traditional rental car businesses to ensure that an equivalent footing is maintained.

The location or locations where airport operators require vehicle drop-offs and pickups is the key requirement affecting P2P carsharing operations. At airports having an agreement with a P2P carsharing business, drop-offs and pickups generally occur in a designated airport parking garage or surface lot. These airport operators explicitly prohibit transfers from occurring at the terminal curbsides. At airports having insufficient close-in parking capacity, the airport operator may require exchanges to occur in remote parking facilities.

Requiring vehicle exchanges to occur in a designated airport parking facility helps to

• Ensure that the exchange occurs at a safe location and avoids typical curbside congestion.
• Improve customer experience by facilitating contactless vehicle exchanges, as the host and customer need not both be present.
• Ensure that customer drop-off and pickup exchanges occur at the same location.
• Improve customer service and reduce opportunities for vehicle theft by allowing exchanges to occur anywhere in the designated parking facility rather than only in one assigned area.
• Reduce the staff time and effort needed to enforce restrictions on unattended vehicles and dwell times, which may be required if P2P carsharing exchanges were to occur at the curbside.

• Generate non-aeronautical revenue by requiring both hosts and customers to pay the airport the applicable public parking fees. Additional revenues may result if the host, when dropping off or picking up a vehicle, is driven to the airport by someone else and the second vehicle is also parked in an airport parking facility.

Airports not requiring handoffs to occur in airport parking facilities include those with remote curbsides (e.g., Phoenix Sky Harbor and Tampa international airports), metered curbsides (e.g., Piedmont Triad International and Bill and Hillary Clinton National airports), or smaller airports with little or no curbside congestion. At airports where traditional rental car customers must ride a shuttle to remote rental car sites, airport operators may wish to consider requiring vehicle exchanges to also occur in parking facilities requiring use of a shuttle.

Other customary practices used by airport operators when regulating P2P carsharing operations include

• Not requiring P2P carsharing vehicles to have placards or other identification.
• Not limiting how long P2P carsharing vehicles may park in an airport parking facility.
• Not limiting the number of vehicles a host may provide, although some airport staff are evaluating whether changes to this provision are warranted.

The number of parking spaces needed to accommodate P2P carsharing businesses depends on (1) the number of originating and destination airline passengers at the airport and (2) the market shares of traditional rental car and P2P carsharing businesses. Chapter 10 provides guidelines for the number of spaces required for a range of passenger volumes and market shares.

To improve their ability to monitor and audit P2P carsharing businesses, some airport operators use license plate recognition (LPR) to monitor the number of reported transactions and airport gross receipts. LPR systems, which may be part of the airport’s parking access and revenue control system (PARCS), can be used to record the license plate numbers of vehicles entering and exiting airport parking facilities as well as the time of these entrances and exits. At airports that have LPR and require P2P carsharing companies to report the license plate number along with the time and date each P2P vehicle was dropped off and picked up, airport staff can compare the reported drop-offs and pickups with data recorded by their LPR system to verify the revenue and number of transactions reported by P2P carsharing businesses.