The Federal Government has a rental car program, which is managed by the Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO). DTMO has managed this program since October 2007.
You may be asking what are the benefits of the U.S. Government rental car program? One of the most notable benefits is that the collision damage waiver (CDW) insurance is included in the negotiated rate. Besides the attractive rates, other benefits include unlimited mileage, adjusted rates according to size of car and much more.
These rental cars can be booked using your E-Gov travel system or using the traditional method by calling your Travel Management Center (TMC). The rental car reservation is booked and charged to the traveler’s individual Government charge card. If a traveler does not have a Government charge card, some other sort of an arrangement would need to be made such as a contract agreement directly with the car rental company or by issuing the traveler a cash advance.
One disadvantage of this program is that the rental car cannot be used for leisure travel under the official TDY contract. If a traveler is combining official with personal travel, the traveler needs a separate contract for the personal portion of their trip. Some rental car agencies may even request that the traveler return the car and check it out again.
While conducting training on our E-Gov Travel System, we advise our travelers to select any of the rental car companies listed, but the rental car company selected should be comparative with the cheapest rate for the size of car selected. All of the rental car vendors have met the DTMO qualifications. If a traveler has any questions concerning any of the vendors, they may call their TMC or the DTMO for further information.
The DTMO offers a website with detailed information concerning the car or truck rental programs. The website is located athttp://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/index.cfm.
by Pam Morton
The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.