No matter the going price of fuel, we still pay fewer taxes on a tank than many modern nations. But that was little comfort this past summer when gas blew past $4 per gallon nationwide and topped $5 in some areas. And, to add insult to injury, consumers were quickly introduced to fuel surcharges on everything from airline tickets and airport shuttle services to pizza and home heating oil deliveries.

Well you can scratch Hertz rental cars off the fee list, at least for now. In the middle of December I received an e-mail from Hertz, notifying me that they dropped their Flat Refueling Fee, stating:

"Refueling Update Hertz has reverted to our prior refueling options, effective December 1, 2008. This means the Flat Refueling Fee, and Fuel and Service Charges based on local pump prices, have been discontinued. All North American corporate-owned Hertz locations, including Airport, Hertz Local Edition and Off-Airport locations in Canada are affected."

So going forward, renters don’t have to fume about tacked-on fuel surcharges when renting from Hertz. Meaning they can spend more of their time feeling angry at how it always seem that gas is $.20/gallon more expensive at the station next to the airport compared with the one they just passed.

Now, how about all the other companies that added fuel surcharges? Some have made similar moves, but isn’t it time more organizations cut costs to the consumers?

--Jon Linkov