“The supply of cars dropped tremendously due to car rental companies having to sell them off to cut costs,” explains Sridhar Tayur, professor of operations management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. “The demand for rentals increased because of vaccinations and other conditions conducive to travel. Adding new cars to the fleet is hard because of a chip shortage restricting car production.”

One of the most high-profile new entrants is Avail, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service backed by Allstate Insurance. Avail sets itself apart from such competitors as Turo and Getaround by addressing major car-sharing turnoffs: choosing insurance and dealing with owners.
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