Toronto, Ontario — New report, same problems—supply chain disruptions and parts and labour shortages have led to slightly longer rental periods for drivers across much of the country, according to Enterprise’s Q2 length of rental report.
On a national scale, LOR increased by 0.8 from 16 to 16.8 days in 2023. This rate falls in line with trends, as Q1 2023 recorded a LOR of 18.1 days before dropping to 16.8 days in Q2. Analysts at Enterprise say it is typical for LOR to drop off from Q1 to Q2 every year.
Save for Ontario and Nova Scotia, the latter of which actually saw a 0.4 percent decrease in length of rental (LOR) while the former remained flat, Canada saw slight increases in LOR across the board provincially.
Prince Edward Island recorded the most notable spike in LOR during Q2, rising 4.8 days from 15.1 to 19.9 for the average rental.
New Brunswick experienced the second-most significant change of 2.4 days, from 13.4 to 15.8. Despite this bump, New Brunswick actually recorded the lowest LOR of any other province studied, just slightly beating out Newfoundland and Labrador at 16 days.
Ryan Mandell of Mitchell International says he attributes these general increases across the board to the increased prevalence of luxury vehicles, both ICE and EV, in bodyshops.
“Luxury makes’ repair frequency increased nearly a full point to 15.8 percent of all repairable estimates in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022 (14.92 percent),” said Mandell.
“On average, luxury vehicle estimates are written for nearly two additional labour hours (2.07) compared to common make vehicles, as well as nearly two additional replacement parts (1.94).”
Drivable claims saw associated LOR rise by 0.9 of a day to 12.3 days nationally, with Ontario representing the high end provincially at 13.7 days, while New Brunswick was the lowest at 10.4 days.
Non-drivable claims recorded a national average LOR of 33.7 days for Q2, up 3.4 days from 2022. The highest average provincially was recorded by PEI at 44 days, up 8.6 from last year. The lowest LOR was recorded by Quebec, representing the sole province to experience a non-drivable LOR of less than 30 days, at 26.7.
Total loss LOR is up 3.4 days nationally, bringing the average to 24.3 days. PEI saw its LOR decrease by half a day, and yet still recorded the highest rate at 29.8 days. Newfoundland and Labrador was the clear outlier in this category, recording an average LOR of 14.8 days, up by 1.1.
