Many car hirers have been left stranded over Christmas in some of the worst weather the Northern Hemisphere has ever seen.  Motorists in the UK were subject to sleeping in their cars in icy conditions due to thick snow blanketing the road, the Eurostar Cross Channel Service facing cancellations due to the bad weather that caused a backlog of up to 70,000 travellers left stranded.

Across most of North America, it was the same scenario as airports struggled with the additional number of passengers as well as the added trouble of clearing snow from the runways, as well as making it safe from freezing conditions and black ice.  Residents of New York who were planning to rent a car were also left stranded following the inclement weather as cars that were hired could not be taken back to their original destination and had to be left outside cities in a string of one way rentals.

The US National Weather Service recorded about 10 inches of snow on the 19th and 20th of December, leaving up to 1,600 flights cancelled.  Many of these passengers opted for car hire to solve the problems of getting to their destination, but there were simply not enough cars to accommodate all of the travellers.  Car hire firms in the vicinity have been trying desperately trying to get some of these vehicles back into New York for the bookings that had already been made.  They were also forced to liase with other forms of transport like bus companies to seek help for New Year travellers.