The Travel Program has negotiated contracts with rental vehicle agencies that include passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles. 

Car Rental | Commercial Vehicles

Car Rental

Rental Agreements and Insurance

The university’s rental agency contracts include both negotiated discount rental rates as well as Damage Waiver insurance coverage at no additional cost. These discounted rates and insurance coverage are available to employees, students and non-employees renting a vehicle while traveling on behalf of the university. In most cases when traveling in the U.S. and renting under the CU rates from contracted rental agencies, the traveler should decline all insurance offerings due to the already included coverage. This relieves CU renters and authorized drivers from financial responsibility for the loss of, or damage to, a rental vehicle while traveling within the U.S. on official university business. 

Some additional insurance requirements are outlined below:

  • Renting a car in some countries does require the traveler to purchase additional rental vehicle insurance. This cost is allowable if it is documented/stated that insurance is required in that country.
  • Limited, secondary insurance coverage is provided by Visa when using your university-issued US Bank Travel Card. This applies only when certain terms and conditions are met. Please reach out to 1.800.VISA.911 for additional information and with questions regarding this coverage.
  • Provided insurance coverage allows for companion drivers. This means that if your spouse accompanies you on a university road trip, your spouse can drive the vehicle with no additional fees and with the same university-negotiated insurance coverage on the vehicle during the business portion of the trip. Please note that no insurance coverage is provided during personal travel, even when combined with business travel.
  • Our university contracts eliminate additional fees for younger drivers on passenger cars. Rental car companies traditionally charge additional fees for young renters (defined as drivers under 25 years of age). When renting a car during travel for CU business, this fee is waived for drivers aged 18-25 years old.
    • Note: The definition of young renters can vary by agency and vehicle type The minimum age cannot be waived on some vehicle types – see also the Commercial Vehicle Rental section below. 
    • The minimum age requirement for passenger van rental is 21 or 25 depending on the agency, and the CU agreements do not waive the age requirement on passenger van rentals.

Leisure Rentals

University employees are eligible to receive discounts for leisure or personal travel car rentals as part of our contracts. Leisure rental discount codes can be accessed in Concur under the rental car tab of the Travel platform. Leisure rentals using the CU discount do not allow for young drivers (18 - 21 or 25, depending on the rental agency) and they do not include the Damage Waiver or any other insurance coverage.

Rental Agency Reward Programs

Employees may opt to enroll in one or more of the car rental rewards programs. Employees should add their rewards numbers to their Concur profile to ensure all rentals are automatically applied to their rewards accounts.

Please select an agency below to access reward program enrollment: 

Reserving a Vehicle

Rental car reservations for official university business must be made in Concur to leverage the university’s pricing and included insurance coverage. This includes rentals for non-employee guest travelers and students traveling on official university business.

If your reservation type requires you to reserve directly through a branch office (for passenger van rentals, for example), you can access the university pricing by using the loyalty number found in your preferred car rental program profile. If you are not already enrolled in your selected agencies program, enrollment links can be found under Rental Agency Rewards Programs on this page. It is important you only enroll using the linked instructions to ensure the University’s corporate discount is attached to your profile.

If you are an existing Enterprise/National program member and did not enroll in the program through the CU process, a manual account modification will need to be made by an Enterprise/National representative before your account will reflect the contract pricing. Send update requests to the PSC Travel Team at psctravel@cu.edu. Once this modification is made to the employee’s account by the agency, the employee will be able to make direct reservations with Enterprise with our discount pricing applied. No action is required to update existing enrollments for Hertz or Avis/Budget.

How to Reserve via Concur

             
  1. Access Concur via your campus portal
  2. Under Trip Search, select the car rental tab and enter search criteria
  3. Make a vehicle selection 
  4. Review vehicle information and click Reserve Car and Continue
  5. Confirm your reservation by reviewing your travel details, then click Next
  6. Enter your 8-digit SpeedType and identify if the trip is grant funded, then click Next
  7. Finalize your reservation by reviewing details, then click Confirm Bookings

Vehicle Pick-Up and Payment

A university issued Travel Card or personal credit card will be required by the rental agency at the time of pick-up. Debit cards are generally not accepted. The provided card will be used for payment.

At the time of pick-up, confirm that the CU agreement and associated rate has been applied, which includes Damage Waiver (DW) insurance coverage.

Note: If the type of vehicle being rented is not covered by the CU agreement (such as some vans, trucks, and SUVs), you may purchase collision damage coverage and submit that expense with the other charges incurred during travel upon conclusion of the trip.

Retain Receipt and Claim Expenses

The PSC Procedural Statement for Travel requires that the itemized receipt showing proof of payment is required for all expenses over $75. This includes the rental car payment and any gas charges associated with the rental. If e-receipts are available from the rental car agency, paper receipts need not be attached to the expense report. Gas receipts over $75 would still need to be retained and provided. 

Rental receipts including payments for gas can be submitted with other travel expenses upon conclusion of the trip. 

Rental car charges paid by Travel Card as well as reimbursement of rental expenses paid with a personal credit card should be submitted in Concur – on the Travel Reconciliation report or Non-Employee Reimbursement report as appropriate.  

Non-employees and/or students who are non-U.S. persons or who live at non-U.S. addresses should be reimbursed through the Non-Employee Reimbursement-International (NRI) paper form.

Traveler’s costs including rental car charges cannot be reimbursed or reconciled until after the trip is completed.

Agency Proof of Insurance Coverage

In the event of an accident or other incident involving a rental car obtained through the university’s travel program while in travel status, the damage waiver insurance coverage provided on rentals through the program is in effect.  The required proof of insurance for each contracted agency can be found below:  

Avis/Budget

Enterprise/National 

Hertz

If you are involved in an accident, be sure to contact the local authorities, if appropriate. Also be sure to collect the contact and insurance information for the other vehicle's driver – regardless of fault.  

The traveling employee is responsible for filing an affidavit/accident claim with the car rental agency. Contact PSCTravel@cu.edu as needed for assistance with receiving a resolution following an accident. 

Commercial Vehicle Rental

The university has only one commercial vehicle agreement for box truck rentals and it is with Enterprise. Reservations for commercial vehicle rentals can only be made in one of two ways: online or by phone with Enterprise directly. Commercial vehicles cannot be reserved through Concur. 

Enterprise Contact: 855.266.9289 - Discount codes can be accessed in Concur Travel under the rental car tab.

  • To reserve online, navigate to www.enterprisetrucks.com and provide the appropriate discount code for the CU agreement. The discount code can be found in Concur Travel under the rental car tab.
  • To reserve by phone, contact Enterprise at 855.266.9289 and indicate that you are using a University of Colorado discount code. The discount code can be found in Concur Travel under the rental card tab.

Note: For information on providing employee moving/relocation services, refer to the PSC's How to Buy Moving Services guidance as well as the Moving Expense Procedures and Resources provided by Employee Services.