How Much Does a U-Save Car and Truck Rental Franchise Owner Make?

Officially, it discloses no owner earnings, revenue, profit, EBITDA, or cash-flow figure. Item 19 states that U-Save International LLC does not make representations about future franchisee performance or the past financial performance of company-owned or franchised outlets. That means no official average, median, range, quartile, reporting sample, or percentage-achieving result exists for the 2026 offering. This is an official FDD fact for the current U.S. franchise offer, not an estimate.

The absence of an Item 19 financial performance representation is why this article uses Mode D: Structural FDD-Anchored Estimate. The FDD supplies operating structure and contractual costs, but the revenue and margin inputs must come from a separately identified industry proxy. The FTC’s guide to buying a franchise explains that buyers should scrutinize any earnings information and speak with current and former franchisees.

What does Item 20 say about the outlet population?

Item 20 officially reports 67 franchised outlets and zero company-owned outlets at December 31, 2025. The franchised system began 2025 with 72 outlets, opened none, recorded five terminations, and ended with 67. Those counts describe system movement; they do not disclose why individual locations terminated or whether any outlet was profitable. U-Save also reported no transfers during 2023–2025. See 2026 FDD, Item 20, pages 30–33.

Because there are no company-owned U-Save outlets and no Item 19 results, the model cannot use a same-brand operating statement. The comparison therefore relies on a much larger operator whose airport mix, purchasing scale, fleet funding, corporate overhead, pricing, and geography may differ substantially from a local U-Save franchise.

The estimated range is derived from a 20-vehicle opening-fleet model, not reported by the franchisor. The 2026 FDD requires an opening fleet of 20 vehicles. The base revenue calculation assumes those 20 vehicles remain available throughout a full year and applies 2025 Avis Americas revenue per day and vehicle utilization; the Conservative and Upside revenue anchors are explicit 80% and 120% analytical spreads around that base.

The 69.9% utilization and $68.75 revenue-per-day inputs come from Avis Budget Group’s 2025 key-metrics filing with the SEC. The base 6.2% proxy margin is derived from $552 million of 2025 Americas Adjusted EBITDA divided by $8.9 billion of revenue in the company’s 2025 Form 10-K. The scenario margins are 3.2%, 6.2%, and 9.2%—a transparent sensitivity of three percentage points below and above the benchmark.

Calculations use full-precision inputs and round displayed dollar amounts to the nearest $100. The scenario labels are not probabilities, forecasts, quartiles, or franchisor-reported performance bands.

What exactly is included in the manager-run result?

The result is an operating proxy after the four modeled recurring obligations, before personal income taxes and financing principal. The modeled fees are the Year 3+ royalty rule, Marketing Fund rule, $5,000 annual local-advertising minimum, and current $75 monthly GDS support fee. The Avis Adjusted EBITDA proxy reflects labor and management expense, vehicle depreciation or lease charges, and vehicle interest at a large-company segment level. It therefore represents a manager-run cost structure, but it does not reproduce a U-Save franchisee’s debt structure, non-vehicle depreciation, capital expenditures, working capital, tax profile, or cash distributions.

The fully loaded model treats U-Save’s Marketing Fund and local-advertising requirements as additional to the proxy result. Some marketing expense is already embedded in the Avis operating benchmark, so this may be conservative. If those required U-Save marketing payments replace rather than add to comparable marketing already embedded in the proxy, the manager-run result could improve by approximately $11,000–$13,400 across the scenarios. The FDD does not provide enough expense detail to resolve that overlap.

The owner-operator figure is higher because it adds the economic value of management labor, not because the business suddenly generates more profit. Item 15 requires the franchisee to personally supervise, devote full time, and manage day-to-day operations. A non-owner manager requires prior written approval and must complete required training. This makes active ownership the contractually central model for the 2026 U.S. offer.

The labor adjustment uses the May 2025 national median hourly wage of $50.85 for General and Operations Managers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage table. Multiplying $50.85 by 2,080 full-time hours produces $105,768 of annual labor value. It excludes employer payroll taxes, benefits, overtime, and geographic wage variation.

The modeled core fee load is approximately $29,900–$39,600 per year, or about 9.4%–10.7% of scenario revenue. These figures are derived from 2026 FDD Item 6 and apply the Year 3+ royalty minimum. They are not the complete operating-cost burden and do not include every reservation-dependent or event-driven fee.

Item 6 also lists booking fees of $5–$20 per reservation, broker commissions of 10%–32% per reservation, broker overrides or marketing contributions of 10%–25% per reservation, no-show fees, complaint and dispute costs, and a currently $0 Internal Systems Fee that may rise to $500 monthly. Those items are excluded because the FDD does not disclose reservation volume, broker-channel mix, incidents, or future technology assessments. They can materially reduce results.

The FDD defines Gross Revenue broadly to include rental charges, time and mileage charges, counter products, and damage-waiver purchases, with specified exclusions for taxes, documented refunds, promotional discounts, and damage charges. Percentage fees therefore apply to a broader base than rental-day revenue alone may capture. See 2026 FDD, Item 6, pages 5–9.

The largest unresolved uncertainty is the outlet-level cost structure, especially fleet economics and reservation-channel costs. The answer is uncertain because the 2026 FDD supplies no U-Save revenue distribution or operating expense statement, and the external proxy reflects a much larger operator. The scenario range should be treated as a decision framework for a 20-vehicle outlet, not as a forecast for any particular territory.

• Fleet utilization and revenue per dayA few percentage points of utilization or several dollars of daily pricing can materially change annual revenue. Local replacement-rental demand may not resemble Avis’s Americas mix.
• Vehicle depreciation, leasing, and interestThe FDD allows vehicles to be purchased, leased, or financed. Fleet age rules and rotation costs can change both accounting profit and cash flow. Debt principal is not deducted in this model.
• Reservation-channel mixBroker commissions and overrides are stated per reservation and can be large. Direct, insurance-replacement, local commercial, and broker-generated rentals may have materially different economics.
• Insurance, claims, and local occupancyThe FDD estimates rent at $2,000–$8,000 monthly for 300–1,500 square feet and requires substantial insurance coverage. Neither amount is standardized across markets.
• Owner role and approved managementFull-time owner management is required unless U-Save approves a non-owner manager. Owner-operator benefit falls if the owner performs fewer management duties or must hire additional supervision.
• Marketing-cost overlapThe model treats U-Save’s Marketing Fund and local minimum as incremental. If they replace comparable marketing already embedded in the proxy, residual earnings could be higher; if additional local spending is needed, results could be lower.

Why is the evidence confidence rated Limited?

The Limited rating reflects the absence of same-brand Item 19 financial data. The FDD facts are current and specific, but the revenue and margin model materially depends on Avis Americas results, a 20-vehicle assumption fixed by U-Save’s opening requirement, and an editorial 80%/100%/120% revenue spread with a plus-or-minus three-percentage-point margin sensitivity. The Census definition for NAICS 532111, Passenger Car Rental, supports the industry match, but government and public-company aggregates are not per-franchise evidence.

A buyer should replace every proxy with current U-Save outlet records wherever possible. The following checks are the most decision-relevant because Item 19 provides no official financial performance representation and the modeled result is highly sensitive to fleet and channel economics.

• Ask for the latest FDD and every amendmentConfirm whether Item 19 remains unchanged immediately before signing and whether any written substantiation is provided for a specific existing outlet.
• Interview current and former franchisees from Item 20Request annual rental days, average fleet size, utilization, revenue per day, Gross Revenue, broker mix, insurance cost, vehicle depreciation or lease cost, interest, staffing, and owner hours.
• Reconcile actual fee statementsSeparate the 6% royalty, 2% Marketing Fund, local advertising, GDS support, booking fees, broker commissions, overrides, no-show charges, disputes, and technology assessments.
• Confirm manager approval in writingIf the plan is manager-run, verify that a non-owner manager will be approved and price the complete compensation package, not salary alone.
• Build a fleet cash-flow scheduleModel purchase or lease payments, vehicle interest, depreciation, maintenance, tires, registration, recalls, downtime, disposal proceeds, and replacement cadence separately from operating earnings.
• Investigate 2025 outlet terminationsItem 20 reports five terminations. Ask the franchisor and listed former franchisees about the circumstances without treating the count itself as a profitability measure.
• Keep taxes and debt principal separatePersonal tax outcomes depend on entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances. Financing principal payments reduce cash but are not an operating expense.