Airport rental cars -- Why registered in many states?

This past weekend the wife and I flew up to Providence airport to attend a friend’s wedding and rented a car there. I happened to notice that while many of the cars in the lot were licensed in Rhose Island, the majority held Massachusetts plates. I also noticed a few Connecticuts. Now obviously all these places are close enough to Providence that it’s no big hassle to maintain the registrations in the three states, but what’s the point of doing it at all? Why not just register your whole fleet in one state so you only have to know one’s state’s renewal requirements, licensing laws, etc., etc., and so you onlly have to fill out one state’s paperwork? I assume some of these cars might have been driven to Providence by renters who picked up elsewhere, but there were too many from Massachusetts for this to be the only reason.

–Cliffy

Could it be those were one-way rentals that had been dropped there? That is, someone rents in Boston to drive to Providence for one reason or an other, then flies out of Providence.

It’s fairly expensive to register a car in MA, it probably costs less in the other states.

It’s like UHAUL vans, people rent it one way and the cars tend to migrate. I’m sure that each franchise registers any new cars they pruchase with the state that it’s in.