Don't be Left Stranded by the New Car Hire Law

AdrianC

It's really only the UK that I'm aware of that even has anything like the paper counterpart to check.

xHannahx

I've never been asked for the paper bit hiring abroad, other than once in Tenerife hiring from an English operated and owned hire company.

kensiko

I don't even know where my paper part is and have hired cars recently without them needing to know about endorsements. Unless this new change forces all hire companies to check, which I doubt, then nothing will change.

duchy

My OH did fall foul of this -on a Sunday . He broke down just outside of London and needed to be in Liverpool.

They refused the hire because he didn't have the paper part and there was no way of checking with DVLA on a Sunday morning so as long as the new system actually *works* I see it as an improvement (I'm another one who has no idea which safe place the paper part is in ).

From my days working in business travel I remember car hire was ften very short notice so an automated system that doesn't rely on civil servants business hours sounds like a better plan !

Nodding_Donkey

This OP is just scaremongering. Car rental companies will get the information from the dvla over a link they pay for. No need to ring premium rate lines at all. If there is do it from the car rental office.

kwmlondon

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

This OP is just scaremongering. Car rental companies will get the information from the dvla over a link they pay for. No need to ring premium rate lines at all. If there is do it from the car rental office.

Yes, car companies will get your information from the DVLA but they can't just dial in for this - only the police can do that. To give them access to your highly confidential license information you'll have to got the DVLA website and get a single-use code that is only active for 72 hours. The article I read suggests printing out a copy of this to take in case there's any kind of problem accessing your DVLA records.

By all means, be sceptical, but read the article and tell me what you think:

http://www.carrentals.co.uk/compare/Dont-be-Left-Stranded-by-the-New-Car-Hire-Law.html?e=CR20150421&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CR20150421&utm_term=Carrentals%20Master

I'm due to hire a couple of cars in the UK over the next year and I'll just give them a call a day or two before collecting it to confirm the procedure. For the sake of a quick call I'd advise people check first.

Oh, and if it's a premium rate to call and resolve an issue the hire company will tell you to use your mobile, it will be as much their problem as if you turn up without a driving license - they'll charge you and not give you the car. T&Cs will cover this.

benjus

The article says:

Bear in mind that if you're hiring in Australia or somewhere equally as far then you'll need to work out your flight time etc

However I don't think I've ever had to show my counterpart when hiring a car outside the UK (maybe not even inside the UK, but I haven't done that for so long I can't remember). I doubt the average Australian car hire company employee even knows that UK driving licences have counterparts - or are they supposed to learn the formats of all licences in the world and keep this information up to date?

benjus

Why do car hire companies even care about endorsements anyway?

In some countries the driving test is trivially easy (Honduras apparently has no practical test and only a short theory one) - yet someone from one of these countries can turn up here, hire a car and drive off in it quite legally. Which must mean that they must have insurance that covers anyone with a Honduran driving licence to drive the car. So why care about endorsements on a UK licence?

Moto2

benjus wrote: »

............. So why care about endorsements on a UK licence?

I suspect they're more interested in whether you're banned from driving

benjus

Moto2 wrote: »

I suspect they're more interested in whether you're banned from driving

If you were banned you'd have had to surrender your licence, wouldn't you?