Dvla paperless licence car hire changes

pollypenny

We've never been asked to show paper licences in the USA.

amsquared

I am travelling to Orlando later in the year and I sent this to Alamo -

I have made a reservation for car hire in Orlando via Holiday Autos in the UK. In June this year the UK government are removing the paper counterpart of the driving licence. From June 8th the paper counterpart is no longer valid and we only need a Photocard Driving Licence. The terms and conditions of your rental agreement state that I need my photocard and paper counterpart to present at your hire desk at MCO. Can you confirm what documentation is required. Thanks

This is Alamo's reply

After some extensive research, and hearing that we are starting to receive an influx of these questions, it appears that although we are aware of this upcoming change, our policies have yet to be updated. My immediate supervisor advised that you check back with us closer to your pick up date, as we do not want you to experience any problems at the time up your check in.

So Alamo don't appear to know what they are going to do and the change is less than 7 weeks away.

I've also posted this on the Motoring Board thread

peachyprice

brewerdave wrote: »

people with the old style licences will have to get a one time code as well -and that it is only valid for 72 hours!! God knows what will happen if you are hiring a car in a 2nd week away.

There aren't many places in the world with zero access to the internet/mobile network.

amsquared wrote: »

So Alamo don't appear to know what they are going to do and the change is less than 7 weeks away.

They'll probably just carry on doing it the same as they always have. Just take your paper licence with you and get your code, you'll then be covered for all eventualities.

richardw

The Daily Mash advises http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/stealing-a-car-now-less-hassle-than-hiring-one-2015042897804

EssexExile

amsquared wrote: »

I am travelling to Orlando later in the year and I sent this to Alamo -

I have made a reservation for car hire in Orlando via Holiday Autos in the UK. In June this year the UK government are removing the paper counterpart of the driving licence. From June 8th the paper counterpart is no longer valid and we only need a Photocard Driving Licence. The terms and conditions of your rental agreement state that I need my photocard and paper counterpart to present at your hire desk at MCO. Can you confirm what documentation is required. Thanks

This is Alamo's reply

After some extensive research, and hearing that we are starting to receive an influx of these questions, it appears that although we are aware of this upcoming change, our policies have yet to be updated. My immediate supervisor advised that you check back with us closer to your pick up date, as we do not want you to experience any problems at the time up your check in.

So Alamo don't appear to know what they are going to do and the change is less than 7 weeks away.

I've also posted this on the Motoring Board thread

I've used Alamo at Orlando many times over recent years & never shown the paper part of my licence.

eDicky

benjus wrote: »

So car hire firms throughout the world are supposed to keep up to date with every country's process for handling endorsements? If a tourist turns up at a UK car hire firm with a Chinese driving licence does the car hire firm employee have to call up the Chinese equivalent of the DVLA and ask them in Mandarin if the customer has any endorsements? Or is he/she supposed to read the Chinese licence? (AFAIK the UK does not require the use of international driving permits)

Or do they just get bulletproof insurance cover that will allow anyone, with any kind of driving licence at all, to drive the cars?

I don't know how it works, but the former option sounds unlikely to me. I imagine that car hire firms abroad that deal a lot with British customers and are used to having counterparts might be a problem, but I can't see how it works in the more general case described above.

This raises the curious anomaly of the paper counterpart system for the UK photocard driving licence, probably unique in the world, and the reasons for (sometimes) needing to present it when renting a car.

The only reason I can think of is that a driving licence issued by any other country can be taken as proof that the holder is legally entitled to drive, whereas in the UK some drivers who are temporarily disqualified from driving still retain possession of their licence, and only the paper counterpart indicates their disqualification. So the UK government has to make this known internationally, including to car rental firms.

I don't believe that car rental firms are interested in studying a driver's record of speeding offences etc, and these are not even visible on the licences of other nationalities - they only need to make sure that the renter is legally entitled to drive. So officially they should check the counterpart, and in future the code to access the electronic records, in order to verify the UK licence. But in practice they rarely bother.

So if all that is basically correct (?), the question remains why are disqualified UK drivers allowed to retain possession of their licence? Perhaps because of its use as an ID card..?