Remember to check the hire vehicle on collection
Once the hire vehicle has been booked and is ready for collection at the airport, most people will be in a rush to proceed to the hotel or villa immediately.
Before you get behind the wheel of your hire vehicle, it is defiantly a good idea to walk around it and check the car for any scratches, stone chips, missing hub caps etc.
All hire companies will have different procedures, and in most instances they will not make a big deal out of a small scratch. There is however no guarantee that this is the case, and if you drive away in the vehicle with minor damage which is not noted in the paperwork, you may risk having to pay the repair.
Collection and delivery of a hire vehicle
All hire providers will require a credit card when entering into a hire contract. Therefore, it is easy for them to ensure that a customer pays for any damages discovered upon delivery of the vehicle – sometimes after the customer has left the premises and is on the flight back. It is therefore always best to get the hire company to confirm that the vehicle is in the same condition as it was on collection when delivering it back.
Particularly the hire companies situated in the main airports in the UK, as well as the larger companies in airports in Europe’s capital cities have created a system for handling deliveries and will check the vehicle thoroughly upon its return.
All hire cars have got a little sketch of the vehicle where scratches and chips are noted. It takes no more than 5 minutes to check and it could save you hundreds of Euros worth of excess.
The staff working in the hire vehicle industry are often pressed for time and may not discover scratches until the next customer delivers the vehicle back to base. They are under strict orders not to allow minor damages (as many companies have) and therefore it is always best to perform an inspection of the vehicle’s condition before leaving the hire company’s premises.
Keep in mind that some minor glass damage may only be visible from the inside of the vehicle.
Topics: collection, check, excess, delivery, credit-card, damage
