Aspect Car Rental BlogNews and views about car hire and rental world wide.

Often when people book a car rental they ask about endorsements on their licence, these are penalty points they have on their licence for motoring offenses.

Honesty is always the best policy here, some car rental companies do not worry about endorsements and some do, if you don’t inform the car rental company at the time of booking about any penalty points you may have on your licence you may invalidate your insurance in the case of an accident, regardless of fault.

If you inform the rental desk of your points when you pick up your rental car you may find yourself without a vehicle as the rental clerk can in some cases refuse to let you take the car!

Even though you may read the terms and conditions carefully of the rental company you book your car with, it still is safer for you to notify them and if possible get confirmation in writing that they do not disqualify drivers with penalty points on their licence from renting a car.

If you’re coming to the UK and you book a car hire, you need to be aware of the law as it may differ from those you have at home. Remember when you book your car hire UK you will be required to leave a deposit, usually in the form of a credit card ‘hold’ (where the deposit is not taken from your credit card but is held back from your available credit by your credit card company).

There are two main reasons for this, one is to cover damage you may incur to the vehicle, the other is to cover any motoring offenses you may commit whilst using the vehicle.

When you book car hire in the UK you may decide that you don’t like wearing seat belts, however if you’re caught there is a fine of up to £500 which if you’ve left the country before the fine is issued, can be deducted from your credit card.

Speeding is another offense that many car hire drivers think they can commit without penalty, again, this is not so as the car hire company can take the fine from your credit card. Depending on the speed and road you commit the offense on the fine can be as much as £2,500!

Then there is drink driving, I think most of us agree that drinking and driving do not mix, yet still, so many people refuse to act sensibly and still drink and drive.
In the UK the limit is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood and whilst the police cannot randomly stop you whilst you are driving, they can administer a breath test if they have other reasons to stop you. They can also administer breath tests whilst you are in a stationary vehicle on a public place (road, pub car park, garage forecourt etc), that is whilst you are in control of the vehicle, so it’s no good being parked in your hire car, on the side of a road with a bottle in your hand!!

Just because you’re not driving does not mean you can’t be charged! The penalties can be up to six months in prison, £5,000 fine and disqualification if you hold a UK licence.

So when you book your car hire in the UK remember to check on the driving laws, you can download a PDF of the UK highway code from

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/index.htm

That way you can always be sure of the latest laws and regulations.

When booking car hire, many people wonder about also booking child or baby seats at the same time, often they can’t decide whether to take their own or rent one from the car hire company.

The problem arises when they think that they can make a last minute decision and book a car seat on arrival. Because of course they can’t possible store enough car seats for every vehicle, some people may need one seat, some two and on odd occasions three will be needed.

Remember that in many countries if you have children under a certain age traveling with you, the law demands you use a child seat for them, so you need to be sure you have one.

In the States it can sometimes work out cheaper to actually buy one from somewhere like WalMart than to hire one, especially if you’re stay is over two weeks but, you do have to have something as soon as you pick up the hire car so this option is not always practical.

Many people choose to take their own baby seats as the baby can travel in it safely and be strapped into a plane seat (if they’re flying out on holiday) instead of having to sit on Mum or dad’s lap all the time. Child seats are another matter though and with the restrictions on luggage and the hassle of carrying so much ’stuff’ it makes more sense these days to make sure you book one at the same time as you make your car hire reservation.

Are you the early bird that gets the best car hire deals? It’s surprising how many people believe that waiting to book their holiday car hire will save them money, rather like waiting for last minute deals on flights!

Yet it’s a completely different thing, planes fly independant of how many passengers are booked (unless of course none are booked) so at the last minute an airline may decide to sell some seats cheaply.

Car hire though is different, the hire cars can stay where they stand, ready for ‘walk in’ bookings (where people just walk in to see if there are any cars available) without the rental company having to put fuel in or staff them. There is also the fact that the car hire companies have cut back on their fleets, making fewer cars available for hire.

So to get the best car hire deal you may want to think about early booking, because it means that you are more likely to get the car you want rather than what’s left,especially if you want auto transmission or a ’speciality’ car like a convertible or minivan.