New Car Hire rules

I wasn´t sure where to put this but here seems apt. The new car hire rules which take effect from June 8th.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32481382

Re: New Car Hire rules

Thanks for highlighting this, Clumsy.

What a fiasco. This is yet another example of "powers that be" intervening in the lives of citizens who are living their lives in the ways they have done, very successfully, for decades. And for whose benefit are these changes?

Can you imagine the disappointment this is going to cause to those people arriving on foreign shores unaware of the changes who are intending to hire a vehicle for the enjoyment of their holiday.

Re: New Car Hire rules

To be honest all I can imagine is chaos. DVLC will be literally swamped with phone calls from people wanting a code. I can only think that here in Spain where so many people hire cars that the hire companies will have to deal with the code after the 72 hours is up. Can you imagine thousands of foreigners attempting to call Trafico where nobody speaks anything but Spanish ? It all sounds completely crazy and impossible to me.

Re: New Car Hire rules

Here is another version of the article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...e-changes.html

Re: New Car Hire rules

So that car hire staff are able to check whether a customer has a clean or valid licence.

I don't see a problem with that.

Re: New Car Hire rules

Oh dear. I can´t see a problem with that either, but think of all the thousands of people trying to ring DVLA to get a code, then think of all the tourists who want to hire a car for a week, two weeks or more and they have to change the code every 72 hours. Imagine they can´t speak the language of the country they are in but they possibly have to ring the traffic dept of that country to get a code............you can´t see a problem with that? You must be the only person in the world that can´t.

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This is from the N332 facebook, which was set up by a group of Policemen in our area to help tourists and ex pats with the driving laws in Spain.

"N332 have read this info in a British media, we would like to know if anyone knows if it is true. Is there any official page where we coud find this info?"

Apparently even the Spanish police, and no doubt the police of other countries, have not been informed of this. Considering the number of car hire companies in Europe, and nobody bothers to inform them, this is going to cause them one huge headache.

Re: New Car Hire rules

the British have always been good with redtape!

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I am wondering how this affects non EU people hiring cars in Britain or Europe? We have had photo licences for donkeys years but no one has a personal record of their fines etc.

When I was in the UK I had no trouble hiring a car (except trying to get an auto or one with an engine over 50cc seemed near impossible) no one asked for a summary of fines, just money. Just turned up at a hire firm desk at Manchester Airport.

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To be honest Bruce I don´t think any of this is very clear. Reading the articles it appears that it is only UK citizens who must get these codes, but UK can´t interfere with driving laws and company rules in other countries. So if, for example, someone coming here to Spain and wants to hire a car, then what is the use of this code if the companies here know nothing about it and don´t want to see it anyway? Plus of course thousands of people hire cars at the same time as booking their holiday, either at the travel agent or online. Perhaps I´m being really thick but for the life of me I can´t see how this is going to work, I see only chaos and confusion. Everyone we have spoken to about this thinks it has to be one huge joke.