Europcar found that nearly 90% of its UK rental fleet suffered some form of damage – from major bodywork damage to flat tyres and windscreen chips and cracks – during 2010.

Despite this, only just over 30% of customers opted for the additional Risk Reduction Cover, which reduces the insurance excess payable by rental customers if the car is damaged during their hire.

It is important to remember that although some types of damage – like windscreen chips and flat tyres – cannot realistically be completely avoided, you, as the rental driver, will still be liable for the cost of repairing them.

Ken McCall, Managing Director at Europcar, explains the situation like this:

If a motorist is driving their own car and has a windscreen chip or a small dink or dent in the car’s bodywork, they can choose to ignore it. Car hire companies simply cannot do that. The next customer will expect a pristine car, so we must ensure damage is repaired as quickly as possible and that means we must recover the cost. That’s why it makes so much sense for consumers to take out insurance for damage they may incur, including cover to reduce the excess to zero.

While car hire companies do have a reputation for overcharging on the cost of repairing damage, McCall’s point is valid – not only do car hire customers expect the car to be in good condition, but car hire companies’ business models depend on achieving good resale value for their ex-rental cars when they sell them on.

Reducing Your Car Hire Excess

The insurance excess payment for rental cars can be quite high – often several hundred pounds in the UK.

Most car hire companies allow you to reduce this by paying an additional daily fee. Different companies use different names for this, but it is essentially an insurance product that reduces your excess to a low amount or zero.

Europcar offers two products in this area – Risk Reduction Cover, which reduces the excess to zero and includes on additional driver, and Value Cover, which reduces the excess to zero for the most commonly damaged parts of a hire car – tyres, windscreen and glass.

An alternative that makes good sense, especially for regular car hire users, is to purchase additional car hire excess insurance from a third party. You can then claim on this if you have to make an excess payment to your hire company.

One of the best products on the market is iCarHireInsurance, which offers both daily and annual policy options and can provide cover for car hire all over the world. It is usually cheaper to buy seperate car hire excess insurance than it is to buy car hire excess insurance directly from hire companies.

If so, we strongly recommend that you arrange your car rental and hotel bookings as soon as possible – London is going to be even busier than usual as William and Kate prepare to tie the knot, and cars and hotels will be in short supply.

We can offer a comprehensive range of rental cars from locations all over the UK – including key city and airport destinations such as:

• London Heathrow
• London Gatwick
• London Stansted
• Manchester Airport
• London Victoria Coach Station
• London Victoria Railway Station
• London Waterloo Railway Station
• London St Pancras / Kings Cross Railway Station
• London Paddington Railway Station
• London Docklands

Car rental is also available from all major towns and cities around the UK.

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Car hire companies do things like this to keep their quoted rates as low as possible – but it is a bit frustrating.

Ski Car Hire – Request Winter Tyres

If you are hiring a car for a ski trip, you should make sure that your booking includes a request for winter tyres (also described as snow tyres). If you don’t do this, you may find that your car doesn’t have them. It will be dangerous and possibly illegal to drive into most mountain areas without them, even if it is safe and legal down in the valleys, where car hire offices are usually located.

With our car hire booking system, winter tyres are available as an option in the Special Equipment options. Once you have chosen your car, you will be able to specify which additional options you want. You may find that snow tyres have already been selected, as in this screenshot, which I took from a quote for car hire at Geneva Airport:

My favourite tip is T, for Thirty – the number of miles you can drive in most cars before the fuel needle starts to drop. This is useful knowledge if you need to return a hire car with a full tank.

I would take issue with one of Simon’s points, however. He reckons that car rental companies only ask to see the counterpart (paper part) of your UK driving licence in Northern Ireland. Although I don’t have as much experience of hiring cars as he does, my experience is that there are a few other European countries where you might be asked for it, too, including all parts of the UK, not just Northern Ireland.

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Here’s why.

1. Cost
2. Availability
3. Simplicity

Cost

Booking in advance is often cheaper – the hire company gets some or all of your money in advance and has guaranteed demand for its cars. This means that they can let you have the car for a little less than if you walk in off the street to book a car (not always true, but often).

Availability

This summer has seen unprecedented demand for hire cars in popular holiday locations such as Spain. The reason for this is that the global economic downturn has resulted in many car rental companies reducing the size of their fleets – meaning less slack in low season but extremely high demand for available cars in high season.

There have been plenty of car hire companies that have been fully booked this summer – if you leave booking a hire car until you arrive, you may be disappointed.

Simplicity

While foreign car hire offices are usually pretty helpful and many speak English, this is not always true and booking a rental car in a foreign language can be difficult.

Booking in advance means that you can complete the booking online, in English, and know that your chosen car will be waiting for you when you arrive – all you will have to do is sign a few forms and take the keys. It’s much simpler than trying to arrange a hire car from scratch.

Click here for an instant online car hire quote

1. Ask first. Don’t travel outside a hire car’s country of registration without getting prior approval from the car rental company. You will probably have to pay an additional insurance and/or breakdown assistance fee and failure to do this may well mean you are driving illegally – resulting a raft of potential problems.
2. Know where you are going. If you are crossing to and from the UK, be prepared to drive on the opposite side of the road when you get off the ferry. Whether your hire car is left-hand drive or right-hand drive, at some point you will be on the ‘wrong’ side of the road for you car. Take care.
3. Make sure you are familiar with the rules of the road (e.g. speed limits) in the countries you are visiting. The AA’s website has an excellent guide on driving requirements in different countries – check it out before you go.
4. Make sure you will be able to pay for fuel – ideally have a combination of cash and cards on you so that you will be able to buy fuel at unattended, automated fuel stations with your card and pay cash if your card is declined at manned stations – not all cards are universally accepted around Europe.
5. Remember that in virtually all cases, you can only hire cars for international use if they will be returned to the country in which you hired them – one-way international hires are not generally available, although there are a few exceptions.

Car rental companies know this and do make some effort to help. The booking system we use on CarHirePlace.com provides details on the luggage and passenger capacity of each car.

When you use our booking system to get a quote, along with the price for each car is listed its passenger capacity, luggage capacity and the number of doors it has. For example, here is a screenshot from a quote for car hire in a European location (details may vary for different locations):

Car hire luggage capacity - examples

The Volkswagen Golf is a reasonable size but has a much smaller boot than the 207 Stationwagon (basically a small estate car). This difference in boot size is reflected in the cars’ luggage capacities – the Golf can take 4 pieces of luggage but the 207 SW can take 6 pieces of luggage.

Both cars can take five people, have five doors, air conditioning and a manual gear box (reading the symbols from left to right).

These indicators are useful but they are not perfect. For example:

• All but the smallest cars can take five people but in many cars it is cramped for longer journeys
• The luggage capacity is a useful comparative indicator but you do not know how big the pieces of luggage used to calculate it are!

Despite these limitations, you should take note of  the information provided in the quote for each rental car and use them to compare the different vehicles on offer. It could save you a very uncomfortable journey!

Although this does happen, it is not very common and can usually be explained – and often prevented by you, the hirer, taking a few basic precautions. Here are a few ideas based on my own experience:

1. Make sure you return the car with the correct amount of fuel in it – normally, this means as it was when you collected it. Failure to do this will mean that the rental company will charge you an inflated rate for refuelling.
2. Check the car carefully for damage yourself when you pick it up. Make sure the rental company agent marks down all the existing damage on the check sheet – otherwise they can blame it on you when you return the vehicle.
3. Consider taking additional insurance to reduce your excess. That way, if you do cause any damage, your maximum payout will be considerably reduced.
4. Don’t be late. Late returns mess up the rental company’s bookings – they will penalise you for being late.
5. Don’t leave any litter in the inside of the car and clean up any spilled drinks, excessive mud, etc.. Although these things do happen, unusual levels of dirt may mean that the car hire company levies an additional cleaning charge on you. Don’t worry about the outside of the vehicle too much – normal road dirt is fine, although excessive mud from off-road use may arouse suspicion…
6. Pay any tolls, charges or fines you have incurred. These include parking fines, congestion charges, road tolls and speeding fines. You are liable for anything incurred while you are driving the car – don’t try and avoid them as they will come back to you and often increase with late payment. The rental company may also charge you an administration fee if they have to chase you for the money.
7. If you rent any additional accessories – such as a GPS unit – then make sure that these are returned complete, undamaged and together with the car.
8. Finally, if you have had a puncture and changed the wheel yourself, ring the hire company and notify them as soon as possible during the hire. Do not fail to mention it when you return the vehicle. Although technically you may be liable for tyre damage, I don’t think this always applies to honest, unavoidable punctures – the one time I had a puncture in a hire car (in Madeira), I did not have to pay anything extra for the damaged tyre.
9. If you are collecting your hire car from the airport, always provide your flight numbers when booking – here’s why.
10. If you have had an accident or breakdown, make sure you report it to the police and/or the hire company’s emergency assistance number, as per the instructions you are given by the hire company. Do not try to sweep it under the carpet.

So there you have it – just like most things in life, the risk of problems can be reduced by taking a few simple precautions.

It’s no fun and in some cases it can even be dangerous – if you are stuck in bad weather on a long walk, for example.

Driving’s no different. While modern cars are equipped to deal with most normal weather, you can still be caught out if you don’t know what to expect.

Checking the weather before driving abroad is only sensible. During the winter, many European countries have far more snow than we do in the UK and snow chains or winter tyres may well be required – in some countries, winter tyres are a legal requirement during certain months (check out the AA’s excellent “Driving Requirements by Country” guides for specific details). Most hire companies will supply the appropriate tyres and/or snow chains in the winter – ask if unsure.

Other hazards to watch out for are heavy rain – especially in tropical countries that have monsoon seasons. Until you have experienced a proper tropical downpour, you don’t understand just how much water can fall out of the sky in a short period of time.

Driving in these conditions is dangerous and being swept off a flooded road into a river is possible – care is required and being caught by surprise will make things worse.

To find out about weather in different countries, my starting point is always the Met Office’s website – as well as the UK, they have sections for Europe and the rest of the World.

Here’s hoping the weather does what you expect it to on your trip – but doesn’t surprise you when it doesn’t!

While many people now seem to take the ‘seat-back DVD player’ route to try and keep their children quiet on long journeys, there are other options that will keep your children occupied at without the cost and hassle of an electronic solution.

Here are some links to websites offering ideas for games and other activities to keep children occupied on long journeys:

• Tootie’s Neighbourhood – family fun from car hire company Alamo
• Car Travel Games – a specialist website that sells nothing else!
• Are We Nearly There Yet? Travel fun ideas from the AA
• MomsMiniVan – an American take on travel games for kids

Of course, however well entertained your children are, regular breaks are essential for them to stretch their legs and visit the toilet – and for you to prevent tiredness.

The Department for Transport recommends taking a break every two hours on long journeys. This will help prevent your concentration dropping off and reduce the risk of drowsiness. Remember that a quick coffee followed by fifteen minutes inspecting the inside of your eyelids can really help if you are feeling a little tired.