Features
25 Oct 17

Tackling the dark side of car rental

Disparity between the actions of counter staff, whether driven by management policy or not, and the publicly promoted values of car hire firms is continuing to place them in hot water.

A raft of bad publicity has helped characterise the car rental industry as a purveyor of second-rate practices including scare tactics, lies and charges for damages that either don’t exist or never get repaired. Reading the papers, it could seem car hire companies have been truly taking customers for a ride. Back in July 2017, Europcar was in hot water and being investigated for a potential £30million fraud after it was discovered that the French-owned firm (and Europe’s largest vehicle rental operator) had overcharged as many as 500,000 customers by as much as 300% for repairs.

CMA acknowledges improvement in car hire industry standards
The BVRLA (Body for vehicle rental and leasing sector in the UK) thinks this perception is a little unfair in light of action the industry has taken in recent years to improve standards. But it recognises there is still work to do. Toby Poston, Director of Communications and External Relations, BVRLA has this to say: “We collaborate closely with the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority - formerly the UK Office of Fair Trading] and are pleased with the acknowledgement they’ve made about improvements in the industry and how car hire companies have set a benchmark for the rest. Now the focus is on brokers, comparison sites, scrapers and all other elements of the industry that help market rental.”

Car hire companies are finding their profit margins squeezed ever tighter because of the popularity of price comparison sites, who are themselves now being investigated. Industry insiders suspect that because headline prices are so tight, unscrupulous counter staff and management are trying to come up with other ways to charge unsuspecting drivers in an attempt to earn bonuses.

Car hire complaints across Europe continue to increase
Complaints about car hire companies to watchdogs across Europe rose by 30% last year. According to the European Consumer Centre, in excess of 500 complaints were received from British consumers abroad. These included: post-hire damage charges, particularly following unsupervised drop offs, disputes regarding unrequested, or overpriced excess waiver charges, plus fuel policies demanding the cost of a full tank irrespective of how much was used. The worst performing countries in terms of complaints were Spain, Italy, Iceland and Malta.

Trading standards watchdogs in the UK and Europe have since 2015 been keeping an eye on hire companies’ practices and advising them to better maintain standards.

Price comparison sites told to improve
The CMA has been working with car hire comparison sites for the past year to ensure customers get clear and accurate prices and information. As a result, there have been significant improvements and standards are better across the sector. Most sites, for example, clearly flag young driver surcharges and one-way fees in the prices they quote. This view, however, is not shared by consumers who have access now to public platforms such as social media where they can voice their grievances.

It is hoped that enforcement action against car hire firms and price comparison sites will lead to big changes in the way information is delivered to customers and costs and the dark side of car hire can be stamped out. 

Authored by: Alison Pittaway