Don’t be caught out by the new DVLA rules on car hire

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New rules on car hire for holders of UK driving licences – which apply wherever you are in the world – were slipped out by the DVLA on Monday.

This had been kept so low profile that even I hadn’t heard about until Sunday, and I get more press releases each day than I know what to do with. I also have accounts with Hertz and Avis but neither chose to contact me about this. I knew then that chaos was going to ensue and, as you may have seen in the press, it did.

In summary:

The paper counterpart to your driving licence is no longer valid. The courts will not update them to reflect any convictions from traffic offences from 8th June.

Car rental companies must now log onto the DVLA website in order to see an online list of your offences.

This can only be done by you giving them a code which you generate from the DVLA website no more than 72 hours before you arrive at the rental office.

If you do not generate a code, the rental office must telephone the DVLA to gain access to your records. This can only be done during specific UK hours which means you are in trouble if you are in a different time zone. You must have your National Insurance number available.

None of this applies to Northern Ireland which has its own system.

This is not a truly terrible idea by the DVLA. It is only the implementation which is terrible. Keeping the new scheme a secret, for a start, was not exceptionally clever. Neither was not boosting the bandwidth for the DVLA website which has been unable to cope with the extra number of visitors.

Some rental agencies have now announced that they are waiving the need for a code for a transitional period. This is excellent news if you have a string of traffic offences, of course, as it means you now get back behind the wheel.

If you are planning to hire a car, this is the site you need to visit to generate a code to give to your car hire company. Remember that the code is only valid for 72 hours.

If you are dealing with a car rental agency abroad who does not how to use the code, send them to this website where they can input it and bring up a record of your penalty points.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Polly says:

13 Jun13 June 07:12

It’s been all over the press for weeks now, strange how some are unaware of it. More hassle for the public, doing their own work. Never been asked for paper counterpoint though, ever. Who doesn’t have an NI no though?
- James67 says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 07:43
  
  A subgroup that often needs to hire a car: students and various other visitors and researchers that come to UK for more than a year. For the first year they can drive on their existing licenses but therafter a few can swap it for a UK license but most have to pass test. There will be some in this group who may never get an NI number but I guess most ultimately do sooner or later.
  - Polly says:
    
    13 Jun13 June 07:56
    
    So this ruling plies to UK nationals only? What about dangerous drivers from abroad hiring in the UK, just let loose on our roads then ? Love to know how they will police that lot.
    - sandgrounder says:
      
      13 Jun13 June 08:18
      
      Presumably car hire companies have a way of checking records, just as ours can be checked when abroad.
      
      I worry more about foreign registered cars driven in the UK. I know of a few near me which have been here for up to five years and never seem to leave the country. No doubt they no longer have an MOT equivalent and maybe no insurance.
    - JQ says:
      
      14 Jun14 June 00:06
      
      No, it applies to people renting cars with licences issued by DVLA in Great Britain.
      
      British citizens can rent cars with overseas licences… which I what I do since I couldn’t be bothered to carry the paper counterpart with me anyway
- Aeronaut says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 16:50
  
  Agreed – this change has had fairly extensive coverage in the media, and dare I say it, it has also been mentioned a number of times in the weekly MoneySavingExpert mailshot.
  
  A lot of the coverage I came across was however critical of the government (and DVLA) for not advertising news of the change more widely.
  
  Of course, one of the ways news like this gets passed on is thanks to blogs such as this one!
  - Rob says:
    
    13 Jun13 June 17:03
    
    You may say that … but I read 2-3 newspapers a day (Times, FT, Standard) plus the Guardian app online. I probably get 10-15 press releases a day from across the travel industry. I have accounts with Hertz and Avis. And I heard nothing.
IslandDweller says:

13 Jun13 June 07:24

BA emailed me earlier this week about my forthcoming Avis/BA booking and said Avis is basically ignoring the new rule and accepting licence only without asking for code or print out. Which is exactly how my (very rapid) pick up at Glasgow worked last night.
I rent a lot – I’ve never needed to show the paper counterpart outside the UK, only on UK pick ups.
- Worzel says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 07:36
  
  I imagine that someone in the Transport Office/DVLA is now dreaming up a scheme whereby compulsory(on the spot) eye tests are required before hire!
  
  Booked up a couple of weeks car hire last week(Avis) via Amex Travel with no mention of all of this- and can’t imagine that the people on the desk(this time, Corfu) will be at all interested in DVLA cost cutting!
Phillip says:

13 Jun13 June 07:48

I have only ever been asked for the counterpart in the UK. I have never needed it abroad, however, I would not want to run the risk of going anywhere unprepared just in case!
Heather says:

13 Jun13 June 07:52

This also only applies to those with the newer type photo license. Those with the old fashioned paper ones are fine.
- Danny says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 08:00
  
  That’s simply not true. Please check the Hertz link Flyoff posted, which makes clear it does apply to the old paper licences as well.
  
  On a separate note, does anyone have any experience yet of how this will work with express services like Hertz Gold, where you often go straight to the car and never even visit a counter?
  - sandgrounder says:
    
    13 Jun13 June 08:03
    
    Nope, Heather is right, it doesnt apply to pre 1998 paper licences.
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-licence-changes
    - Danny says:
      
      13 Jun13 June 08:49
      
      Once again, this is wrong. In fact, the link posted above specifically says: “This also applies if you have a paper licence that was issued before 1998” in the section on car rentals.
      - sandgrounder says:
        
        13 Jun13 June 09:05
        
        And here is me thinking she was just saying they were still valid. Cross purposes eh.
bob says:

13 Jun13 June 08:31

99% OF CAR HIRES ABROAD ARE NOT GOING TO ASK FOR this.

But you’d be crazy not to go prepared in case it’s the 1% 🙂
Gordon says:

13 Jun13 June 08:43

I hired from hertz during the week and nobody at their desk knew about the northern ireland exception. Its a stupid idea to have two different systems but i guess their computers cant cope with the different number format
Will says:

13 Jun13 June 08:52

I learnt about this a couple of months ago as I couldn’t find my counterpart licence the night before renting a car and was panicking. It was the first thing that appeared on my google search.

It also got som coverage on the BBC news (front page) in May as there were, rightly, concerns that the system wouldn’t work.

To be honest I think it’s a good idea that the counterpart is scrapped. It was unique to the UK and something other countries didn’t understand. i have only been asked for the counterpart once when hiring a car and that was at NCL. However the replacement system is awful. It would be interesting to know how other countries operate their systems.
Dinky says:

13 Jun13 June 08:53

Hi all, just like to add comment ref both old paper and new card D/L. From 8th June any endorsments will not be printed on paper part like before, but stored digitally online, so therefore even the old paper D/L will have to be checked online for any endorsments,better to get the code and not need that not get it IMOA. I work for the largest UK accident repairer so have had first hand experience of the major problems with the DVLA website. Were now just accepting the driver number and not bothering with the online check as per our H/O instructions. Hopefully the rental agencies will follow suit. Also this should have been implemented back at the start of the year, but the DVLA being the DVLA buggered that up too, as well as now.
- Dinky says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 08:56
  
  Sorry IMOA meant to be IMHO