If you’re hiring a car abroad this year it’s extremely important that you read this message!
Thousands of motorists will be landing at foreign airports over the next few months, wearily heading to the car hire desk to pick up their temporary transport, and being turned away empty handed.
When the paper counterpart to your drivers license is discontinued on June 8, there’ll no longer be a legal requirement to keep one.
All you’ll need is the plastic photo ID drivers licence.
But if you want to hire a car abroad, this card alone IS NOT SUFFICIENT!
Instead, you need to go to the gov.uk website after June 8 and get a code which contains your driving record, and take that along with you.
Which is fine (if you know about it) but the snag is that it only lasts for 72 hours.
So if you’re not planning on hiring a car immediately upon landing you need to get online and find a printer before getting to the car hire office.
Personally it seems to be a ludicrous system but hopefully they’ll refine it in the next few months.
Here’s the quote from the DVLA website explaining exactly what you need to do:
“From 8 June 2015, you may wish to check with the hire company what they need to see when you hire a vehicle. If you are asked for evidence of what vehicles you can drive or confirmation of any penalty points, you will be able to request a unique code from GOV.UK which will allow you to share your driving licence details or you can download a summary of your driving licence record. The code will last for up to 72 hours and will allow the hire companies to make any necessary checks. You can also request a code by calling 0300 083 0013.”
Drawn out though it may be, now that you know about it you can at least ensure that you’re not caught out.
