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Car hire firms often get blamed for their customers motoring offences?

It must be terrible for car hire firms getting blamed for motoring offences by customers borrowing their cars. I'm thinking of getting a job with a car hire firm over Christmas, who is gets the fines and prosecutions?

I mean if a customer borrows a car and it gets filmed speeding, drink driving etc, is it the company that gets the fines, points and prosecution for speeding etc? Or is it the person who administered the hiring of the car? If the customers gave incorrect details then I guess the blame is passed either to the company or person responsible for hiring the car.
Reply 1
This is why they take a copy of your driving licence. It's usually written on the agreement that any infractions will be passed on to you, and they usually charge an admin fee to send it on to you.
Reply 2
A car hire company would have to be really stupid to let you hire a car without seeing your driving licence (I imagine it has probably been made a legal requirement). They know who has hired the car and will pass those details on when the fine comes through.
(edited 7 years ago)
I got a few penalty charges in a hire car (Cant remember exactly which company), probably amounting to over £200. I didnt receive letters but was given an email saying that they sorted it all out and took £2.50 from my deposit for their time haha

So i guess it probably varies.
The only way the company could be fined (you can't give points to or ban a company) is if they had no idea who was driving the car at the time. If they are stupid enough to do that then they probably deserve a fine.
Original post by Ambitious1999
It must be terrible for car hire firms getting blamed for motoring offences by customers borrowing their cars. I'm thinking of getting a job with a car hire firm over Christmas, who is gets the fines and prosecutions?

I mean if a customer borrows a car and it gets filmed speeding, drink driving etc, is it the company that gets the fines, points and prosecution for speeding etc? Or is it the person who administered the hiring of the car? If the customers gave incorrect details then I guess the blame is passed either to the company or person responsible for hiring the car.


The driver of the car would be responsible for the offences you mention - the hire company has no responsibility towards them (the only ones it would have a responsibility towards would be MOT, regulations, road tax, regulations concerning the construction of the vehicle and insurance for its own staff).

Customers usually have to produce more than one form of ID to hire a car, so the chances of being able to give totally incorrect details to hire a car with are quite low.

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