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

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Marlene says:

  13 Jun13 June 13:10

  I did receive an email from hertz about it. Strangely enough i have rented countless cars in the US and I NEVER been asked for the paper counterparts and they were fast cars…so I don’t know where this rule is coming from, I guess Ive been lucky!

• Janeyferr says:

  13 Jun13 June 18:33

  Avis and Budget emailed me about it. Bit surprised that Enterprise did not, as that’s who I usually use.

• bob says:

  13 Jun13 June 18:34

  europcar email

  A valid driver’s licence for each driver. If you hold a UK driving licence we will need to see either the photocard or the paper licence (whichever applies) and for hires from June 8th onwards, the one-time passcode generated by DVLA’s online licence validation service ‘Share Driving Licence’

• Kais Al-Hassani says:

  13 Jun13 June 19:24

  I went to the web site to generate the code but it cannot recognise my details. I phoned them and they gave me the code.
  I am coming back from my holiday at 2:30am, I cannot generate the code from the web site and it cannot call the office at that time what am I going to do?

  The DVLA are amatures. They have not got plan B when plan A does not work.

• bob says:

  13 Jun13 June 19:45

  Gave it a test run as I’ll need it soon, you get:
  Your check code is:

  Zdp****F

  This code:
  •is case sensitive
  •is only valid for 72 hours
  •can only be used once

  But at least I proved I can be recognised! 🙂

• bob says:

  13 Jun13 June 19:47

  Thinking about it, another ‘must store online’ document alongside passport scan.

• scooby99 says:

  14 Jun14 June 11:51

  Avis emailed me about this before it came into effect & 2 weeks before my rental.

  • ADS says:

    14 Jun14 June 12:15

    I got an email from Avis on 20th May entitled “Renting with Avis and DVLA UK Counterpart Changes”, as well as having seen stuff in the press beforehand.

    Seems bizarre to bring these changes in during the summer holidays – when presumably car rentals are much higher. Although, like others, I’ve never been asked for my counterpart when hiring abroad.

• Chris H says:

  15 Jun15 June 00:00

  hi, good post for a heads up!

  Just wanted to mention, the DVLA for Northern Ireland now moved over to Swansea to merge with the rest of the UK. Do you know if this impacts NI citizens or not?

  • Tony W says:

    15 Jun15 June 13:43

    Isn’t the UK driving licence the same format as other European ones?

    Nowhere in all the press coverage about this change (and there has been quite a lot so don’t know how you missed it Rob!) does it say how convictions are handled on the continent. So of I’m a French citizen for example how do the car hire companies check out my record as my understanding is that only the UK had the separate paper counterpart?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.