The Car rentals smart checklist you need to have.
Hiring a rental car can be either great fun or an enormous expense and waste of time. Which outcome you experience is highly dependent on how you manage your side of the deal. It doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong but you will be greatly increasing your odds of success.
I have never been a fan of checklists. I used to think that outside of specialized fields like airplane maintenance engineers, checklists were for the anal retentive obsessive compulsive people that need a list and an order for everything. It turns out my assessment was true but it is also true that having a checklist of important steps and procedures can help you to make sense out of chaos and save yourself a lot of trouble in the bargain.
Hiring a rental car falls into the important stuff category. Why? You may ask. It is not like you actually buy the car. The truth is that in many ways you do. If you have an accident that is your fault and you total your vehicle and you don’t have the right insurance you could end up having to pay a large percentage of a brand new car. Even if you simply have a small accident, or someone does a hit and run on you, you could be responsible for the repairs or for a hefty deductible fee.
This is especially the case in developing nations. In these countries the insurance market is not as competitive and even large car rental companies have difficulties getting the insurance deals they get in more developed countries.
However even in developed countries hiring a vehicle does entail risks and it is well worth spending a few minutes checking you have everything you need and are doing everything you should.
Car rental checklist.
1) Do you have a current driver’s license? You might be able to pull the wool over the eyes of the car rental representative with an out of date driver license or one that doesn’t apply to the country your are in, but if you have an accident it will be much harder to pull it over the cops that attend the scene.
2) Check what insurance your credit cards and umbrella insurance provides. This is very important because insurance is often the main expense when you hire a rental car. There is no point in doubling up your insurance, if your personal insurance covers it why buy it again. However it is important to know because these personal insurances often act as secondary insurance and only work if you have no other insurance cover.
3) Check the vehicle and take pictures. This is very important. Your little holiday, business trip or house removal could cost you much more than you bargained for if miss an existing scratch or bump and the car rental company charge you for it. Check for everything, one car rental company charged me for a missing number plate once.
Checking these three basic points, Insurance, condition of the vehicle and legal documents, could save you a lot of time, stress and money.