The A to Z of car hire reviewed

The Independent's travel supplement had a feature on Saturday 7th August 2010 entitled "The A to Z of car hire".

We are now in the middle of the 2010 summer holiday season and there do not appear to have been many reports of car hire shortages this year - possibly as a result of the old supply and demand rules - higher prices at peak time.

The Simon Calder article is interesting coming up with interesting facts in the A to Z. F - Ford owned the world's largest car hire company Hertz for a decade up till 2005.

The twenty six topics are covered well and some have been mentioned in this blog or in artices in the insurance4carrental.com site. Here is a small selection

"Brokers: Intermediaries who may, thanks to their extra buying power, be able to get you a better deal than going direct." Holidayautos.co.uk is quoted.

"Insurance: - where many elements of the car-rental industry make lots of money, selling "supplemental liability insurance", "personal accident insurance". Book and pay for everthing in advance and for the one element to which the usual rental is exposed - collission damage - you can buy a fixed-rate annual waiver in advance. Just search on line" - No insurance company was quoted, however by going to www.insurance4carrental.com there is a choice of six.
insurance4carhire, daily excess, Questor Essential Travel, Odyssey and Icarhireinsurance.

Empty: - the state of your wallet if you return the car without fuel when the company is expecting it to be full to the brim. A punitive price for fuel is usually applied........" This has been covered on the insurance4carrental site in detail with one car hire company in Ireland actually putting a sticker on the speedometer to return the car empty.

"Premium location surcharge : - usually for big cities. In Ireland, Dollar has a €28 fee for picking up in Dublin or Cork rather than from smaller towns." This subject has been covered a lot on the insurance4carrental.com site under "Topics on car hire and van hire to take a look at....A-Z listing"

Another subject covered on this blog in June was about "Drink drive limits" http://carhireexcessinsurance.blogspot.com/2010/06/lower-drink-drive-limits-in-ireland.html
Under "Wine – even a sip will send you over the limit, and invalidate your insurance in Pakistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Romania, Jordan and Nigeria, according to Rhinocarhire.com, which produces a comprehensive guide.."

"Xs: -industry shorthand for insurance excess, ie that amount you have to pay towards damage or loss. Typically £500, €500 or $750, unless you pay insurance to reduce it." Again no mention of companies offering this, but if you go to http://www.insurance4carrental.com/#Click you can find those six providers.

A very interesting article and this can be viewed on line at The Independent's web site Here