Saturday morning at the counter
There is a queue of six people. The first has a photocard but no check code for the online licence summary. The second has an overseas licence the assistant has not seen before. The third wants to add his brother as an additional driver, who is not there. Each check takes time, and the assistant knows the queue is watching.
So corners get cut. A licence is looked at but the endorsements are not checked. An additional driver is added with a name and a promise to bring the licence later. Nobody is doing anything wrong on purpose.
Why counter checks keep slipping
The rules themselves are usually clear. Your insurer and your own terms set out who can hire: minimum age, years held, acceptable endorsements, which overseas licences you accept. The trouble is applying those rules at the one moment when there is least time.
- Hirers do not know they need a check code until they arrive.
- The online check has to be done by the licence holder or with their code, which takes time on a phone at the counter.
- Staff apply endorsement rules from memory.
- Additional drivers are added after the main check.
- The result is not stored in a way you can find if your insurer or a police notice asks about the hire later.
What a missed check costs
A hire to someone outside your insurer's rules is a risk you may not be covered for, and that is a question for your insurer, not us. More often the cost is operational: queues, walk-outs, hires refused at the counter that could have been sorted days earlier, and a record that cannot answer questions after an incident.
The pre-collection check we build
- When a booking is made, the hirer receives a link to complete their checks before collection: photos of the licence front and back, a selfie for the identity match, and their licence check code or the online summary.
- The details are read from the licence and summary and compared against your acceptance rules: age, years held, endorsement types and points, licence category for larger vans, and accepted countries.
- Hirers who pass are marked ready. Hirers who do not are told what is missing or referred to a manager, days before collection rather than at the counter.
- Additional drivers get their own link and cannot be added to the agreement until they complete it.
- At the counter, staff see the result and the photos, look at the physical licence and the person, and confirm.
- The check, the rule version applied and the staff confirmation are stored with the agreement for the period your retention policy sets.
| Rule | Checked from | When a hirer fails it |
|---|---|---|
| Age and years held | Licence details | Refer or decline before collection |
| Endorsements | Online licence summary | Refer to manager with the codes shown |
| Category for larger vans | Licence entitlements | Offer a smaller vehicle |
| Overseas licence | Country list you maintain | Refer with the document photos |
Where the rules come from
We do not write your acceptance rules. They come from your insurer and your own terms, and you can change them without us. The system records which version of the rules applied to each hire, so you can show later what was checked and on what basis.
A faster counter with a better record
Most hirers arrive already checked, so the counter becomes a quick identity match and a key handover. Problems surface days ahead, when there is time to offer another vehicle or ask for more documents. Every hire has a stored check result, which also makes driver nomination and incident questions much easier to answer.
Is this your counter?
- Hirers regularly arrive without a licence check code.
- Endorsement rules are applied from memory.
- Additional drivers are added without a full check.
- You cannot easily show what was checked on a past hire.
- Queues at peak times lead to rushed checks.