Hiring a car - minimum driving experience question

[Judgeneo]

I spend my time between 3-4 different offices every week, most are in Central London which means the train and tube is easy enough. One is a bit out the way of civilisation though, and takes my 2h30m minimum door to door cycle > train > tube > train > taxi, so I get a hotel for one of the nights.

According to google, if I had a car it would take 1h30m or so to drive from my house, which is much preferable for me.
Of course, I don't actually have a car, so I was looking at seeing if I could rent one for the couple of days and expense it via work. It looks cheaper for than than trains + hotel, so I don't see why they shouldn't approve it.

However, I passed my test in 2012, and haven't driven at all since then. The rental website I was just looking at says that I would need to have driven regularly in the last 12 months to be able to hire with them.

Can I get around this is anyway? Are there other car hire firms without such requirements?

inb4 buy a car, I don't have stable enough finances for that yet - working on it.

 

[AJK]

Last time I rented was with Enterprise, they didn't ask if I had driven recently, or anything similar - just wanted to see the license. Don't think it was in their T&C... I guess this differs from one company to the next?

 

[ZG002]

Never had a problem there, they can't really check you haven't been driving, you could have been driving as a named driver, on a traders policy or even outside of the country for all they know. Normally being of a certain age and holding a full licence for a year is all they check.

 

[sovietspybob]

As long as you meet the age requirement and have held your licence for a stipulated amount of time if you've driven recently or not very rarely comes into it. I know people who live in London who don't own cars and will rent one when they need it which could be years between.

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

I've hired a few times in the last year with Europcar, and they haven't asked. Even though when I turned up at the depot on a bicycle on one occasion.

EDIT: It might be worth making sure your employer doesn't have an account with a hire car company in place.

 

[miniyazz]

I've hired a few times in the last year with Europcar, and they haven't asked. Even though when I turned up at the depot on a bicycle on one occasion.

EDIT: It might be worth making sure your employer doesn't have an account with a hire car company in place.

Well you're hardly going to turn up in a car, are you?

 

[Josh]

I rented a van last night (granted not a car but same small print points)

It asked how many years driving experience I had and told me that each deposit you pay will be based upon, experience, years driving, car type and journey/routes used.

For the 7.5t wagon I wanted it was only £200 but then I have experience.

 

[Judgeneo]

I rented a van last night (granted not a car but same small print points)

It asked how many years driving experience I had and told me that each deposit you pay will be based upon, experience, years driving, car type and journey/routes used.

For the 7.5t wagon I wanted it was only £200 but then I have experience.

Yeah this is what I suspected, surely such information would effect their insureance? Hence price.
But the rest of you don't seemed to have been asked, so I guess it might not matter for some providers.

I've hired a few times in the last year with Europcar, and they haven't asked. Even though when I turned up at the depot on a bicycle on one occasion.

EDIT: It might be worth making sure your employer doesn't have an account with a hire car company in place.

Good point, I'll check with my employer tonight, I've only heard of renting cars for people working overseas so far though.

 

[Judgeneo]

Ok, work does have a preferred supplier, the intranet says 12 moths driving experience, the T&Cs of the company says must have a full clean license for 12 months.

I'm presuming these are meant to be the same thing, even if they are semantically different?

 

[Skeeter]

Does it really matter?

"Have you been driving regularly in the last 12 months?"

"Yes"

"Ok, heres the keys"

It isn't something the hire company are going to check.

Having hired a few cars and vans I have never been asked about my driving experience though. Just check that my license is clean and I've had it more than 12 months.