Read the latest car rental horrors mailbag

The tricks of the trade used by car-hire cowboys

Institute of Customer Service director joins the campaign

Read the car rental horrors mailbag from week three

Read the car rental horrors mailbag from week two

The original article that got the campaign started and car rental horrors from week one's mailbag

One of the world’s largest car-rental companies admitted last week that its staff receive bonuses if they charge customers for damage to vehicles.

This confirms fears that hire-company employees may be motivated by personal gain when searching for scratches and dents on your rental car.

Alamo and its sister company National admitted that staff at some of its rental offices receive bonuses if they succeed in identifying damage on vehicles returned by customers.

The two companies justified the bonuses by saying: “This is to ensure that the correct person is billed for any damage for which they are responsible.”

National and Alamo also admit that the repairs for which customers are charged are “not always carried out immediately” — although “every car at the end of its life goes through a refurbishment process” before it is sold on.

Other firms, including Avis and Hertz, said staff receive no incentives for spotting damage. But Avis has admitted that, in some cases, customers will be charged for damage they have caused, even though it is never repaired, because the vehicles are sold on at a discount, or “as seen”.

THIS WEEK, the Sunday Times campaign to clean up car hire received support from Labour MEP Robert Evans, who wants the European parliament to consider legislation that will prevent rental companies from applying hidden extra charges.

In a parliamentary question to Jacques Barrot, the European commissioner for transport and tourism, Evans says customers are pressured by car-hire companies to buy expensive insurance, and may be charged for damage they have not caused. He wants “action to address the lack of consumer protection in the hire-car industry”.

Evans says he tabled the question as a direct result of our campaign for clearer, all-inclusive pricing. He was himself hit by a hidden charge when he collected an Avis car recently at Geneva airport.

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“I’d been told the price was fully inclusive, but I was then presented with a €20 bill for winter tyres.”

Paul Cooper, director of the Institute of Customer Service, which is backing our campaign, says companies must ensure they do not charge more than one customer for the same damage. “We need to ask if staff are receiving incentives to rake back money from customers,” he said.

Evans says: “My view is that this is an area where legislation could help consumers.”

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