Collecting and driving your hire car at night can be unavoidable if you’re picking up your vehicle from the airport after your flight has arrived. If you’re planning long journeys or visiting a country that has few daylight hours, driving in the dark can be a necessity. Our tips below will help make your collection and night-time driving as stress-free as possible.
Photo by: Kurmyshov/Adobe Stock
Collecting at night
Out of hours
It’s worth comparing suppliers during the booking process to check their out of hours’ collection fees. Many don’t operate 24 hours, so if you’re collecting in the middle of the night, you may be subject to an out of hours’ fee. These charges vary between suppliers so check the rental conditions. It can also be worth checking the opening hours of the suppliers. Weigh up paying an out of hours’ fee against a 30-minute wait for their usual office hours to begin.
Should your collection be delayed, ensure you tell us and the supplier. Certain suppliers will not track flights and see it as the customer’s responsibility to inform them of collection changes. Even if a supplier is open 24/7, they may close early if they don’t have any bookings ahead. Should your delayed collection run past normal office opening hours, you should expect to pay the out of hours’ fee.
Remember- an out of hours’ fee helps cover the supplier’s operating costs of ensuring a member of staff is available to assist with your collection.
Collection instructions
Before booking, decide how you want to collect your vehicle. In different locations, suppliers may offer different options. You can collect from the airport car park, or perhaps a shuttle bus will take you to the car hire depot. Consider which is more convenient and safer for you. Make sure you’re familiar with these instructions in advance. These will be shown on the website before booking and printed in the rental conditions on your pre-paid car hire voucher.
Surveying the vehicle
No matter what time you collect the vehicle, always take the time to thoroughly survey the vehicle. Make sure the supplier’s representative records any pre-existing damage. If they seem hesitant, remember that we can be contacted at the time on our emergency 24/7 support line and we can liaise with the supplier to resolve this.
Feel free to take photos of pre-existing damage on your smartphone or camera as evidence. Check before completing the survey that your photos have come out clearly and you can see the extent of the damage. Use the flash function if necessary.
If you know it will be dark when you collect the vehicle, consider taking along a small torch to assist the inspection. It can also help highlight damage when taking photos. Should you not be able to take a torch, consider downloading a torchlight app onto your smartphone to use. The torch will also come in handy if you breakdown at night!
Lights
Check that all the lights of the vehicle work before driving off and leaving the supplier. In some countries, it’s a legal requirement to carry a spare set of headlight bulbs so ensure these are in the vehicle if necessary. If there’s any problems, request a lightbulb change from the supplier before leaving.
This may be obvious but we all fall into the trap sometimes- if you’re departing from a multi-storey car park in the dark, make sure you switch your lights on!
Cassowary crossing warning sign. Photo by: Johan Larson/Adobe Stock
Driving at night
Local hazards
It’s a good idea to read up on general driving tips before visiting any new country. Our driving guides contain lots of handy information you should know before driving your hire car. Often at night, certain risks are increased specific to that country. For example, it’s advisable to avoid driving at night if possible in remote parts of Australia due to the high risk of hitting animals, especially cassowaries. If you must drive outside cities and towns in the dark, be extra alert and drive slowly. Bear in mind that if travelling across remote distances at night, there may not be any petrol stations, so ensure you have enough to make your trip.
South Africa is another country renowned for increased risks at night. If possible, avoid driving in the dark. If you have to, stay alert. Don’t stop in an exposed area for anyone, even police. Keep your windows rolled up and if you must stop, be alert for car-jackings.
Don’t stop unnecessarily. Don’t leave the vehicle unlocked and unattended. Don’t make yourself an easy target.
Mobile phone
Ensure that your mobile phone can be used abroad. Pack a charger with you and keep the battery full when driving at night or on long journeys. You’ll be able to use it should any unforeseen situations arise.
Plan your journey
Familiarise yourself as much as possible with the route you need to take when driving at night. Consider taking a SatNav with you to ensure you can see the route in the dark, as opposed to struggling with a paper map.
Protect yourself when collecting and driving your hire car at night
Take out a comprehensive insurance policy to fully cover all damage to the car hire vehicle. All bookings through Zest include full Collision Damage and Theft Waiver (CDW) with no excess liability. We offer a top-up policy competitively priced at just £2.50 per rental day to cover parts of the vehicle CDW excludes. Should you be charged for damage to the vehicle, you just pay the supplier and claim it back on the top-up insurance. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that whatever damage happens to the vehicle, you won’t be out of pocket.
Contact details
For either category above, it would be worthwhile storing our contact details and those of the supplier on your mobile phone or tablet device. The backlight will enable you to read these easily without having issues with readability of the car rental voucher. Consider storing the contact numbers in your mobile’s contacts list for easy access.
Written by Jessica Juby.
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