Hiring a car in the EU

If you’re heading to Europe, either on holiday or for business, you need to be aware of recent regulation changes regarding the documents you’ll need when hiring a car. You used t need the paper part of your UK driving license but now things have changed.

Earlier this year, the DVLA scrapped the paper part of the license in an effort to save money and red tape. The paper part holds details of any previous convictions and offences and, as such, was used by hire car companies to check a driver’s history. In place of the paper license, you now need to present a hire company with a code obtained from the DVLA’s website. This code allows the hire company to check your history online.

The code is only valid for three days so if you don’t plan ahead you will be relying on being able to access the DVLA’s website or their phone line when you need to hire a vehicle.