Hiring a car on 2nd provisional?

eth0_

I'm on a second provisional and am moving house at the end of the month and was wondering if there are any car hire companies that will hire to someone on a 2nd provisional?

I see on Europcar's site they require a full licence to hire a van, but it doesn't say this for hiring a car..

crosstownk

AFAIK, practically all rental companies require a renter to have a full licence. Some even require that a full licence has been held for a year before renting.

seamus

Yep, their insurance usually only covers full licence holders over 23/25. To hire a van you need your own commercial insurance.

Alun

Not a hope in hell.

Linford

seamus wrote:

Yep, their insurance usually only covers full licence holders over 23/25. To hire a van you need your own commercial insurance.

Seamus, are you saying that a fully licensed driver over 23/25 has to have their own commercial insurance to hire a van? This is not the case, I have hired vans (Ford Transits) on a number of occassions when moving house and I haven't had to use my own insurance.

daedalus2097

Some car rental companies will rent to provisionals under certain circumstances, for example being over 23, paying a large extra fee on the car and limiting to group C cars and below. Rental companies quite often have a stipulation that you have to have had a full licence for a year but in practice this was never a problem for me in my first year. A van is asking a lot in fairness, but you might be able to rent a car and make a few runs at it.

As regards the insurance, provided your licence covers you to drive the van, the rental company will insure you for it for private use only normally. This would include moving house yourself or buying furniture or something, but not if you needed to use it for your job. If your job needs a van though you'd probably already have commercial insurance...

michaelanthony

I got a ford focus for a week from Enterprise on a provisional. My insurance company arranged it for free after I wrote off my car. Maybe this is a special circumstance though.

daedalus2097

Hmmm... That could be it alright... Are you on Enterprise's insurance or your own? It's possible people would be more likely to let you rent a car if you temporarily transferred your own insurance to it (assuming it was fully comprehensive). I did that once when my car was written off - though I had a full licence...

MrPudding

michaelanthony wrote:

after I wrote off my car.

I hope you and the full licence holder that was accompanying you were not hurt.:D

MrP

michaelanthony

What full license holder? I was on my second provisional license. Otherwise the insurance would not have paid for anything.