Hire vehicles
The University has agreed contracts for vehicle hire with nominated providers, please see the Purchasing website for further details.
Our contracts with these providers require us to insure the hired vehicles. Therefore, if you are hiring a vehicle, you must complete the following procedures to ensure that cover is in place under the University's motor insurance:
- Complete a hire car form [Word Document - 27Kb] and return it to insurance-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk .
- Complete a driver declaration form once a year. If the answers to any of the questions on the form change during the year please let us know. Your department should keep a copy of your driver declaration on file but the Insurance Office will require a copy of the form if any of the questions on the form are answered "Yes."
It is particularly important that you inform us of the registration number of any vehicle that you are hiring for more than 14 days because we are required by law to register them on our insurer's database and we risk a £5,000 fine for not doing this.
Cover
Cover is Comprehensive with £250 excess (for which your department is responsible). Windscreen damage is covered with a £250 excess.
Claims
In the event of any damage to the hired vehicle, please contact insurance-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk straight away to ensure that repairs are carried out as quickly as possible.
The hire company should not charge you for the days whilst the vehicle is off hire and awaiting repair or for administrative costs. The negotiated contract that Purchasing have arranged with Automative Leasing and Enterprise states that we "shall not be liable for any costs associated with loss of use of any vehicles by the tenderer under any circumstances."
Taking hired vehicles abroad
We are able to take UK registered hire vehicles abroad, however, you must follow the procedures set out on the Purchasing Office website to ensure that cover is valid.
We do not have insurance for you to drive non-UK registered vehicles that you have hired abroad. In this circumstance, we would advise that you take out the insurance cover offered by the rental company.
Minibuses
If you are hiring a minibus please be aware that minibus drivers must be over 25 years old and there are very complex rules concerning licensing including who can drive and servicing. You will also need a Section 19 Bus Permit. For more information please see the Minibus Guidelines.
WARNING
There will be a requirement for all diesel minibuses registered after 1st October 2001 to be fitted with a speed limiter by 1st January 2007, restricting their maximum speed to 62mph. Please note, that this may mean that there will be a lot of these vehicles for sale and you may wish to consider the cost of fitting a speed limiter before you purchase any of these vehicles.
There will also be a requirement for all minibuses (petrol and diesel) registered after 1st January 2005 to fit a speed limiter by 1st January 2008.