A formal courtesy car policy helps garages manage vehicle lending, reduce disputes and clarify customer responsibilities. It should cover driver eligibility, insurance, excess payments, vehicle condition, permitted use and return arrangements. Effective courtesy vehicle tracking also helps prevent double bookings, monitor availability and manage servicing, particularly for garages operating multiple courtesy cars.
Find out how you can track and manage your courtesy vehicles with TechMan. Book a demo today.
Offering a courtesy car is a great way for garages to keep customers moving while their own vehicles are being serviced or repaired. Your customers will appreciate a temporary replacement that doesn’t disrupt their regular routines of school runs, workplace commutes or everyday errands. It also makes the garage experience more comfortable and convenient.
UK garages have no legal or code obligation to offer customers a courtesy car. Offering one is a discretionary service and often needs to be booked before customers bring their vehicle in for a service or repair.
But lending a courtesy car also comes with certain responsibilities. What happens if the courtesy car is involved in an accident or returned late? Who pays the insurance excess on a courtesy car?
Without a clear, formal policy, a small courtesy car scheme can lead to unnecessary disputes, unexpected expenses and administrative issues. This guide explains whether you need a formal courtesy car policy, how these schemes work, what to include and how garage management software such as TechMan can make courtesy vehicle tracking easier.
A garage courtesy vehicle scheme allows customers to temporarily use a garage-owned, leased or otherwise authorised vehicle while their own car is undergoing repairs, maintenance or servicing.
Typically, a courtesy car process involves:
Some garages charge for this service, while others offer it free of charge. Either way, independent UK garages are not required by law to maintain a separate, formal written courtesy car policy. If your garage provides courtesy vehicles, you must comply with applicable insurance and vehicle requirements and should have clear customer terms and a proper system to manage bookings.
You may find a verbal agreement on terms enough when you have one or two courtesy cars available. But problems crop up when customers and staff have different expectations.
For example, a customer returns a courtesy car with a scratched bumper. The customer claims the damage was already there, but your service advisor remembers handing the vehicle over damage-free. In such situations, a documented vehicle condition report, dated photographs or a signed handover record can establish the vehicle’s condition at handover and return and when the damage really occurred. This can make disputes easier to resolve.
In case of an accident, your customer may assume your garage’s insurance covers all costs. But the insurance policy may include an excess, exclusions and restrictions on who is permitted to drive. So who pays the excess on a courtesy car? Explaining these terms is crucial before handing over the vehicle to the customer.
Consider a situation where a customer is due to return a courtesy car on Wednesday, but the repair takes another two days. If your team has already promised that vehicle to another customer on Thursday, you now have two customers expecting the same courtesy car. You need a clear booking and availability process to avoid clashes as your garage gets busier.
If your garage offers courtesy cars, its policy should clearly explain the terms in plain English and be made available before customers accept a courtesy car.
Before lending any vehicle, ensure the customer is insured to drive it. Some garages cover customers through their motor trade insurance policy, while others may use separate arrangements agreed with their insurer.
The insurance excess is the amount you pay toward an insurance claim before the insurer covers the remaining eligible costs.
So if a customer damages a courtesy car and the applicable policy has a £500 excess, you, the garage, may be responsible for the excess payable under the policy. Whether you recover this £500 from the customer depends on the courtesy car agreement and the terms agreed before the vehicle was supplied and whether those terms are fair and enforceable under applicable consumer law.
When your garage operates more than one courtesy car, managing them can get tricky, and you risk double bookings and customers left waiting for a car.
Why not manage courtesy car bookings alongside your workshop bookings?
With the right garage management system, you can link courtesy cars to workshop appointments, log fuel costs and keep track of their MOT and servicing dates.
TechMan offers a courtesy vehicle management feature to help your garage manage its courtesy fleet along with everyday workshop operations.
For busy and growing garages, TechMan brings all key courtesy vehicle information into one place and helps you to manage it more easily. With TechMan’s advanced features like accounting, customer management, personnel management, stock control and reporting, you can better manage your garage operations and keep everything running smoothly.
Click here to learn more about our software or contact us to request a demo now.
Explore TechMan in real-time in a working garage and see how our extensive integrations can simplify your operations and save hours of time every day.
