As I have said on this forum before, Bernie Madorff's UK outfit was authorised and alledgedly regulated by the FSA.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmBasicDetails.do?sid=127703

308595 - Drive Assist UK Limited

Current status: Authorised
Effective Date: 14/01/2005
Tied Agent:
Undertakes Insurance Mediation: Y
Registered under Money Laundering Regulations:
Address: Tamworth House
Ventura Park Road
Tamworth
Staffordshire
B78 3LY
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Website:
44 01827 319 400
44 01827 319 396
shirley.wall@driveassist.co.uk
www.driveassist.co.uk
Notices: Able to hold and control client money only in respect of non-investment insurance contracts.

According to the credit reference agency I use, Drive Assist UK Plc has multiple CCJs recorded against it. I wonder why.

Trendydad

I am not a brainwashed idiot .. I have 20 years experience in the motor trade and "top trump" you with an Aston Martin pedigree .. Most of the cars I delivered to customers were to replace cars that had been reversed into in a car park .. erm what was the remark again. As for being sacked for a £4 fuel allowance ... was your manager a complete idiot?? .. when I rang mine and said 50 miles in a Range Rover and £4 fuel allowance .. he would say put £20 in and make a note on the receipt ... the telephones were free and the call took 20 seconds and I must have done that over 100 time all calls were recorded so they could see I had rang my manager at the time I said .. covers your backside?? .. as for the £4 a day CDW ... it is something I insist on when hiring a car abroad .. because I dont want a bill ... a small price to pay for a new car of the right size for my needs and no worries about morons opening their doors and denting it!! as an assessor you must have seem thousands of small dents from this type of ignorance .. the damage has to be fixed and paid for by someone doesn't it?

DA are a company trading on legal guidelines .. and very well .. Fuel is the biggest noose around any hire companies neck .. check out the Helphire problems and share price crash .. DA do a good job at what they do the law will not allow them to include the CDW in the hire charges and every customer is offered it .. most insurance companies now offer an Angel policy to cover any problems relating to credit hire vehicles paying the bill for the hire if the third party doesn't .. Look into it people!!

Stop winging about Drive Assist / Helphire / Swift / Albany etc etc etc they are a sad fact of life to anyone who wants a car after an accident that was not your fault.

Sk8m8

The number of complaints is a tiny tiny proportion of the number of vehicles hired every day and yes people are entitled to their opinions ..as am I!

Most of the complaints on this and all the other websites relate to customers being given a larger and newer car than they normally drive ... WHERE IS THAT A PROBLEM?? like I have said before take our the £4 a day CDW .. and you get a nearly new full insured vehicle to use whilst yours is being repaired .... smash it to pieces and it doesn't cost you a penny more than the £4 a day ..NO BRAINER!!!!

The rest of the complaints are about cars being damaged and customers being charged .. (ermmm ...refer to the above paragraph!!) what is wrong with you people if you get a car from the bodyshop most of them will insist on a payment to cover the insurance or you will have to arrange insurance cover for their vehicle through your insurance. Most bodyshop cars are small cars ... if you NEED a big car because you have a million kids then drive assist (or all the other companies like DA) will give you a similar size etc vehicle because you NEED it .. but pay the £4 a day it is worth £4 to drive around in a new car isn't it????

The law is very clear on credit hire replacement vehicles .. you must have a genuine need for the vehicle and not be able to make any other arrangements. If you are happy with a bodyshop fiesta the that's great .. if you need a big estate car .. or a porsche to go to business meetings the Drive Assist / Helphire / Albany / Swift etc etc will arrange one for you ... but accidents happen!! thats how you got the replacement car!! TAKE THE CDW OPTION!!!!!!!!! simples?

Sorry...In addition to my last. To be able to qualify for a vehicle from D/A your vehicle is supposed to be unroadworthy due to the damage caused in your non fault accident. I regularly noted that there wasn't much damage to some customers cars so where is the system failing there? If D/A are trying to get money from you the question could be asked did you actually need the hire vehicle in the first place. I kid you not that I once delivered a car from D/A to a customer where the D/A car had more damage on it than the customers own vehicle, someone somewhere had told this lady that she was entitled to a car that she didn't actually need but it was delivered anyway because the insurance company would cover the cost..
Yes I did bring up matters such as this with management because I personally insure 2 vehicles that are not cheap to insure because companies like drive assist who set themselves up as some sort of Samaritans are ripping off our insurance companies.

As previously explained I too am an ex employee of D/A. I have worked in the motor industry for over 20 years in various roles that I think qualify me to make a judgement here. Yes Drive Assist are operating a hire business and pretty much the delivery and collection side of the business is standard as far as hire companies go with regards to damage and inspection.
Here's the con..... Lets use as an example a scratch on a door, and lets say you, are charged £50 for the scratch, the door does't get repaired at that point in time and subsequently another 4 people scratch that one door during the time the car is on fleet that equates to £250 for that door. I can guarantee you all that I have delivered cars and shown my PDA to customers ad had to jokingly say "sorry it looks like it has measles" on the PDA damage screen. My point being that you will have 5 scratches on every door multiply by 5 doors and that's £1.250 on door scratches alone, throw in a dent and some wheel hub damage and soon the car has totted up a nice little earner.
Myself and colleagues had often commented that on totting up some cars had earned over £5.000
At airfield near Botesford (check it out on sat view on google maps) where D/A keep some of their fleet of cars they have a massive what was a bomber hanger where they have their own vehicle bodyshop employing about 30 or more technicians, where at the end of a cars fleet use they are repaired by D/A then sold (as you'll see on the web) through their own car sales firm as low mileage good condition ex fleet cars at slightly cheaper than new prices.
So D/A buys cars in bulk at cheaper prices, they earn from the hires at high rates. They earn from damage at high rates. They repair the damage as cheaply as possible. Then sell on the cars for a hefty profit.
No other company I have worked for charge for the sort of damage that D/A seem to be able to charge for. Damage that would normally be considered fair wear and tear.
The comments rik100 makes are typical of someone who became too much of a "company man" I wish I had a quid for each time I heard "in case some idiot in tescos runs into you" Well for a start you are insured by no one in a tecos car park as it is off road so that statement alone rik100 makes you a *rick 100 I'm afraid.
I have worked for Porsche and Mercedes Benz and had to assess those sort of cars for damage. I am professional at checking a car for damage, there was nothing D/A could teach me in that respect. But it was always a concern to me that customers were supposed to check for damage to vehicles. I could personally pick holes in other drivers skills in damage assessment so how the hell is Margery Smith of I haven't a clue street going to manage it. Ok at this point some D/A management would say that drivers are supposed to point out damage to customers, BUT sorry, that's not the way I work. A tip from me...always look yourself at anything that you would sign for it's condition be it a hire car a hotel room or a pair of ski's on holiday, Its down to you to spot the damage and point it out and get it logged prior to commencement of use, don't get caught out check once then check again and don't allow yourself to be rushed into signing.

If you have been involved in an accident that is genuinely not your fault then my advice would be to steer clear of D/A and firms like them and hire a vehicle from any of the usual high street hire firms then bill the third parties insurance company, you are entitled to do this and when you add things up there is less risk to your pocket.

I wish that ex drivers would stop defending the indefensible. (rik100) D/A are the biggest bunch of cowboys I've ever worked for, I was told to lie to customers (for whatever reason is irrelevant) I was told to make sure customers get charged for damage or else it would be charged to me and come out of my wages. I was told (but refused) to deliver potentially dangerous cars to customers due to shortfalls in fleet levels. The list goes on and on.........


I am willing as a disgruntled ex employee to give any information or assistance to anyone taking D/A to court.

I was sacked after being given a fuel allowance of £4 for a Land rover Discovery that had an empty tank I had to travel 31 miles a "disco" has a fuel economy of 26 mpg so using my common sense put £6 worth of diesel into the vehicle which isn't disputed yet I,m sacked for theft of fuel and missuse of fuel card. In court D/A state in their defence that in a 6 month period they sacked 79 of their 500 drivers for the same offence.... any one out there like to comment on that???

How is it cheap when for proportionate to your own insurance it is far more expensive per day. If they have so few complaints why is this thread still going? Ask for evidence of the damage request images or alleged repairs if this cannot be provided contact trading standards you have a right to see what you are being charged for, go to the bank and cancel the card that they hold on file ensure you do this and ensure you advise your bank not to allow this coma.

How long did the delivery take? was it proportionate to the collection as you have to go through the relevant paperwork? Who are you insured with? You took out your policy with your insurer write to the MD and demand that they intervene, if worse comes to worse go to court, have you seen Drive Assists success rate, no as they are very unsuccessful in court.

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I used to work for Drive Assist and as far as I know the telephone team explain everything .. depending on what you listen to when they are talking ... most people are just interested in getting a car and block out the details that are being told to them. Words like "courtesy car" are not used .. "Replacement Car" or "replacement hire vehicle" are .. words like "FREE" are not used ... "Assistance in claiming the rental agreement money back from the faulty party" are used .. if you deal with Drive Assist listen to what the staff are saying. When you sign for a "hire car" that's what the cars are HIRE CARS on a credit hire basis make sure you check the vehicle thoroughly . You cannot change the wording on the contracts so make sure you understand and read the paperwork your given ... the small print is standard HIRE CAR documentation. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE OUT THE COLLISION DAMAGE WAVER INSURANCE .. its about £4 a day up to a maximum of 28 days (MAXIMUM about £120 not a lot of money for a replacement car that you don't have to worry about some idiot denting in tescos) ... Drive Assist provide a service .. You have had a accident and NEED a car .. you can hire one from Enterprise and claim the money back from the faulty party but you will have to pay enterprise if you damage their car too! unless you take out CDW .. you do it in spain why not here!!!!! Stop this stupid I didn't damage the car and drive assist are crooks .. they are not crooks they HIRE CARS and charge for it thats their business .... if you lie about the accident then the bill will come to you .. if you are honest and truthful and check everything you will have no problem. THIS COMPANY HIRES ABOUT 2000 CARS A DAY AND THE AMOUNT OF COMPLAINTS ARE MINIMAL .... IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE... IF YOU GO TO COURT AND THE JUDGE SAYS IS THIS YOUR SIGNATURE ON THIS DAMAGE REPORT AND YOU SAY YES THEN YOU WILL LOSE THE CASE .. MAKES THE CDW SEEM CHEAP?

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At the risk of being proved wrong I'll predict the insurers state it is your liability as you damaged the car without the insurers ever informing you of their behind the scene deals that ensure they pay as little as possible and you pay cash for what many other independant hire companies not tied to insurers demands call 'fair wear and tear'!

After all has anyone seen a hire car with a few thousand miles on the clock ever being in showroom condition even after previous customers have been charged for alleged damage? Second after all, if there are 5 'scuffs' on a wheel they cost far less to repair in one hit than fives times one repair at a time. Just one of the ways it seems insurance company hire companies are able to cut the cost to insurers as say five hire customers pay for something or other that is usually wear and tear? Hence, so often any free offer from an insurer following a accident can often be in reality a cost?

I worked for D/A out of chilham.... was the stringent driver called paul by any chance?