Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Anyone who wishes to apply for a PCO car with Hirebrid should provide us with the following documents:

1. Driving license (front and back)
2. PCO license (front)
3. PCO paper certificate
4. 2 documents showing proof of address

These documents will then be cross-checked with the DVLA to identify any points or disqualifications which may have been applied to your PCO license. Once everything is returned to us from the DVLA, we will contact the insurance company, who will add the car to your policy, and cite you as the named driver on the PCO car.

Depending on what time you apply, we can generally have you in a car on the same day. Please note that this will depend on availability on the day you enquire, and your successful passing of all necessary background checks. For the most up-to-date information on the availability of our vehicles, please call our office on 020 7722 0020.

The minimum rental period on any vehicle from Hirebrid is 3 months.

Unlike many other car rental companies, Hirebrid does not require our drivers to undergo a credit check. Provided you complete the application form, and provide us with all of the required documentation, and a £500 deposit, you will be eligible for a car, and possibly even drive it off our lot on the same day.

The minimum age at which you will be able to hire a car from Hirebrid is 25. However, in certain cases, we will accept applications from drivers who are 23.

Along with full insurance, all cars available to rent from Hirebrid come with a PCO/PHV license, which will be signed over in your name as part of the rental agreement.

Although it is sometimes unavoidable that you will need to make some personal trips in your PCO car, your vehicle rental from Hirebrid should be primarily used for professional purposes.

We are always grateful for any feedback we receive and any you would like to give. Please go to our trustpilot page or go to google and leave us a review and let us know what you thought of our service.

At Hirebrid, we know that customers don’t want any nasty hidden surprises or sneaky charges, which is why we pride ourselves on our transparency and honesty! The only upfront fee you will need to pay is a £500 deposit which is refundable on the basis that the car is returned to us in the same condition in which it was taken out. Please note that the deposit is non-refundable on the rent-to-buy scheme.

We accept most forms of payment and card types, direct debit or credit. The majority of drivers who come to Hirebrid tend to go with our direct debit (or standing order) offering, which is hassle-free and can be set up in a matter of minutes. Please note that Hirebrid does not accept cheques.

Payments made by standing order will be made every Friday by 3 pm.

The weekly fee for your PCO car will cover the cost of hiring the vehicle from us, as well as your license to use it for your private hire operator of choice, be that Uber, Kapten, Bolt, or others. The fee also includes insurance and servicing costs.

If you miss a payment on your PCO vehicle, we will send you a reminder, which will trigger daily late fees. This is why we encourage our customers to set up a standing order to ensure that they don’t miss a single payment, and can continue driving their car without having to worry about making each weekly transfer.

If you choose to pause your weekly rental payment to Hirebrid, we will take this to mean that you wish to end your rental agreement. This also means that you would need to return the car, and start a new rental agreement if you would like to continue driving with Hirebrid.

Renting a PCO car from Hirebrid will not only give you an affordable, road-ready vehicle but can provide you with everything you’ll need to drive safely. Our weekly rental costs also entitle drivers to a comprehensive AA insurance package, including maintenance and breakdown cover for when you need it most.

All of our cars are insured as standard, which helps give our customers peace of mind and, most importantly, keeps them safe on the road!

Since every Hirebrid PCO car comes with insurance, you are unable to use your own insurance policy on one of our vehicles.

The insurance excess for a Hirebrid PCO car is £500. If any damages sustained are valued higher, this will be taken care of by our insurance.

When you rent a PCO car from Hirebrid, it will be covered by insurance for any accidents which occur. If there are any dents or marks on the car which were not there before you took the car from us, you will be required to pay for the cost of repair. As an ongoing commitment to our customers to ensure they are getting the best PCO car hire service, we will only charge at cost price for the repair works that are required, which is generally taken from your deposit.

In the unfortunate event that you get into an accident in one of our PCO hire cars, we advise that you take the following steps:

• If possible, please ensure that the engine is left running. This will allow the onboard camera to continue recording, and potentially capture any discussions you may have with any other party or parties involved in the accident.
• Please stop the vehicle as soon as it is safe to do so, and remember that it is your legal obligation to do so.
• Takedown as many details as possible, such as:
  • Name of the party involved.
  • Location of accident.
  • Contact and insurance details of all parties involved.
  • Make/model/car colour and registration plate of the vehicle(s) involved.
  • Details of any witnesses or any injuries sustained by anyone.

Once you have taken down all of the above details, you will need to call our insurance provider Haven immediately, at 07132 747100. From here, send an email to info@hirebrid.co.uk, including all of the same details you provided Haven, along with any pictures you have.

If you are involved in an accident, all you will need to pay is your excess of £500. If the incident is deemed non-fault, you will be able to claim this back in the future, once our insurance provider Haven has recovered it from the third party. If you are considered to be at fault for the accident, this may affect you in the future if you try to obtain your own insurance.

If you are given a fine or penalty charge notice while driving a PCO car rented from Hirebrid, the local authority will approach us for payment, as we are the registered owner of the vehicle. We will then contact the relevant council or borough to pass on liability to the named driver at the time of the offence. You will then have the option to either pay or contest the fine, depending on the circumstances under which it was issued.

Everybody makes mistakes, and we have no interest in further penalising drivers if they’ve got one or two points. However, we will not insure any drivers with more than 6 points on their driving license. You have to have had the driving licence for a minimum of 2 years and must have a valid PCO licence.

We want to help as many people as possible get out on the road as a PCO driver. However, we also want to be sure that Hirebrid drivers are safe out there, which is why we will take your accident history on a case-by-case basis. This means that we will look at both fault and non-fault accidents — most importantly, if you have been involved in two fault accidents, we will have to take this into serious consideration.

 If you’re looking to work as a PCO driver abroad, we will be able to amend the insurance policy to allow you to do this. Drivers interested in using their car internationally will incur an extra fee for doing so.

Although covered as part of your insurance, we will also charge a small additional fee for any damages caused to your Hirebrid PCO vehicle. This will usually start from around £25 for a small scratch, and increase depending on the extent of the damage.

If you get a flat tyre while driving a PCO vehicle rented from Hirebrid, it will be your responsibility to get a replacement fitted. We recommend going to your nearest branch of Kwik Fit to have this seen to.

As other people will not be insured in the event that anything happens to the car, you should not allow anyone else to drive your PCO rental car from Hirebrid. If someone else is driving the vehicle and incurs damage, then you will be held legally liable for all charges.

If you are on our PCO rental scheme, you will be subject to a mileage restriction of 800 miles per week. If this is exceeded then there is a fee of 20p per mile.

Provided you have passed all of the background checks outlined above, you will be able to collect your PCO rental car from our office in Park Royal, Acton. This is located just off the A40 behind the Park Royal Retail Park — the full address is Unit 4, Kendall Court, W3 0RU.

We currently offer three models of Toyota cars: the Prius, Prius + and the Auris. The Toyota Prius is the workhorse of the PCO car hire industry, and it is one of the most popular models with PCO drivers. The Prius + is a bigger version of the same model, while the Auris is an estate car, which is particularly useful for drivers who primarily make airport runs.

Once you are on a rental or a rent to buy contract from Hirebrid, you will have to stick to the minimum term for each. Once these have been adhered to, you will have the chance to swap and switch for a different rental scheme if you wish to.

As you near the end of your contract, regardless of which scheme you are on, we will give you a call or an email to remind you. If you would like to extend your contract, you can ask us to send you an updated hire agreement. If not, then we will arrange a convenient time for you to drop off the car back at our office.

Once your hire agreement has finished, and you do not want to continue your time as a Hirebrid customer, you will have to drop the vehicle back to our office where you picked it up from. A map to our lot can be found on our Contact Us page.

If the car is returned late then there will likely be a fee involved. All cases are looked at separately, and we will take unforeseen circumstances into account. However, if there is no genuine reason why the car was returned late, we charge a late fee of approximately £35 per day.

If you have been booked in to return your vehicle and cannot make your appointment, you will need to pay the equivalent of each day’s rent after your return date. If you do not return your vehicle simply because you would like to extend your hire, then you should let us know no later than 24 hours before your return booking. If you fail to inform us of this, you are at risk of losing your deposit.

Taking out a one-month rental on a PCO car from Hirebrid costs  £250 per week. For a two-month rental, this will be £235 p/w, and £225 p/w for a three-month rental.

Beyond the cost of renting the vehicle itself, this cost includes our fully comprehensive insurance cover, servicing, maintenance and 24-hour breakdown cover, provided you adhere to your PCO contract until its end date.

Regardless of how long you rent a car from us, you will also have to pay a £500 deposit, which is refundable.

All servicing on Hirebrid vehicles is taken care of in-house. We have a contract with each vehicle manufacturer, so when your PCO rental car requires servicing, then simply let us know, and we can get this booked in for you, and put you in a replacement car until yours is ready for the road again.

You’ll be happy to know that, when you rent a car from Hirebrid, there will be no sign-up fee. You will need to pay a £500 deposit.