DDB 75 British Vehicle Rental and Leasing
Association
Joint Committee on the
Draft
Disability Discrimination
Bill
Written Evidence from:
British Vehicle Rental
and Leasing Association
River Lodge
Badminton Court
Amersham
BUCKS HP7 0DD
Tel: +44 1494 434747
Fax: +44 1494 434499
E-mail: info@bvrla.co.uk
Web: www.bvrla.co.uk
Table of Contents
| Table of Contents
| Page 2 |
| Introduction |
Page 3 |
| Executive Summary
| Page 5 |
| General Comments
| Page 7 |
| Specific Comments
| Page 8 |
| Annex A
Consultation Response on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 - Part III, Proposals to Lift the Exemption for Transport Services
| Page 15 |
Introduction
Response from: British Vehicle Rental
and Leasing Association
Address: River Lodge
Badminton Court
AMERSHAM
Bucks HP7 0DD
Contact: Mr Jay Parmar, Head of Legal
Services
Phone: +44 1494 434747
Fax: +44 1494 434499
Email: parmarj@bvrla.co.uk
Bona-fides
BVRLA, the Industry and its Members
- The BVRLA is the representative
trade body for the companies engaged in the operating leasing
of cars and commercial vehicles. Its Members provide short-term
self-drive rental, contract hire and fleet management services
to corporate users and consumers. The BVRLA has 842 Members of
widely differing sizes, who operate and manage a combined fleet
of 2.5 million cars, vans and trucks.
- BVRLA Members provide a vital service
to UK industry and commerce, facilitating the movement of goods
and people for essential business purposes. Members buy around
1 million new vehicles every year, at a cost of nearly £14
billion, representing the biggest volume of purchases by any fleet
sector. In making these purchases, Members are a major support
to the UK automotive industry. In addition, by way of ancillary
services, our Members spend an additional £2 billion.
- Together the Rental, Leasing and
Commercial Vehicle Membership provide the significant voice of
an industry, which purchases over 40% of all new vehicles registered
per annum in the United Kingdom. This, combined with the diversity
of BVRLA Members creates a unique organisation where one Association
represents three combined sectors allowing Members to share representation
on committees and in the activities of the BVRLA.
- BVRLA Members subscribe
to a Code of Conduct which sets out stringent standards in terms
of the operation of vehicles and the commercial propriety of their
businesses. The BVRLA adopts a strict process of vetting applications
for Membership.
Executive Summary
1. The BVRLA and its Members share
a wealth of experience and operational knowledge to recognise
the rationale for extending Part III of the Disability Discrimination
Act (DDA) to include vehicle rental services.
2. We welcome the opportunity to offer
our written submission to the Joint Committee on the Draft Disability
Discrimination Bill, and for us to share and raise our specific
concerns with the practical implications our Members have highlighted
to us. It is on this basis that we feel this matter should be
sufficiently debated, to ensure that the Bill strikes a fair balance
between removing any undue discrimination that may be being imposed
on the disabled community, and that the obligations imposed on
the vehicle rental sector are; achievable, realistic and importantly
proportionate.
3. We therefore commend that sufficient
importance is placed towards ensuring that future legislation
is sufficiently clear and concise as to what reasonable steps
a rental vehicle company should take, and that this may be delivered
through a Code of Practice, which we have been positively discussing
with Department for Transport, Disabled Drivers Association and
Disabled Drivers Motor Club. As a pre-requisite to our support
of extending Part III to the vehicle rental sector, we endorse
the importance for a Code of Practice that embraces our call for
a pragmatic and realistic approach when dealing with the obligations
to be adhered to by our Members.
4. Moreover, we feel that the obligations
and expectations are achievable, but only if the proposals do
not prove to be unduly onerous or indeed operate in a manner that
threatens the commercial viability of providing the service in
the market place.
5. We note the reference in the invitation
letter to leased vehicles, which we would argue should fall outside
the scope of the Bill, as this is not a provision of transport,
but more a long-term financial arrangement, whereby the customer
will enjoy the use of the vehicle the customer has specifically
ordered, which would include the modification or adaptation of
the vehicle for a disabled driver. Moreover, leasing Members'
customers are predominately corporate entities, to whom the bill
will not apply. Any specific leasing agreement between a disabled
customer would not only be a long-term arrangement, but where
the adaptations would be specifically requested and paid for by
the customer at the time of entering into a financial agreement.
6. We are pleased to have been able
to encourage the Department for Transport to host cross industry
working group last year, which was attended by Disabled Drivers
Associations and Disabled Drivers Motor Club, where some of the
issues highlighted in this submission were discussed.
General Comments
Contract Hire or Leasing Members
7. In general, contract hire, sometimes
referred to as long term rental, is technically an operating lease
which, when stripped down to its core component, the user (the
hirer) simply hires the use of the vehicle for a predetermined
period, typically 36 months, at fixed monthly rental from the
owner (the contract hire company).
8. Ownership is retained by the contract
hire company and any specific adaptations required by the user
would usually be built into the monthly rental. You will be aware
that our Member, Motability Finance is a leading specialist provider
of vehicles to the disabled customers and have for many years
provided its service to the benefit of some 350,000 registered
disabled customers. This unique and subsidised contract hire scheme
is for three years which includes insurance, maintenance and breakdown
assistance. The hirer is responsible for any adaptations needed
and cost of fitting and removing.
Rental Members
9. Rental Members offer daily, weekly
and monthly rental of vehicles to corporate and retail customers.
10. Again, as above, they have no operational
control over the use of their vehicles.
Specific Comments
11. We note and comment on the
following areas the Committee has requested for specifically.
Question 1.
Whether the draft bill's proposals
are necessary, workable and sufficient
12. Predominately, this question raises
several issues, including whether or not disabled drivers are
in effect being currently discriminated against by the vehicle
rental sector. Moreover, and quite specifically, whether the proposed
legislation would go someway to remove any such barriers, should
they exist, for disabled customers to fully utilise a rental vehicle.
13. Having comprehensively discussed
the matter with our rental Members, it has been reported that
to the level of demand for rental vehicles has been less than
½ % of the total number of rental transactions
p.a. for those Members that offer assistance, through the provision
of temporary adaptations, for those disabled customers with either
upper or lower body restricted mobility. It may be helpful to
clarify that there are a limited number of Members that offer
the facility or provision of temporary adaptations to enable disabled
drivers to securely and safely operate the vehicle. It must nevertheless
be stressed, that these adaptations can usefully be used by only
a small proportion of disabled drivers, especially as the adaptations
are wholly dependant on the extent of the drivers disability together
with the level of experience they have in operating such devices.
14. Worryingly, it has become patently
clear there is currently no national accredited or Government
approved standards for these adaptations, this includes the lack
of any legal framework, requiring the testing of these products.
Also, there are no minimum standard or competency levels to which
an installer of such devices would be required to meet. We understand
that this is to be covered under the proposed work projects for
MAVIS in 2004, however, we understand that this is still subject
to ministerial approval at this stage. We would encourage this
project to be carried out, as our Members are increasingly concerned
with quality of the product, together with issues surrounding
poor installation liability issues, which are inevitable, when
dealing with the high level safety matters related to the operation
of a motor vehicle.
15. From our initial discussions with
the Department for Transport, it is clear that this area is complicated
by the fact that the adaptations can only used with certain vehicles,
ultimately depending on the make and model. As highlighted below,
this area is of great concern to our Members due to the manner,
in which their vehicle fleet is utilised, they would not know
the availability of the exact make and model of the vehicle, until
the point of hire. This would make it extremely difficult for
our Members to marry the type of adaptation required with the
specific make and model of vehicle.
16. We questioned a sample of our rental
Membership that do not currently offer the availability of such
temporary adoptions, as to the level of enquiries or requests
they have received from disabled customers for such provisions.
Again, to date, the demand from the disabled community has been
less than 40 enquiries per annum, against annual consumer rental
transactions of 4 million.
17. For us to be able to comment accurately
on whether the proposals are workable requires us to know the
potential number of consumers that are likely to exercise their
rights under the DDB. Whilst we note there are approximately
eight and a half million disabled people in the UK, it remains
unclear what percentage of this group could be considered as potential
or existing renters of vehicles on a short term basis.
18. There are three key issues that
the rental industry fully need to understand, to ensure that the
proposed changes contained in the Bill are sufficiently targeted
at addressing the issues of discrimination.
a) We need to fully understand what
disabled drivers perceive the barriers to renting a vehicle to
be.
b) What practical steps rental companies
can take to help bring down these barriers
c) With prior notification being provided,
what temporary adaptations could be made available, the cost provision
of which disabled drivers are prepared to contribute towards.
19. As an agreed action point at our
last cross industry group, the Disabled Drivers Associations and
Disabled Drivers Motor Club agreed to survey their Members. Unfortunately,
to date we remain disappointed that this has not been carried
out, especially as it creates further uncertainty for our Members
in being able to ensure that they assist pragmatically in removing
any barriers that may exist. Ultimately, this level of information
would go someway in equipping the rental industry with the degree
of confidence, that the investment and steps they take, are not
only necessary, but match the needs of disabled drivers and is
sufficient to meet their demands.
20. We note that Clause 3 of the Disability
Discrimination Bill inserts a "21ZA - Application of sections
19 to 21 to transport vehicles and in particular, 21ZA (2) (a)
which makes reference to the proposal that it would never be reasonable
for transport service providers to make alteration or removal
of physical feature of a vehicle used in providing the service.
It is arguable that there are going to be a higher number of
instances whereby a rental vehicle provider will be unable to
reasonably meet the requests of a disabled driver, as it would
alter or remove a physical feature of the vehicle. Whilst there
are a limited number of adaptations currently in the market place,
it remains unclear the extent to which this would potentially
alter or remove a physical feature of the vehicle.
21. It must be at this stage reinforced
that our Members would be reluctant to install any devices that
would permanently damage the vehicle, as they would not necessarily
be the fiscal owners of the vehicle. Rental Members would normally
either lease their vehicles, or the fleet would be subject to
a Manufacturer buy back scheme. In the latter, the manufacturers
operate a policy of zero tolerance on damage or modification,
and would impose high penalties for any damage caused to their
vehicle.
22. Another area of concern for us
is the practicalities and time it would take our Member to ring
fence a vehicle for a disabled renter. Our Members will only
know which vehicle is for which renter on the day of rental.
In addition to changing this procedure they will need a day either
side of the rental for fitting and removal. This could cause
great operational difficulties for our Members.
Question 2
When the bill's provisions should
come into force
23. Given the difficulties with
the areas raised above, we believe that there should be a minimum
lead in time of one year.
24. We feel that there should
be greater appreciation on the impact the installation of such
features will have across the diverse range of vehicles in the
market place, together with a clear understanding of what the
disabled customers demands and needs are.
Question 3
What should be in the regulations,
orders and codes of practice proposed in the draft bill
25. We would expect Codes of Practice
for our industry to contain the following:
a) The extent rental companies need
to take to adapt their vehicles including advice on practical
implementation
b) Definition of reasonable including
the factors that will be taken into consideration when defining
reasonable, for example:
- Size of Company
- Staff training and knowledge
- Fleet size
c) What steps a rental company would
be expected to take.
d) With no national accredited or Government
approved standards for adaptations, including the lack of any
legal framework, requiring the testing of these products we would
require information along these lines to be included in a Code
of Practice. Our Members are increasingly concerned with quality
of the product, together with issues surrounding poor installation
liability issues, which are inevitable, when dealing with the
high level safety matters related to the operation of a motor
vehicle.
Key Element for a Code of Practice:
-
26. By way of a summary, we outline
below some helpful examples provided to us by the Department for
Transport, which would endorse that should be reflected in a Code
of Practice:
- It would not be unreasonable for
a rental company to refuse to adapt fully the rental vehicle if
they did not have suitable adaptations available or be expected
to provide an automatic vehicle if they were not part of their
fleet. However, refusing to offer an automatic vehicle where one
is available, could be deemed as unreasonable and therefore discriminatory.
- The extent a rental company would
need to go in adapting a vehicle for a severely disabled person.
For example, one of our Members recently had to refuse to rent
to a disabled driver who was a paraplegic as they were unable
to provide suitable adaptations. We would hope that this would
not be deemed discriminatory.
- Expectations on rental companies
when no vehicles are available
- Confirmation as to whether a rental
company could make a charge for the additional equipment required
by a disabled customer.
27. To assist on this point, we have
extracted from correspondence that offers the Department's thoughts
on these specific points raised:
"As a guiding principle, it is
unlikely to be regarded as discriminatory if the charge levied
is applicable on all renters. If the disabled customer is being
asked to pay a charge over and above that charged to an able bodied
renter, then this would be deemed as discriminatory - e.g. the
basic cost of the rental is increased just because the customer
is disabled, also an automatic vehicle is requested, then a rental
company is able to charge the normal tariff for vehicles falling
in an automatic vehicle category."
Question 4
The adequacy of the enforcement
procedures.
28. You will see that for our
industry, the proposals contained in the Bill, predominately rotate
around the issues of what reasonable steps our Members would be
expected to take. As such, we feel that an independent body, such
as the Disability Discrimination Commission should be sufficiently
empowered to oversee the issues of reasonableness and proportionality
as part of its enforcement remit.
Question 5
Whether the draft bill achieves
the right balance between securing the rights of disabled people
and imposing duties and costs on the private and public sectors.
29. We attach a copy of our
formal response to the consultation paper at Annex A, in which
we highlight our concerns with the following key areas:
a) The importance for obtaining clarity
as to what 'reasonable steps' a rental company would be expected
to take and,
b) Whether these steps are pragmatic,
and can be realistically achieved, without creating too many day-today
practical difficulties.
c) Clear guidance as to what role,
if any, a rental company would be expected to take in selecting
the appropriate adaptation, to suit the disability of the driver.
d) The importance of ensuring that
there is a minimum notification period, to enable the rental company
to source in the adaptation from a third party, to deliver and
install, we have suggested a period of not less than 72 hours.
e) Rental Members should be permitted
to make a reasonable charge to cover the cost of the equipment
requested by the disabled driver.
Question 6
The proposed change to the definition
of disability.
30. Whilst we do not have any
specific comments on the proposed definition, as explained above,
it would be helpful if the accompanying codes of practice provided
a set of clear guidance on the various levels of disability, so
that vehicle rental operators are offered with some degree of
clarity as to whether or not they would be able to offer their
services.
31. This point was well made in a recent
incident involving a rental company, who was approached by a severely
disabled customer requesting that our Members adapt the vehicle
for a few days. The level of adaptation requested, not only meant
that the vehicle would have had to undergo extensive alterations,
but would effectively leave permanent damage to the vehicle, created
by holes being drilled into the dash for the adaptation to be
securely fixed into the vehicle.
Question 7
Whether the range of "triggers"
in the draft bill for requiring reasonable adjustments are appropriate.
32. As indicated above, we feel
that the bill as is currently drafted, does not offer a sufficient
guidance as to whether or not the steps a rental company takes
would be deemed to be making reasonable adjustments to a rental
vehicle. It is envisaged that the accompanying codes of practice
should help address this gap, and ensure that businesses are offered
the degree of clarity and certainty as to their obligations.
Question 8
How the draft bill reflects
the Government's 2001 manifesto commitment to extend basic rights
and opportunities for disabled people.
33. We are satisfied that the draft
Bill does help match the Government's manifesto commitment.
Annex A
Consultation Document
Disability Discrimination
Act 1995 - Part III
Proposals to Lift the Exemption
for Transport Services
Response from:
British Vehicle Rental
and Leasing Association
River Lodge
Badminton Court
Amersham
BUCKS HP7 0DD
Tel: +44 1494 434747
Fax: +44 1494 434499
E-mail: info@bvrla.co.uk
Web: www.bvrla.co.uk
Reply Form:
Response from: British Vehicle Rental
and Leasing Association
Address: River Lodge
Badminton Court
AMERSHAM
Bucks HP7 0DD
Contact: Mr Jay Parmar, Head of Legal
Services
Phone: +44 1494 434747
Fax: +44 1494 434499
Email: parmarj@bvrla.co.uk
Bona-fides
BVRLA, the Industry and its Members
- The BVRLA is the representative
trade body for the companies engaged in the operating leasing
of cars and commercial vehicles. Its Members provide short-term
self-drive rental, contract hire and fleet management services
to corporate users and consumers. BVRLA Members operate a combined
fleet of 2.3 million cars, vans and trucks of widely differing
sizes from 3,300 locations throughout the UK.
- BVRLA Members provide a vital service
to UK industry and commerce, facilitating the movement of goods
and people for essential business purposes. Members buy around
1 million new vehicles every year, at a cost of nearly £14
billion, representing the biggest volume of purchases by any fleet
sector. In making these purchases, Members are a major support
to the UK automotive industry. In addition, by way of ancillary
services, our Members spend an additional £2 billion.
- Together the Rental, Leasing and
Commercial Vehicle Membership provide the significant voice of
an industry which purchases almost half the personal and company
transportation in the United Kingdom. This is combined with the
diversity of BVRLA Members to create a unique organisation where
one Association represents three combined sectors allowing Members
to share representation on committees and in the activities of
the BVRLA.
- BVRLA Members subscribe to a Code
of Conduct which sets out stringent standards in terms of the
operation of vehicles and the commercial propriety of Members.
The BVRLA adopts a strict process of vetting applications for
Membership.
Executive Summary
The BVRLA and its Members share a wealth
of experience to recognise the rationale for reviewing the merits
for extending Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
to include vehicle rental services.
We note the excellent work completed
by the Disability Rights Task Force (DRTF) and an outline of the
group's key recommendations. To help translate these proposals
into practical workable obligations, we believe it to be imperative
that Government ensures that any policy changes are adopted in
the most cost effective and proportionate manner.
We therefore welcome the opportunity
to work with the Department to ensure that the policy objectives
are effectively secured. We certainly believe and support the
need to ensure that the benefits of proposals are promoted positively
and with the appropriate degree of clarity. Moreover, we feel
that the obligations and expectations are achievable, but only
if the proposals do not either prove to be unduly onerous or indeed
operate in a manner that threatens the commercial viability of
providing the service in the market place. Indeed, as a pre-requisite
to our support of extending Part III on to the vehicle rental
sector, we trust that any future Code of Practice (which accompanies
the legislative changes), embraces our call for a pragmatic and
realistic approach when dealing with the obligations to be adhered
to by our Members. We understand that a cross industry-working
group is to be set up to assist the Department in introducing
a Code of Practice to accompany legislative changes. We would
on this basis like to formally offer our support in advance, to
participate in any future discussions.
We are extremely pleased to note that
Government acknowledges the role our Members play in providing
an effective service to disabled users as a matter of good practice.
Nevertheless, we note that a rental company may comply fully with
regulations made under Part V of the DDA, yet still lawfully deny
a person access to a vehicle for no other reason than that person
is disabled. We are pleased that the Department recognises that
in practice this sort of gratuitous discrimination seldom happens,
but that it is aware of some occasions when it does. We support
the view that many vehicle rental companies already behave as
if Part III of the DDA applies to their services, but that this
may not be a universal practice. Given that we represent around
85% of the total industry, we would hope to receive the Department's
support in our pursuit to marginalise rogue traders.
We understand that by removing the
Part III exemption, disabled customers will have the legal right
to challenge transport operators to improve their services. We
certainly intend to use this juncture to work closely with our
Members to review their policies, practices and procedures to
assess whether they are making their services more accessible,
with an ultimate objective of effectively assessing scope for
enlarging the market to embrace all customers.
General Comment
We are pleased to have been of assistance
to the Department during its pre-consultative stage and recognise
the importance of highlighting the key operational and strategic
constraints facing our Members and other related industries. We
trust that this was of assistance to the Department, especially
in obtaining a better operational understanding of the dynamics
of the rental industry.
We remain grateful for the opportunity
to have been able to openly discuss the envisaged impact and scope
upon our industry and it is on this basis that we remain grateful
for the clarification and advice offered by the Department.
Whilst the consultative document had
been written well, we believe that some of the assumptions and
comments contained therein required further clarification.
In absence of the Department's helpful
and clear response to our questions listed below, we believed
that there was a real danger of losing our Members' support in
positively embracing the proposals.
Summary of DFT's reply to questions
raised by the BVRLA
Question 1.
What steps and to what extent will
rental companies need to take to adapt their vehicles?
Whilst the extension of Part III
will apply to all sizes of service providers throughout the country.
The legislation requires service providers to do only what is
reasonable in all the circumstances. Rental operators will need
to ensure that they do not have practices, policy or procedures
that deliberately operate to discriminate against providing its
service to disabled customers. The Department recognises the
potential concern with the practical implementation upon the vehicle
rental sector. However, to help address this issue, the Department
expects the Regulations to be accompanied by a Code of Practice,
which will offer the practical guidance sought by industry.
Question 2.
The majority of the Association's
Members are small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and whose commercial
viability is likely to be threatened the most, what consideration
will be paid to them?
The essence of compliance rotates
around whether or not the court of law will view the steps taken
by a rental company as "reasonable". In determining
reasonableness the following factors are likely to be taken into
consideration: -
Size of the company - Reasonableness
test would be likely to take into account the size of the company
for, inter alia, the following factors: -
Staff training & knowledge -
larger companies would be expected to have invested much more
into staff awareness cf. to smaller company.
Fleet Size - Larger companies are
likely to have a wider level of choice and availability of cars
cf. to a smaller company e.g. availability of automatic cars.
Question 3
What steps would a rental company
be expected to take?
Where reasonably possible, a rental
company would be expected to demonstrate that they have taken
sufficient steps to help meet the requirements of the disabled
customer. For example, it would not be unreasonable for a rental
company to refuse to adapt fully the rental vehicle if they did
not have suitable adaptations available or be expected to provide
an automatic vehicle if they were not part of their fleet. However,
refusing to offer an automatic vehicle where one is available,
could be deemed as unreasonable and therefore discriminatory.
Question 4
Would a rental company be expected
to adapt their vehicles irrespective of the extents of disability?
The Department takes a view that
the "reasonable" interpretation of the extension of
Part III would be unlikely to extend to assisting very severely
disabled customers with complex one off adaptations (indeed it
is highly unlikely that such people would be seeking to hire a
vehicle).
The main requirement therefore is
likely to be to assist disabled customers needing minor adjustments,
providing an automatic vehicle, installing temporary devices such
as a spinner or simple hand controls. In the majority of the
cases, the disabled customer will know what devices they will
need.
Question 5
What are rental companies expected
to do if they have no vehicles available, when they receive a
request from a disabled customer?
If there is no equipment or vehicles
available for the period the disabled renter requires a vehicle,
then it would not be unreasonable to turn the disabled customer
away. However, rental operators would be encouraged to assist
by offering details of an alternative operator that may be able
to help. It would also not be deemed to be unreasonable to refuse
to offer its services, if the disabled renter fails to give reasonable
period of notice. For example, renter turns up at the rental desk
or requires a vehicle on a Sunday.
Question 6
Can a rental company make a charge
for the additional equipment required by a disabled customer?
Rental companies already make a variety of optional extras available
to customers that range from child car seats to ski racks. All
these optional extras are available to the renter at an agreed
tariff. It remains unclear whether it would be deemed to be discriminatory
if a rental company levied a reasonable charge for the cost of
making available and fitting any additional devices requested
by a disabled customer?
As with all other aspects of this
proposed legislation, ultimately interpretation of the law is
a matter for the courts. However, as a guiding principle, it is
unlikely to be regarded as discriminatory if the charge levied
is applicable on all renters. If the disabled customer is being
asked to pay a charge over and above that charged to an able bodied
renter, then this would be deemed as discriminatory - e.g. the
basic cost of the rental is increased just because the customer
is disabled, also an automatic vehicle is requested, then a rental
company is able to charge the normal tariff for vehicles falling
in an automatic vehicle category.
The Government has no intention
of undermining the commercial viability of rental companies. Making
a reasonable charge for providing and installing additional devices,
such as a spinner would be likely to be deemed as reasonable.
However, each case will be judged on its own merits, and it would
be ultimately for the courts to decide whether this is discriminatory.
Question 7
The rental industry has a high turnover
of staff and is concerned with the cost of training - what assistance
will be given to support the industry?
The Department recognises that a
great deal of time and money will need to be invested to help
heighten better awareness of the requirements under the Act. The
Department would be prepared to assist the Association by jointly
producing explanatory leaflets and offering ad hoc training, especially
for the smaller Members.
Question 8
Will a rental company be able to increase
excess charges for newly disabled customers? As with newly qualified
drivers, who are deemed to impose a higher risk, a higher excess
will be payable in the event of an accident or damage. It would
only seem reasonable and fair to levy a similar charge to reflect
an increased risk on newly disabled customers.
You cannot discriminate against
disabled customers, but you can discriminate amongst them if you
have a basis in fact for doing so. A common sense approach would
be recommend here. If higher excess is charged, then the rental
operator should ensure that this can be substantiated by using
historical claims experiences or actuarial data supporting the
increased charge.
We remain grateful for the confirmation
that the proposals are to be carried out in a sensible and flexible
manner, which will set the basis to secure and achieve maximum
compliance, with the minimum cost to both the industry and customers.
Specific Comments
We are pleased to have been
able to work with and assist the Department over many years, especially
at looking at ways in which our Members are able to embrace and
offer their services to all consumers, irrespective of their disability.
Contract Hire Members
In general, contract hire, sometimes
referred to as long term rental, is technically an operating lease
which, when stripped down to its core component, the user (the
hirer) simply hires the use of the vehicle for a predetermined
period at fixed monthly rental from the owner (the contract hire
company).
Ownership is retained by the contract
hire company and any specific adaptations required by the user
would usually be built into the monthly rental. You will be aware
that our Member, Motability Finance is a leading specialist provider
of vehicles to the disabled customers and have for many years
provided its service to the benefit of some 350,000 registered
disabled customers. This contract hire scheme is for three years
which includes insurance, maintenance and breakdown assistance.
The hirer is responsible for any adaptations needed and cost of
fitting and removing.
Rental Members
Rental Members offer daily, weekly
and monthly rental of vehicles to corporate and retail customers.
Regulatory Impact Assessment
As acknowledged by the Department,
Members already, where possible, adhere with their statutory duty
of avoiding discrimination against disabled people and where possible
make reasonable adjustments to their products and services, this
includes access to their facilities.
However, their experiences as reported
to us indicate and highlight the potential difficulties they are
likely to face when trying to offer their service satisfactorily,
efficiently and at an affordable price.
Key Industry Statistics (2002)
Total number of consumer rentals per
annum = 4 Million
Total number of corporate rentals per
annum = 6 Million
The average length of period of a vehicle
rental is 4.5 days
Membership Analysis
| 2003
| |
| Group Size
| Rental
| Leasing
| CV Rental
| Total
|
| 1-10
| 563
| 78
| 50
| 691
|
| 11- 22
| 5
| 21
| 3
| 29
|
Notes
Group 1 Member - operate a fleet of up to 100 vehicles
Group 22 Member - operate more than 200,001 vehicles.
The Majority of our Members fall in between Group 1 - 10, which
helps demonstrate that about 90% of our Members are small to medium
enterprises.
Estimated Cost to the Industry
What would be defined as a disability?
We note that the DDA describes
a disabled person as "anyone with a physical and mental impairment
which has a substantial and long term-term adverse effect upon
their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".
How many people are in scope?
It remains unclear to us the methodology
which the Department intends to use to help calculate the potential
number of consumers that are likely to be eligible to exercise
their right under the DDA. However we note that Margaret Hodge,
the then Minister for Disabled People announced that there are
over eight and a half million disabled people in the UK. In addition
and importantly, it also remains unclear what percentage of this
group of consumers would be considered as potential or existing
renters.
Taking into account our concerns above,
we have highlighted below the key areas which we believe will
have greatest cost implication upon our Members, should the provision
of Part III be extended to include vehicle rental companies.
Administrative Cost
| Description
| Cost (£) per rental
|
| Booking of additional equipment
| £5 |
| Cost of verifying any specific medical condition, checking with Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency for any endorsement that would prevent renter from driving a motor vehicle and notification to their insurer.
| £5 |
The figures above included cost of
labour and telephone calls only. We have not taken into account
at this stage any requirement of system changes, whether manual
or electronic.
Cost of Hiring Auxiliary Aids Requested
| Duration of hire
| Cost per day
|
| 1 to 14 days
| £10.00
|
| 15 to 28 days
| £8.00
|
| 28 days plus
| £6.50
|
Prices are fully inclusive but exclude
VAT
Carriage: Outward/Return
- Next Day UK mainland £11.00 excluding VAT each way.
Fitting of Controls
£50.00 excluding VAT
When calculating the days of hire,
the renter would be expected to pay for the period for hire whilst
the vehicle had to be taken off fleet for the installation of
any equipment and its removal. It is estimated that this is likely
to be a one day hire - which includes half a day for installation
and half day for its removal to ensure the vehicle is ready for
rent for the next customer.
Minimum Cost per Rental
Below is a break down of the total
cost for a one day rental for a vehicle with auxiliary aids.
| Description
| Cost
|
| Booking of additional equipment
| £5
|
| Cost of verifying any specific medical condition, and checking endorsements.
| £5
|
| One days hire of auxiliary aids
| £10
|
| Carriage of auxiliary aids
| £11
|
| Fitting of auxiliary aids
| £50
|
| Loss of use for ½ day rental to fit aids and ½ day rental to remove aids
| £21.85
|
| Cost of One days hire
| £21.85
|
| VAT
| £21.82
|
| Total
| £146.52
|
Cost of Additional Insurance
Vehicle Insurance Risk
The cost of taking on the additional
risk remains an unknown quantity. We understand that insurers
are unable to discriminate by raising their premiums for
insuring a disabled customer. However, we are aware that insurers
are permitted to increase premiums should they believe that the
profile of drivers is likely to have a higher associated risk,
such as inexperienced drivers. Of course, insurers would be expect
to support any higher charge with the relevant actuarial data.
It has been stated that a driver, who has a new disability,
is likely to fall in a higher risk category, especially as the
disability is a new one and where the driver does not have much
experience of driving with that specific new disability and a
vehicle with modified controls.
We therefore anticipate that there
is likely to be a limited increase on the whole fleet insurance
rather than a risk calculated per renter. The risk is to cover
the whole range of drivers, age, disability etc. We estimate that
in such instances, insurance premiums may increase by around 15%.
However, we would need to contact the insurance industry to gauge
their thoughts and likely cost.
Product Liability Insurance Risk
We recognise that the insurers offering
businesses insurance against potential claims for product liability
are likely to require the company to demonstrate that the installation
of any additional fittings for a disabled persons is appropriately
installed by a trained and qualified representative. This is of
particular importance when we consider all the key issues of safety
for both the renter, but other road users who may be involved
in a road accident resulting from poorly installed equipment.
Once again, the potential increase
in cost to cover any mis-fitting or use of equipment is unknown.
However, we estimate that we are likely to see at least a 10 -
15% increase in premiums for the rental companies offering such
services, but recognise that any increase in cost are likely to
be based on profiling of the history of claims, in addition to
restrictions of requiring the insured to provide the necessary
training to staff installing such equipment.
Members have also raised their concerns
that there is no national accredited or approved government standard
for adaptations used and no legal requirement for testing of products.
We would suggest that Government might want to look into this
to give confidence to Members renting their assets with these
controls in place.
Training
As mentioned above, staff which are
required to install any additional equipment, are likely to do
so after receiving extensive specialised training to ensure they
are qualified to give advice to disabled customer on the most
appropriate equipment to ensure that they correctly match the
need of the customer.
This is paramount, as it remains unclear
whether the staff would be expected or in fact would ever be sufficiently
qualified to identify the appropriate equipment to meet the requirement
of the disabled person to drive and manoeuvre the vehicle safely.
Such costs are likely to have a disproportionate
impact on our medium to smaller Members, who may not have been
experiencing a high staff turnover, but the cost requirement outlined
above may not be justifiable against the anticipated low volume
of disabled renters.
Result from Questionnaire Issued
to BVRLA Members
As previously agreed with the department,
we have circulated a questionnaire amongst our Members. We have
attached a summary of the responses we collated below.
Summary Responses to Questionnaire
on Disability Discrimination Act
1. Were you aware of the Disability
Discrimination Act?
Over 67% of respondents were aware
of the Disability Discrimination Act
2. Are you aware of the range of adaptations
available for you to purchase or rent to assist disabled drivers
to use your vehicle?
50% of respondents were aware of the
range of adaptations available
3. What range of adaptations does
your company offer?
Company 1 - Mobility insurance companies
provide adaptations
Company 2 - None
Company 3 - None
Company 4 - Hand controls for lower
limb disabilities
Company 5 - Licensee's make own decision
on additional equipment offered a few adaptations are currently
offered within the network
Company 6 - Temporary adaptations offered
by Lynx Hand Controls
Company 7 - Temporary bolt on accelerator
and brake hand controls
Company 8 - None
Company 9 - None
Company 10 - None
Company 11 - None
Company 12 - Temporary adaptations
4. Are your staff trained to know
what adaptations are available?
33% of respondents train their staff
on adaptations.
5. What level of detail is provided
for training staff?
Those respondents that do train staff
know what is available and how it works. Information is available
on websites and they are able to explain the benefits of the different
adaptations.
6. How much notice do you require
to make an adapted vehicle available?
Two of the respondents, who are large
multinational daily rental companies, are able to make an adapted
vehicle available within 48 hours but the majority of respondents
indicated that they would require a reasonable period of notice
which was deemed to be seven days.
7. Who installs the adaptations?
The adaptations are either installed
by a specialist adaptation company engineers or the renter is
allowed to arrange their own adaptations and the fitting of them.
8. Do you charge a higher excess
for disabled driver?
No, respondents do not charge a higher
excess.
9. What breakdown cover is provided
for disabled customers who break down while driving an adapted
rental car?
There is no difference between the
breakdown cover provided for an able bodied renter or a disabled
renter. However, if the vehicle is not repairable respondents
stated they may struggle to find a replacement vehicle with adaptations
quickly.
10. Do you have a separate daily
rental tariff for disabled drivers?
No, respondents do not have a separate
daily rental tariff.
11. Do you make a separate charge
for auxiliary aids requested or charge a fee for fitting auxiliary
aids?
Of the six respondents who regularly
offer adaptations four of them make a separate charge for auxiliary
aids requested. Five of the respondents charge a fee for fitting
the auxiliary aids.
12. How many car rentals per
annum are adapted for use by disabled customers?
Respondents have been unable to provide
much data in this area, however, it would seem to indicate that
disabled renters represent less than 1% of respondents business.
Additional questionnaire information
is available in Annex A of this document on rental Members who
operate outside the UK and their policies in other countries.
Closing Comments
You will see that our Members have
very particular interests and concerns with the potential impact
our Members both by way of costs and liability. We certainly
believe that our industry is best placed to assist your department
to meets its policy objective of ensuring that our Members are
where possible encourage to offer their services on a voluntary
basis to all consumers.
Nevertheless, we do not believe that
our Members should be placed with a disproportionately high financial
burden of requiring them to provide and install such specialised
equipment for their disabled customer. In fact we believe the
department should take into consideration the potential safety
implications of equipment, which has been incorrectly installed,
or even not been correctly matched to the disabled persons requirement.
Indeed, the legal action brought against our Members for incorrectly
supply or installing equipment could seriously damage the operation
of legitimate businesses and potentially threaten our Members
livelihood.
We hope our response raises valid questions
whilst striking the right balance in meeting the key objectives
of offering services to all consumers irrespective of their disability
and with the day to day practical implications the proposed extension
of Part III will have on our Members business.
We welcome the opportunity to continue
our constructive dialogue and do hope our Association will be
able to continue to add value to the shaping and development the
departments' policy objective.
Annex A
Outside the UK: Information
on Disabled Renters
1. What range of adaptations does
your overseas company offer?
Company 1 - All corporate airport locations
in the USA provide hand controls and in France, Belgium, Netherlands,
Germany, Spain, Luxembourg and Italy vehicles with permanent adaptations
are offered.
Company 2 - All locations in the USA
provide hand controls
Company 3 - All locations in the USA
provide hand controls
Company 4 - All locations in the USA
provide hand controls
2. How much notice is required to
make an adapted vehicle available?
Company 1 - 24 hours notice
Company 2 - 72 hours notice
Company 3 - 72 hours notice
Company 4 - No notice
However, it should be noted that all
the companies who responded to the questionnaire are large multinational
daily rental companies. The Association has no data on smaller
rental companies operating outside the UK, which we believe to
be imperative to have before reaching a final conclusion as to
best practice.
3. Has this proven to be sufficient?
All respondents said yes.
4. Who installs the adaptations?
Not all companies provided information
on this but one uses the adaptation company providing the controls
and in other European countries these are pre-fitted by an approved
authority.
5. Do you charge a higher excess
for disabled drivers?
All respondents said no.
6. What breakdown cover is provided
for disabled customers?
The respondents that were able to answer
this question confirmed it is the same service as for an able-bodied
renter.
7. Do you make a separate charge
for auxiliary aids requested or charge a fee for fitting auxiliary
aids?
One respondent charges for the auxiliary
aids and charges a fee for fitting them the other does not charge
at all.
8. What staff disability awareness
training do you provide for your staff?
Staff are trained to be aware of what
products are available and individual locations are encouraged
to implement a written policy, which addresses operating standards
for handling and complying with the request for hand controls.
Average cost of one days rental
|
