Car rental companies complained about a system

JEDDAH: Car rental companies and business owners have complained about a system that automatically holds them responsible for traffic fines and called for introducing a new initiative that holds the violating drivers accountable. They said they have incurred huge losses as a result of the system.

Representatives of the car rental companies held a meeting at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday to discuss the problems that prevented them from participating in a Jeddah festival last year.

They called for imposing annual fees on car rental companies to be paid every year to the traffic police in lieu of fines they may accumulate.

Chairman of the car rental committee at the chamber Saeed bin Ali Al-Bassami said the judges would only accept a maximum of three lawsuits from companies taking action against customers in courts. “We often refer these cases to the lawyers who charge more money than the amount we pay for the fines,” he said.

He stated that on many occasions traffic police would stop rented cars being illegally used as taxis and give the drivers tickets. He added that the meeting urged the traffic police departments not to penalize car rental companies whose vehicles were caught violating the law in this manner.

Investments in this market are estimated to be over SR7 billion. There are about 700 car rental companies in the Kingdom, with 300 in Jeddah alone. Each company has an average of 30 cars.