A Practical Guide about Car Rental Orlando Florida

Want to know the practicalities of Florida Car Rental? Here’s the place to find out.

Florida Car Rental is probably one of the least complicated types of car hire arrangement you will ever make. That’s because you are dealing with experts. Why are Floridians such experts? Quite simply because they do so darned much of it!

If 200 passengers arrive on any given plane from Britain, the six or seven major Florida car hire companies will provide, on average, 50 cars for them. When you remember that there are 15 flights a day into Sanford alone every single day of the tourist season you realize that just people from Britain (without the rest of the world) take out 750 Florida car rental agreements a day!

That’s a lot of wheels!

And when you pick up your first car you’ll be able to see for yourself the sheer scale of the operation. Every international airport in Florida has a multi-storey car park full of hire cars.

What does that mean for you?

It has three major implications.

• There may be a few queues so be patient. The clerks are doing their best and working as fast as they can to get you out in your car before the next flight comes in and dumps another 200 passengers in their line!
• There is a reason why people go for Florida car rental and that reason is you can’t do Florida properly without one! (More information below)
• Because there is such high demand for Florida car rental, you can get some really good deals if you know where to shop.
• Drop us a line if you’d like us to get you a quotation

First Things First

Do you really NEED to pay for Florida car rental?

It’s a good question. In England we are used to going to major cities and finding public transport is just so much more convenient than driving and parking a car. But we are also used to a temperate climate and having things within easy walking distance in a country where parking costs a small fortune.

The same can’t be said of Florida!

In Florida, just going from one shop to the next on a block can involve a walk of several hundred yards.

That might not sound like much but when you remember the temperature can go well over 100 degrees and humidity can be very high too, you realize that the fittest people find that heavy going after a while.

I have NEVER paid for parking in Florida (except as part of a theme park day) so car park fees don’t even come into it.

Add to that the fact that Orlando is not really geared to providing frequent and convenient public transport and you begin to understand how limited you are without a Florida car rental.

So, if you don’t drive, you won’t have it easy in Florida.

You can go to Disney without a car because Disney resorts provide all the transportation you need on request. You can get a coach tour in Florida where you have no need of a car. But if you want to go anywhere or do anything else you really do need Florida car rental.

When I get to the Florida car hire desk, what do I need?

You will definitely need

• Your car hire booking or confirmation letter (often called a car hire ‘voucher’ but usually printed out on letter paper)
• a credit card (in case you run away with their car)
• our current FULL UK driving license (BOTH parts of it) – one license for each named driver. (Provisional licenses are no good for Florida car rental)

You may also be asked for:

• Your passport
• Your plane ticket
• Confirmation of your address in Florida
• Having these documents ready will speed things up quite a lot.

You’ll be given a car claim form or ticket or something similar and directed to where your car is parked. Go to that car park area and find the little booth with a person in it who will exchange your form for your car keys.

Then go and find your car! Hooray!

This whole process usually only takes about 40 minutes – less if it’s not a busy time.

In Your New Hire Car

I know you want to just go ahead and get on the road BUT I strongly suggest you take your time here. A bit of patience now will pay dividends later.

Take the time to do a quick check of the car.

Look at the general condition of the bodywork and seats. If you find anything that looks like a scratch, a dent or a tear, call the hire company’s representative over and have them mark the fault on their little diagram of the car. This means they have acknowledged that the fault was there when you got the car and that proves that YOU didn’t do it!

This simple check will prevent a nasty shock on your credit card bill in a few months time.

Make sure you know what the fueling arrangements are.

Most companies will send you out with a full tank of gas and expect the car to be returned the same way. Some pricing plans include a full tank of gas. If you have one of those, make sure you start with a full tank and remember to bring it back without one.

Before you drive away, make sure you know where everything is!

I know the kids are desperate to go and meet Mickey Mouse and that the adults are starving and in need of a drink. BUT, before you pull away you really should take a few minutes to work out how your car works.

Find at least the following essentials:

• The controls for your lights – indicators, sidelights, dipped lights and full beam headlights. This isn’t easy to work out once it gets dark so do it NOW!

• Windscreen wipers and washer controls

• Seat position adjustment arrangements (If they’re electrical, have a good play with them!)

• Handbrake – it may not be where you expect!

• Seatbelts – they are not always manual so check whether they have an auto-release arrangement.

• Fuel – where does it go in, how do you get it open and what type does it take?

• Steering wheel adjustment – please don’t try to adjust this while you are driving! Do it now and get it how you like it.

• Check out the cruise control. Many Florida car rental vehicles have this – and I find it really useful – but if you have never used it, look in the manual to find out how it works on your car. I’ll be saying more about this later but for now you just need to remember one thing:

CRUISE CONTROL IS NOT THE SAME AS AUTO-PILOT.

You still have to steer, indicate, brake and watch the road. I know this sounds like a daft thing to say to most of us, but some people have made that mistake and ended up in a ditch or worse – HONEST!

Don’t waste time looking for a nice wobbly gear stick either – 98% of Florida car rentals are for automatics.

I hope this has given you a few pointers about the basics of Florida car rental. If you can think of any hints or tips I’ve missed, please drop me a line and I’ll add them in.

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