Last Saturday evening an expensive German rental car veered out of the bend in Tilburg and crashed into a tree. The driver fled the scene. Young guests who get a rental car in Germany and drive around at high speeds through city centers and on highways are a major problem. Trade organization BOVAG also sees this, they argue for a European blacklist.
Actually, ‘major problem’ is a mild description. Because last year five people tragically died in Brabant in two crashes involving German rental cars:
Renting an expensive and fast car is quite simple, also in the Netherlands. With a few clicks you can rent an Audi A5 Sportback online from a car company in Den Bosch for 173 euros per day. Top speed: 250 kilometers per hour. Two conditions: you must be at least 23 years old and have had your driver’s license for at least one year.
“It is not good for the image of the sector.”
“In principle, anyone can rent a car, and that is very good. That is a great way to share a car,” says spokesperson Paul de Waal of the trade organization BOVAG (Association of Automotive, Garage and Related Companies). “In the Netherlands there are usually some requirements such as age and how long you have had a driving license.”
According to De Waal, rental companies in the Netherlands are doing well thanks to a blacklist that is maintained. “Such a list includes people who have not returned a car or returned it much too late, or tenants who have committed serious traffic violations. But also people who have used the car for drug transport, for example.”
The additional conditions, the blacklist and the fact that more expensive cars are available for rent in Germany ensure that speed demons rent a car across the border. De Waal is disappointed about this: “It is not good for the image of the sector, apart from the drama for all victims.”
“We are alert but we are not going to pull over every German car.”
The BOVAG spokesperson wants the Netherlands to cooperate with other countries in the European Union. “We have done well with that blacklist, something like this should also happen in Germany or Belgium. Then we can share the blacklist with each other. But despite one Europe, we are unfortunately still islands.”
Back to renting a car. In the Netherlands you pay 173 euros per day for a sporty Audi A5. You pay less than 150 euros for a comparable car just across the German border. And then there are no additional conditions and you have no chance of ending up on a blacklist. Yet not all companies rent to Dutch people anymore, as became clear a year ago after a tour by Omroep Brabant.
The West Brabant Police is aware of the signals that Dutch people rent a fast car in Germany and thus make the road unsafe. “But we don’t have good figures to prove it,” says a spokesperson. “We are alert, but we are not going to pull over every German car. We cannot and do not want to do that.”
Watch the images of a very expensive car that crashed last Sunday: