Guide
What happens when the car is handed over to you
Updated 6 min read Performance & Prestige
Handover takes about fifteen minutes and happens standing at the car, at the address you chose. The named driver’s licence and identity are checked, the car is walked round and photographed by both sides, fuel or charge and mileage are recorded, the agreement is signed, and the driver runs you through the controls that matter on that particular car. Nothing is paid at the door beyond what was agreed in writing.
What actually happens, in order?
- Licence and identity. The named driver’s physical licence, the DVLA check code and the documents agreed when the hire was confirmed. Any additional driver is checked at the same time.
- The walk round. Every panel, both bumpers, all four wheels, the glass and the interior, photographed by us and by you.
- Fuel or charge, and mileage. Both recorded, and both recorded again at collection.
- The agreement. Signed at the car, having been sent to you in advance rather than produced at the kerb with an engine running behind you.
- The run through the car. The nose lift, the drive modes, the roof, the parking sensors, where the filler or charge flap is, and what that particular car does not like.
Then you get a number that reaches a person for the whole hire, and the driver leaves.
Why does it take fifteen minutes?
Because it is the only part of a hire that cannot be done later. Every dispute that ever happens in this business is a dispute about the condition of a car at a moment nobody recorded properly.
Fifteen minutes of photographs at the kerb is what makes the difference between "there is a mark on the nearside sill" and "there is a mark on the nearside sill that was there at handover, here it is". It protects you far more than it protects us, because we are the ones with the repair invoice.
It is also the only chance to ask about the car while somebody who knows it is standing next to you. Five minutes on the nose lift and the drive modes saves a phone call from a slip road.
What do you need to have with you?
Five things, all of them named in writing when the hire is confirmed, and none of them fixable at the kerb.
- The named driver, in person. Not a colleague, not a partner, not whoever is free that morning.
- The physical licence and a DVLA check code, plus the same for any additional driver.
- Photo ID and proof of address.
- The payment card in the hirer’s own name, for the security deposit. Deposits run from £1,500 to £50,000, so it needs to be a card that can actually take the hold.
- Somewhere the car can legally stand for ten minutes, agreed with us beforehand.
The full list is on driver requirements, and we send it again with the confirmation.
What should you photograph yourself?
All of it, and keep the photographs until the deposit is back. Take your own even though we are taking ours — it costs two minutes and it is the single most useful thing a hirer can do.
Get the four corners, both sills, all four wheel faces, the front splitter from low down, the windscreen, and the interior including the seat bolsters. Photograph the odometer and the fuel or charge display. If anything is already marked, point at it and have it recorded there and then rather than mentioning it afterwards.
The record is deliberately symmetrical. The same photographs that let us identify a new kerb mark are the ones that prove an existing mark was already there.
What is worth asking before the driver leaves?
Six questions, and none of them is an imposition:
- How does the nose lift work, and where does it need to be used on a car this low?
- Which drive mode should it be in for a cold start and a first mile?
- What fuel does it take, and is there anything it will not tolerate?
- Where is the charge flap or filler, and how does it release?
- What is the first warning light I should stop for rather than drive on with?
- Who do I call, and does that number reach a person at nine on a Sunday evening?
The last one matters more than the rest combined. A hire where nobody answers is a different product from a hire where somebody does.
Is anything paid at handover?
Nothing beyond what was agreed in writing before the day. No payment is taken through this website at any point — no card details, no deposit, no rate — and the security deposit is arranged with a person before delivery rather than produced as a surprise at the kerb.
That is the whole reason the cost stack is published before the form rather than after it. The rate, delivery and collection, the refundable deposit, the insurance excess and the mileage allowance are all on the car's page and on your quote.
If a figure appears at handover that was not on the quote, something has gone wrong at our end. It should not happen, and it is not something you should have to argue about standing on a pavement.
How is collection different?
It is the same sequence in reverse, from an address you choose — and it does not have to be the address the car was delivered to. Delivered to a house on the Friday and collected from an office on the Monday is an ordinary booking.
We repeat the walk round and the photographs, and record the fuel or charge and the mileage. Where everything matches, the deposit is released on the timing given to you in writing. Where it does not, you already know why, because you were standing next to the car when we looked at it.
Somebody has to be present, exactly as at delivery. The car cannot be left with a neighbour, a concierge or a colleague.
Common questions
Can the car be dropped off without me there?
No. The handover includes an identity and licence check on the named driver and a joint walk round, so it needs the person who is going to drive it. If the time no longer works, tell us the day before and we will move it.
What if I find a mark after the driver has gone?
Photograph it and tell us the same day rather than at collection. A mark reported straight away against a set of handover photographs is a conversation; the same mark raised three days later is a much harder one for both of us.
Can somebody else be there instead of me?
They can be there with you, but the named driver has to be present in person with their licence. Nobody signs on somebody else’s behalf and nobody is added to the hire at the kerb.
What if it is raining?
The delivery still happens. What changes is where the walk round is done — a condition record made in horizontal rain serves neither of us, so we will suggest somewhere covered nearby rather than rushing it and arguing about a mark later.
How long does collection take?
Less than the handover, because the agreement and the checks are already done. It is the walk round, the photographs, and the fuel and mileage readings.
Related guides
- How supercar delivery works We hold no depots or counters, so every hire is delivered and collected. What that means in practice, from lead time to the walk round to the fuel policy.
- What happens if you damage a hire supercar? The clearest answer we can give to the question everybody asks and nobody wants to ask out loud: what a scratch actually costs, what the deposit can be used for, and what happens in the hour after an incident.
- Supercar hire deposits explained The refundable security deposit is the biggest number most people meet in this process and the least explained. What it is for, what it is not, what can come out of it, and how to make sure it comes back whole.
What happens when the car is handed over to you
Every figure in this guide is published per car, before there is any form to fill in.
A person confirms every booking · No payment taken online · Brought to your door
Written by Performance & Prestige against the rates, driver criteria and delivery areas published on this site. Rates are “from” prices inclusive of VAT and are confirmed with you before anything is agreed — see driver requirements, insurance and excess and delivery.