Car Club Policies
To ensure the best possible experience for all of our members and to assist with the smooth operation of the Car Club we have a number of policies that members agree to comply with.
Food & drink
With the exception of our Kia e-Niro, the consumption of food and drink is currently permitted within our vehicles so long as they are returned without any signs of food or drink having been consumed within them. On occasions we have received reports from members who have found food in a car when they have collected it, including segments of fruit, crumbs, crisps, wrappers, lollypop sticks and other leftovers. If, upon collecting a vehicle, you find traces of food or drink inside the vehicle then please take photographs and report it to the Car Club.
From 08 October 2024 if food is found in the vehicle by the next user at the start of their rental and you did not note this on the trip sheet or report it to the Car Club at the start of your rental an administration charge may be applied to your account.
Pets
With the exception of our Kia e-Niro, the carrying of pets is currently permitted within our vehicles so long as they are returned without any signs of carrying pets, including hair, dander, paw prints or odours. On occasions we do receive reports from users who find evidence of pets being transported in our cars by previous users. If, upon collecting a vehicle, you find evidence of pets in our vehicles then please take photographs and report it to the Car Club. From 08 October 2024 If evidence of pets is found in the vehicle by the next user and you did not note this on the trip sheet or report it to the Car Club at the start of your rental an administration charge may be applied to your account.
Transporting goods or materials
We currently permit the carrying of goods or materials, including plants, waste/recycling or other materials in our vehicles so long as the vehicles are returned without any evidence of mess in the boot or cabin from the transportation of these items. Previously we have found our vehicles soiled with Christmas tree needles, dust, soil and other materials. As of 08 October 2024 if mess from the transportation of good or materials is found in the vehicle by the next user at the start of their rental and you did not note this on the trip sheet or report it to the Car Club at the start of your rental an administration charge may be applied to your account.
Petrol
Some of our cars have powertrains that enable them to run on petrol when there is insufficient energy left in the onboard battery to continue powering the vehicle using the onboard electric motor. The switch over between battery and petrol power takes place automatically such that the user will not normally notice when driving. The vehicles which take petrol have a petrol gauge shown on the dashboard as with conventional cars.
In order to encourage the use of electricity to power our vehicles whenever possible the Car Club does not cover the cost of any petrol used by our vehicles.
As at 08 October 2024 we have two vehicles which can use petrol when their onboard battery is depleted of energy:
- Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle [battery range before petrol used ~20 miles]
- BMW i3 Range Extender [battery range before petrol used ~120 miles]
Members are required to return our vehicles which take petrol with not less than half a tank of petrol as shown on the vehicle gauge. Members who return a vehicle that can use petrol with less than half a tank of petrol in it may have an administration charge applied to their account.
When collecting one of our vehicles that take petrol, members are reminded to check prior to departure that the petrol gauge indicates that the vehicle has at least half a tank of petrol in it. If a vehicle does not have at least a half full tank at the time of pick up members must take a photo of the vehicle’s instrument display that clearly shows both the odometer (mileage) reading and the petrol gauge before driving it to evidence that the vehicle was not returned at least half full by the previous user. A copy of the photo should be sent to carclub@hn-lc.org.uk within 24 hours of returning the vehicle so that the Car Club can contact the previous user about the matter. If a vehicle’s petrol level is found to be below half full and a member wishes to refill the vehicle, please send clear photos of the odometer and fuel gauge readings at the start and the end of the rental together with a photo of a receipt for the purchase of petrol to carclub@hn-lc.org.uk so that a credit can be applied to the member’s Car Club account to cover the cost to return the vehicle to a half-full level.
Save as for when a member can evidence that a vehicle has less than half a tank of petrol at the time of collection the Car Club does not offer credits or refunds for the cost of fuel used by members or any additional fuel left in a vehicle over and above the required half full tank of petrol. It is noted that members have no financial incentive to return any of our vehicles with more than half a tank of petrol.
Fair Use Policy
As an initiative of a community benefit society, the Car Club sets the prices to hire and use its vehicles at levels that are far lower than those charged by commercial car hire firms and, in many cases, below the cost of privately owning and operating a vehicle. This is a deliberate choice to encourage as many members of the community as possible to join the Car Club and share in the financial and environmental benefits of shared car usage.
To make sure that as many of its members as possible can benefit from the low-cost access it offers to its environmentally-friendly vehicles the Car Club operates a Fair Use Policy (“FUP“) to prevent members that use vehicles particularly frequently from unreasonably impacting on members with infrequent usage patterns.
The FUP is currently as follows:
No member may book a Car Club vehicle(s) for use on any more than a total of fifteen weekdays (Monday to Friday) in any six week period. Where two or more members are from the same household, the total number of weekdays on which any members of the same household make bookings for a Car Club vehicle(s) may not be greater than twenty weekdays in any six week period. Bookings that are cancelled with fewer days’ notice than the duration of the booking will count towards this total.
The Car Club reserves the right to apply the FUP at its discretion and also to amend the FUP as and when it deems necessary. Such amendments may be implemented at short notice.
It is likely that the Car Club will only apply the FUP if believes that a members’s level of usage of its vehicles is having a disproportionate impact on availability of its cars for other members. In other words, if a member books a car for a month but during that period the Car Club, in its sole opinion, determines that there remains sufficient availability of other vehicles for other members then the Car Club is less likely to apply the FUP to the member at hand.