Rental Car Tips 0001 – Should I Lockbox Car Keys for After-hours Pick-ups?

Vehicle lockbox – Photo: CA Bazan, LLP. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Unattended vehicle pick-up has become a common practice for some car rental companies, however, this practice might be risky in your state. Some states have enacted laws that regulate unattended pick-ups, which describe the rules and best practices to do so legally and retain certain protections. If you use a lockbox to hand off a vehicle, you won’t have your renter in front of you, thus, you might not be able to do an in-person verification of your renter to make sure that he or she is in possession of a valid driver’s license, and whether your renter might be impaired to drive. Car rental companies that use lockboxes usually require the renter to send two photos before the keys are released: (1) A close up of the driver’s license with all the information visible, and (2) a selfie of the renter holding the driver’s license next to his or her face, with the rental vehicle in the background. This ensures that the renter matches the photo on the license and that he or she is in possession of it at the time of rental. At that point, a remote customer service agent releases the lockbox code.

While this does bring a certain level of assurance to the car rental company of the legitimacy of the renter and the license, this might not be enough for you to protect yourself with local and federal laws like the Graves Amendment, and might also not be compliant with local regulation and your insurance carrier’s requirements.

It is always the best practice to discuss this matter with your attorney and insurance agent before implementing lockboxes or unattended pick-ups. After all, a consultation fee would always be cheaper than the cost and headache of handing off a $25,000 asset plus the attached libilty without the appropriate safeguards and protections.