On February 21, www.china.com.cn, recently, the Consulate General in Calgary found that there are some invisible "traps" in the field of car rental and car rental through studying the "free travel" products sold on relevant domestic websites. When Chinese tourists log on to the relevant domestic car rental platform to book foreign "company guide" services, they pay more attention to the pickup provided by the local "company guide" on the surface Projects such as tour guides and interpreters pay less attention to operational qualifications, accident claims and safety supervision.
The Canadian Transport Department registers a special license plate for commercial operating vehicles (for example, the Alberta commercial operating license plate is one letter plus five numbers, and the window glass is pasted with a blue DOT Sticker special logo), requiring the owner to purchase commercial operating insurance of no less than 2 million Canadian dollars. The private car is a private vehicle, and its license plate is completely different from that of commercial vehicles. The "driver guide" driving private cars is essentially the use of private vehicles to undertake business operations, which has fundamentally changed the nature of vehicle use and is illegal in the local area.
The vehicle insurance purchased by private cars is different from the commercial insurance of operating vehicles. If private cars are illegally engaged in commercial operations, once a traffic accident occurs, the insurance company of private cars will not assume any liability for compensation to passengers.
In order to ensure the safety of passengers, the local competent department has strict control over commercial operation vehicles and drivers. It is required that relevant vehicles must be tested every half a year. The driver must have a higher level driver's license (for example, Alberta requires a Class 4 or 2 or higher level driver's license to drive commercial operation vehicles), and irregularly control the safety status of vehicles and the driver's driving status, For example, conduct spot checks on drunk driving, drug driving, and fatigue driving. Private cars are not subject to the above supervision.
The Consulate General recommends that when booking a charter car online, Chinese tourists must contact local companies with commercial operation qualifications. Before placing an order, they are required to check the commercial operation license of the car in advance, check the commercial operation qualification of the car against the license plate number and the logo on the window glass, and confirm the driver's license level.
In addition, the Consulate General reminds tourists that the "full insurance" marked on some domestic car rental platforms is not "full insurance" in the local sense of Canada. If a traffic accident occurs during the travel, it is easy to have a claim dispute.
It is recommended that Chinese tourists rent cars from professional car rental companies through official websites. Carefully study the types and coverage of vehicle insurance, understand the exemption clauses, deductible limits, etc. of relevant insurance, and try to choose the insurance content covering emergency rescue, road rescue, personal insurance, collision and theft rescue, etc. For winter car rental, please choose four-wheel drive and vehicles with snow tires, antifreeze wiper fluid and other equipment. (Wu Cenan Xue)