Travel and trips · TT-07

Car Hire Condition Check Sheet

A free printable car hire check sheet — the walk-round at pick-up and again at drop-off, with panels, glass, tyres, fuel and mileage recorded and photographed.

Download Free · no sign-up

One page. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.

Print it and write on it

A4 44 kB US Letter 44 kB

Fill it in type and save

A4 90 kB US Letter 90 kB

The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.

What this sheet is for

Record the marks that were already on a hire car before you drive it away, so a charge at drop-off is a conversation about evidence rather than about memory.

Who it is for

Anyone hiring a car, van or motorhome, at home or abroad, and anyone who has been charged for damage they were fairly sure was already there.

How to use it

Do the walk-round before you sign the agreement, not after.
Work round the vehicle in the same order both times: front, sides, rear, roof, glass, wheels, inside.
Photograph every mark you find and tick the photo column so you know it exists.
Write the fuel and mileage readings straight off the dashboard at both ends.
Ask an employee to sign the sheet at pick-up and again at drop-off.

What is on the sheet

One page, top to bottom:

Printed under the title: The walk-round at pick-up and again at drop-off — panels, glass, tyres, fuel and mileage — with every mark you find recorded and photographed before you drive away.

Photograph it before you drive away. Do the walk-round before you sign anything, photograph every mark you find with something in shot that dates it, and get an employee to initial the sheet. Damage that is not recorded at pick-up becomes damage you are asked about at drop-off.

Write-on lines: Hire company and branch · Agreement number · Vehicle · Registration · Picked up · Due back · Driver

Fuel and mileage — write the readings off the dashboard, both times

Write-on lines: Fuel or charge at pick-up · Mileage at pick-up · Fuel or charge at drop-off · Mileage at drop-off

Walk-round — one row per area: front, nearside, offside, rear, roof, glass, tyres, inside

Table, 7 rows: Area · At pick-up · Photo taken · At drop-off · Photo taken · Notes

Signature strip: Checked with (employee) · Signed at pick-up · Signed at drop-off

Questions

Why is there no diagram of a car to mark up?

Because a printed outline only fits one shape of vehicle, and hire fleets run everything from a small hatchback to a long-wheelbase van. Naming the area you are looking at works for all of them, and the photograph is the real record.

Does this replace the hire company's own damage form?

No. Fill in theirs as well — it is the document their system works from. This is your copy, in your own words, with your own photographs behind it.