AUTHOR Robert Gillespie

Florida international driving licence law u-turn

The Floridian law that came into place on January 1st 2013 in regards to having to have an international driving licence in order to hire a car in Florida this shocked many people and left them unable to acquire a car during their holiday. Coming from the UK the law was an unusual one as like most other countries they usually accept driving licences which are within their own language and travelling from the UK to the USA licences where of course in English. Now a Florida international driving licence law u-turn has taken place.

It happened on a few cases that people were unaware of the new law set in place on the 1st January and got caught in Florida without an International driving permit (IDP), it was required that any driver from outside the USA had to have a IDP if they wanted to hire a car in Florida. The head of AA international travel Rosie Sanderson believes that the law was “primarily aimed at holders of foreign language driving licences” and due to the way this law was put forward it caused “considerable confusion” which is her explanation for the mix up of events.

When this law came into effect it seemed potentially a bit pointless as many holiday makers had been hiring cars for years with English written licences without issue. This has proven so with the law a couple months after its introduction been scrapped by the US Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on the 4th April. It all really seems like a waste of time and a massive inconvenience to holiday makers as they may have been stranded or stuck without a hire vehicle. Whether it was a misconstrued law by car hire companies or just a ridiculous law to pass they Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles need to be more careful on how people are going to interpret their proposed laws to avoid any of this happening again.

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.

Robert Gillespie

Traveller