Your hire, in plain English

Booking and paying

We send you a quotation with the vehicles, the dates, the delivery and the price, with VAT shown separately. It is valid for the period on it.

We ask for payment in full before we deliver, by the date on your quotation, and we hold the vehicles for you until then. Once the payment clears, your dates are locked in. Making that payment is how you accept the terms, and there is nothing else to sign. If we do not hear from you by that date, the vehicles go back into the diary for someone else.

If you would rather pay on account, ask us. We can set that up for business customers.

When we drop off

We walk round each vehicle with you and fill in a short condition report, noting any marks that are already there and taking photographs. You get a copy on the spot and we both sign it.

It takes five minutes and it means neither of us has to rely on memory afterwards. If you spot something we have missed, tell us within 24 hours and we will update the report.

We will also run through the controls with whoever is going to be driving.

While the vehicles are with you

Anyone you are happy to let drive is fine by us, provided they are over 18, sober, fit to drive and have been shown the controls. Please keep the vehicles on private land unless we have agreed road use, keep them somewhere secure overnight, and keep them fuelled or charged.

Please do not move them to a different site, apply stickers or livery, or have anyone else repair them, without asking us first. They stay our property throughout, so they cannot be lent on, sold or used as security for anything.

If something gets damaged

Things happen, and we would far rather you told us early than worried about it. If a vehicle is damaged, stops working or goes missing, call us and we will help you sort it.

Everyday wear is on us and is never charged. For damage beyond that, the vehicles are in your care while you have them, so the cost of putting it right is yours. That is the case however it happened and whoever did it, including a guest or someone unknown, unless it was our fault.

We get a repair quote and share it with you along with the before and after photographs. You pay the actual cost of the repair with no mark-up. If a vehicle is lost or stolen we would need a police reference number, and the replacement value would be payable, so it is worth checking that your insurance covers hired-in vehicles.

If you disagree with a charge, tell us within 14 days and we will go through it with you properly. We will not chase a charge while a genuine query is open.

Cleaning and fuel

The vehicles arrive clean, checked and full. Ordinary dirt from ordinary use is expected and we never charge for it.

We only charge for cleaning when a vehicle needs a lot more than a normal turnaround valet. Think heavy mud through the cab, spilled paint or oil, chewing gum, sticker residue, or anything biological that we have to deal with under health and safety rules. If that happens we charge what the extra cleaning actually costs and we show you the photographs first.

If a vehicle comes back low on fuel or charge, we charge for filling it plus a small handling fee. Keys, chargers and covers are charged at replacement cost if they go missing.

If you need to cancel or change

Tell us as early as you can. We will move dates or swap vehicles where we can, and a change may adjust the price.

If you cancel, we charge only what we have genuinely lost or already committed, such as transport booked and vehicles held out of the fleet for your dates. We will show you how we worked it out.

If we have to cancel

Very occasionally we cannot supply the vehicles booked, usually because one has been damaged or not returned on a previous hire, or has had to come off the road.

If that happens we will tell you as soon as we know and do everything we can to put an equivalent or better vehicle in front of you instead, from our own fleet or a partner fleet, at no extra cost. If we cannot, we refund you in full for whatever we could not deliver, straight away and in full.

That refund is where our responsibility ends. We cannot cover the cost of hiring vehicles from someone else at short notice, or losses connected with your event. If the vehicles are critical to your day, please do arrange event insurance, and tell your insurer what we are supplying so they have the detail.

Insurance

We carry public liability insurance for our own operations and will send you the certificate on request.

That does not cover the vehicles while they are with you, or the way they are used on your site, so please make sure you have cover for hired-in vehicles up to their replacement value, and for your liability to other people. If you are not sure what you need, ask us and we will point you in the right direction.

When we collect

We run the same check again, with you there if you would like. If anything has changed we show you both sets of photographs and talk it through with you before anything is charged. No surprise invoices.

If the light or the weather makes a proper look impossible on the day, we will finish the check back at ours and send you the report and the photographs.

The formal bit

Everything above is a summary written to be readable. The full wording is Part C, Vehicle hire terms, in our Terms and Conditions at hawkeev.com/terms, and that is the version that binds us both.

Your agreement with us is made up of your quotation or booking confirmation, those hire terms, and the signed condition report for each vehicle. If they ever differ, the quotation comes first.

Occasionally we supply an equivalent vehicle from one of our partner fleets. Your agreement stays with us and the same terms apply. Nothing here affects your statutory rights. Ask us any time and we will email or post you a copy of anything.