Bad luck, or bad practice?
The unluckiest hire-car customer, or a systemic failure at Hertz and their suppliers? In 2024 ( bear with me ) I hired a Toyota for a few weeks, and had no problems until the day before the return when the number plate literally fell off - while I was driving. Fortunately, despite the risk of entering the middle of a busy road, I was able to retrieve it. Upon returning the car the next day without the number plate attached, there didn’t seem to be any major surprise with ‘this kinda thing happens with these stick-on plates’ being the response. Hmmm…really?….was my response. If this is a known failure, is Hertz just expecting customers to deal with it? And what would likely happen if a car is returned without a number plate because the stick-on failure happens without the driver’s knowing, or it’s just too dangerous to try to retrieve it? So, fast forward to July 2026, with another Toyota hired for a few weeks…..and it happens again! The number plate is spotted hanging by a single thread of a single stick-on and would again have just fallen off while driving. Only this time it happens in the middle of the hire period, which immediately causes problems as a quick google search shows there is a zero tolerance policy within the traffic regulations for driving without a number plate with a €60 on-the-spot fine and a no-driving order until the plate is reattached. And the (eventual) Hertz answer to this predicament? ‘Can you find a garage or car goods shop that stocks the stick-ons, or something similar and put the plate back on?’. This is what I had to do in order to avoid a fine and continue with my journey. What the response might have been had the plate been lost while driving, who knows? If, as happened on this occasion, upon return, the customer discovers an out-of-hours collection fee being charged despite the flight delay being communicated in the booking, just what extra charge is a customer likely to face because part of the car is actually missing? So, is this just a very weird coincidence that it could happen to the same person on two separate occasions two years apart? Or, does Hertz need to take this seriously in terms of how widespread an issue it is? Which suppliers to the Hertz fleet are using stick-on number plates, and what quality controls are in place to ensure they actually work?