Credit hire over the October long weekend

Where the crashes happen on the October long weekend

The first Friday afternoon of October is the worst. The M1 Pacific Motorway northbound backs up from Wahroonga through the Hawkesbury River bridge, and the rear enders start around Berowra and Mount Colah as people brake late in stop start traffic. By Saturday morning the same thing happens southbound on the Princes Highway through Heathcote and Waterfall, and on the Illawarra Highway over Mount Ousley into Wollongong.

The Southern Highlands gets its own pattern. The Hume Motorway is fast and the off ramps at Mittagong and Berrima catch drivers who have been on cruise control for an hour and suddenly need to turn. Rear enders at the Berrima Road intersection are common on the Saturday of the long weekend.

Within Sydney, the usual suspects still apply. Military Road through Neutral Bay, Parramatta Road at Concord, and the King Georges Road corridor around Hurstville all produce low speed collisions because everyone is distracted and the roads are full. In the east, Bondi Road and Old South Head Road are busy from Friday night.

What makes the long weekend different is not the number of crashes, it is who is around to deal with them. A rear ender at Berowra on a normal Tuesday is annoying. On the Saturday of a long weekend it can leave you without a car until the following Wednesday because the at fault insurer has one person on the phones and the tow operator has gone to the coast.

If you are heading north to Terrigal or south to Berry, the further you get from Sydney the thinner the recovery and repair network gets. A crash at Swansea on the Sunday is a long way from a prestige repairer who can touch your car.

Why insurer response times blow out

Insurers do not stop over the long weekend, they shrink. Most keep a skeleton crew for emergencies and new claims, and the people who actually assess liability and authorise hire are not at their desks. That means a claim lodged on Saturday morning may not be looked at by a human until Tuesday.

There is also a queue effect. Every claim that comes in from Friday to Monday lands in the same pile, and on Tuesday morning that pile is three times the size of a normal day. The assessor who would normally call you back within a few hours is now working through a backlog.

Tow operators and smash repairers are in the same position. Many close from Saturday through Monday, and the ones that stay open are dealing with priority jobs. If your car is drivable and you take it home, it may sit in your driveway until Wednesday before anyone looks at it.

This matters because the at fault insurer's obligation to cover your loss of use does not pause for the public holiday. If you need a car and the other side is not responding, credit hire is the mechanism that keeps you mobile while the claim catches up. The general principle is covered in how credit hire works, and the practical version is that you should not be stranded because a call centre is short staffed.

What you can control is how quickly you get your own information together. Photos, the other driver's details, the police event number if police attended, and a clear description of the damage all speed up the moment when the other insurer can actually make a decision.

Getting a replacement car on the Saturday or Sunday

You can organise a credit hire car on a Saturday or Sunday. The process does not require the at fault insurer to have admitted liability first, and it does not require your own insurer to be involved at all. What it requires is that you were not at fault and that you can give a clear account of what happened.

The steps are straightforward:

1. Call the police if anyone is injured, if the other driver leaves, or if the cars are blocking traffic. Get the event number.
2. Photograph everything: both cars, the position on the road, the other driver's licence and rego, and any dashcam footage.
3. Get the other driver's name, address, phone, insurer and claim number if they have one.
4. Call the credit hire provider and give them the details. They will handle the at fault insurer from there.
5. Arrange delivery or collection. On a long weekend, delivery is usually the better option because you may not want to drive a replacement car you are not used to on roads full of holiday traffic.

If your car is a prestige or performance model, say so at the first call. Like for like means like for like, and you should not be handed a base model hatchback because that is what was available. The principle is set out in like for like, and it applies just as much on a Sunday as on a Wednesday.

The practical constraint on a long weekend is stock. Prestige cars are booked out for weddings, long weekend trips and school holiday events. The earlier you call, the better your chance of getting something close to what you drive.

Delivery to the Central Coast, Wollongong or the Southern Highlands

Delivery is available across the greater Sydney area and out to the regions, and on a long weekend it is usually the difference between having a car on Saturday and having one on Tuesday. If you are at a holiday house in Terrigal, a motel in Kiama or a farm stay near Bowral, you do not want to be catching two trains and a bus to collect a replacement car.

Delivery to the Central Coast typically runs up the M1 and can reach Gosford, Erina, Terrigal and The Entrance. Wollongong and the northern Illawarra are reachable via the Princes Highway, including Thirroul, Bulli and Corrimal. The Southern Highlands run down the Hume, covering Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale and Berrima.

What you need to have ready:

• A licence that matches the name on the booking.
• A credit or debit card in your name for the bond, which equals the excess you choose.
• A safe place for the car to be dropped off, with reasonable access.
• Your phone charged, because the handover is done on the spot.

The minimum driver age is 20 on most cars and 25 or 30 on some. If you are under 25 and the car you want is a higher tier model, check before you commit. The rate, the bond and every fee are shown on the car's page before payment.

If you are away from home and the car is delivered to your holiday address, tell the provider where the car will be parked overnight and whether there is secure parking. A prestige car left on a street in a coastal town over a long weekend is a risk nobody needs.

What to do if the at fault driver is from interstate

Interstate drivers are common on the October long weekend. Someone from Victoria is heading to the Central Coast, someone from Queensland is driving to the Snowy Mountains, and the crash happens in New South Wales. The at fault driver's insurer may be based in another state and may not have a New South Wales claims team on the phone over the holiday.

This does not change your rights. The crash happened in New South Wales, the not at fault rules here apply, and the other driver's insurer still has to deal with the claim. What changes is the friction. You may be dealing with a call centre in another time zone, and the person on the phone may not know the local repair network.

Get the following before you leave the scene:

• The other driver's full name, address and phone number.
• The registration number and state of registration.
• The insurer name and policy number if they have it.
• Photos of their licence and their car.
• Any witness names and numbers.

If the other driver is uninsured or their insurer will not engage, the credit hire provider can still assess the claim and pursue recovery. The key is that you have enough information to identify the driver and the vehicle. Without that, everything slows down.

Interstate claims can take longer to resolve because correspondence goes between states. That is another reason to get into a replacement car early rather than waiting for the other side to sort itself out.

Keeping receipts for taxis and rideshare in the meantime

If you cannot get a replacement car immediately, keep every receipt for taxis, rideshare, trains and buses. These are part of your loss of use claim, and they are recoverable from the at fault insurer in the same way as the hire itself. The general position is explained in loss of use and physical inconvenience.

What to keep:

• Rideshare receipts with the date, time and trip details.
• Taxi receipts, including eftpos slips.
• Public transport tap on and tap off records if you use a card.
• Parking receipts if you had to leave your car somewhere.
• Toll statements if you had to take a different route.

The amounts add up faster than people expect. A week of rideshare from the Northern Beaches to the CBD can rival the cost of a hire car, and it is far less convenient. If you have children, a dog or a boot full of work gear, rideshare is not a real substitute.

There is a practical limit to how long you can rely on rideshare before it becomes unreasonable. If your car is going to be off the road for weeks, a credit hire car is the better answer, and the receipts are only meant to cover the gap between the crash and the delivery.

Keep the receipts in one place, photograph them, and send them to the credit hire provider as soon as you have them. Do not wait until settlement to mention that you spent money on transport.

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How the public holiday affects repair start dates

Even if your car is towed to a repairer on the Saturday, the assessment may not happen until Tuesday or Wednesday. Prestige repairers often need to order parts, and parts suppliers are closed over the long weekend. A car that arrives on Saturday may not be looked at until the middle of the following week.

The sequence usually looks like this:

For a prestige car, the repair itself can take longer than the claim. Parts for European models often come from interstate or overseas, and a repairer will not start pulling panels off until the parts are on site. That is why the replacement car period can run for weeks rather than days.

If your car is a total loss, the timeline changes completely. The insurer has to assess the value, make an offer, and deal with the write off. The hire car period usually continues until the claim is settled, but the rules are different. See credit hire and write offs for how that works.

The best thing you can do over the long weekend is get the car into a repairer you trust, or at least get it photographed and assessed by someone who knows prestige vehicles, rather than letting it sit in a holding yard.

Following up on the Tuesday

Tuesday is the day everything restarts. The assessor is back, the repairer is open, and the at fault insurer is working through the long weekend backlog. Your job is to make sure your claim is not at the bottom of the pile.

Do this on Tuesday morning:

1. Call the credit hire provider and confirm they have everything they need.
2. Call the at fault insurer and get a claim number and the name of the person handling it.
3. Confirm the repairer has your car and knows it is a prestige vehicle.
4. Ask for a date when the assessment will be done.
5. Diary a follow up for Thursday if you have not heard back.

Keep a written record of every call: date, time, who you spoke to, and what they said. If the claim ends up in dispute, that record is worth more than your memory. The process for disputes is set out in when an insurer disputes a credit hire claim.

If you are a fleet manager, Tuesday is also the day to check whether the replacement car matches the vehicle it is standing in for. A ute that is used for site work cannot be replaced by a sedan, and the business loss is not just the hire cost. See business and fleet for how that is handled.

If you have not heard anything by Thursday, escalate. A polite but firm call to the claims manager usually moves things along faster than waiting for a callback.

Booking a replacement car over the long weekend

Bookings are fulfilled by Drive Tribe (drivetribe.com.au), the trading name of Australian Business Holdings Pty Ltd, and this site is part of that group. That means when you book a replacement car through us, you are dealing with the same operation that supplies prestige and performance cars to Sydney drivers every day of the year.

Over the October long weekend, the practical advice is to call early on the Saturday if you can. Stock moves quickly, and the cars that are available on Friday night are often gone by Saturday lunchtime. If you are not sure what you are entitled to, start with not at fault accident replacement and then check availability.

If you are a smash repairer, solicitor or broker who refers clients, the long weekend is when your clients need you most. The referral process is set out in partners and referrals, and we can take the claim details directly so your client is not left making calls on a public holiday.

The rate, the bond and every fee are shown on the car's page before payment. Paying by card carries a small surcharge, while bank transfer and cash on the rental do not. The bond equals the excess you choose. Cars can be booked from a single day.

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