A car rental vehicle inspection checklist that holds up
What to photograph and record before a vehicle leaves and when it comes back, so a damage dispute is settled by evidence rather than by argument.
The inspection is the cheapest insurance in a rental business, and the one most often done
badly. Not because owners do not know it matters, but because it happens at the worst possible
moment, when the customer is in a hurry and standing right there.
A good inspection takes four minutes and settles an argument you would otherwise lose.
The rule that makes it work
Photograph the same things, in the same order, every single time, going out and coming back.
The consistency is the entire point. A dispute is not settled by a photo of the damage. It is
settled by a pair of photos, taken from the same angle, one before and one after. A beautiful
set of return photos with nothing to compare against proves only that the vehicle is damaged
now.
