Equality and Human Rights Commission

Providers of rental cars and breakdown services may be expected to make changes relating to physical barriers which prevent disabled people from using their vehicles.

Rental vehicles

Companies providing rental vehicles will have to take reasonable steps to remove, alter or avoid a physical feature which prevents a disabled person using a vehicle, or find a reasonable and different way of offering their service. However, there is no obligation to alter fixed seating.

Example: Reasonable adjustment for rental vehicles

A disabled driver wishes to hire a rental car. In order to be able to drive, he requires hand controls to be fitted in the vehicle. The vehicle rental operator alters the braking and accelerator controls in one of its cars by installing a set of hand controls which the driver can use. This is likely to be a reasonable step for the vehicle rental operator to take.

Breakdown recovery vehicles

Breakdown recovery companies will have to take reasonable steps to overcome physical features which present barriers to disabled people by providing the service in a reasonable alternative way.

Example: Reasonable adjustment for a breakdown vehicle

A breakdown recovery operator sends a vehicle to assist a disabled motorist whose car has broken down on his journey home. On arrival, the breakdown recovery representative discovers that the broken-down car cannot be repaired immediately and must be towed away.

The terms of the motorist’s breakdown contract provide for him to be taken on to his destination in the event of a breakdown that cannot be resolved on site. The breakdown recovery operator would usually expect to comply with these terms by transporting customers in the cab of the recovery vehicle. However, the cab has steps leading up to it and the motorist has a mobility impairment and cannot climb up the steps into the cab.

The breakdown recovery operator therefore orders an accessible vehicle, perhaps a suitable taxi, to take the motorist home at no extra charge. This is provision of a service by an alternative method and is likely to be a reasonable step for the breakdown recovery operator to have to take.