Hire cars · Rental-desk checklist

At the rental desk: the checks before you drive off

Checked 18 September 2026 against each company's own published terms · skynomad

• Windscreen, bottom right. A French hire car should carry a Crit'Air disc. No disc, no zone, and €68 if you try it.
• Vignette. Austrian and Swiss stickers are visible; a digital one is not. Ask the desk to show you the plate registered against it and photograph the screen.
• Toll badge. Ask whether there is a transponder, whether it is active, and what it costs per day. If the answer is no, stay out of the yellow lane.
• Triangle and vest. France requires a CE-marked vest within reach in the cabin and a homologated triangle: up to €38 for failing to produce them, up to €750 for failing to use them. Italy wants the vest in the passenger compartment, worn whenever you step out on an open road at night or in poor visibility. Austria wants a triangle, reflective clothing and a first-aid kit. A vest in the boot is decoration.
• Tyre sidewall. Look for the mountain and snowflake, not the letters M+S. In Germany they have not meant the same thing since October 2024. In Austria in winter, measure the tread too: 4 mm, not 1.6.
• Photograph everything. Four corners, both bumpers, the windscreen, the dashboard with the odometer and fuel gauge lit, and the tariff sheet on the wall with the administration fee printed on it. I take that last one every time. It is the only photo that helps five months later.

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