Florida Car Hire. New International Drivers Permit Requirement

From 1st January 2013, international visitors arriving at a car hire desk in Florida is now required by law to provide an International Drivers Permit (IDP). So where do you get yours and how much will it cost? This little known legislation covered by Florida Statute 322.04, requires Florida Car Hire companies to request confirmation of an IDP from all named drivers. This simple photographic document does not however replace your driving licence and should in fact be carried along with it when ever you are driving in Florida. Failure to produce an IDP may result in the Florida car hire company refusing to provide you with your rental car, alternatively should you be stopped whilst driving in Florida you may be require to produce both your driving licence and IDP. Failure to produce both documents at this time will result in either the arrest of the driver and taking him/her to jail or the driver receiving a citation with a mandatory court appearance.

With this in mind Direct Villas Florida  is urging all international visitors travelling to Florida who intend to drive during their vacation, obtain an IDP even if they have not had a request to do so by their Florida car hire provider. Obtaining an IDP in the U.K is a straight forward process which you can carry out at a Post Office. The cost of an annual IDP is currently £5.50 per driver. The application is carried out over the counter in two simple steps;

1. Pick up an application form and fill it in. Make sure you enter your dates correctly and note, you can only apply up to three months before you want to start using your permit.
2. Take your completed application form and your full UK driving licence (or provisional licence and pass certificate), the £5.50 application fee, a photo of you (passport-sized and signed on the back) and your proof of identity to the counter and the Post Office will do the rest.

To find your nearest Post Office click here

N.B UPDATE. The requirement for an IDP has now been suspended.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Florida Car Hire, Florida Uncovered, General Advice, misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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