ROMA – In addition to the crisis situation resulting from the pandemic, car rental companies are affected by unjustified requests for payment relating to penalties of the Highway Code. Aniasa, the association that represents mobility services in Confindustria, asks for an immediate and definitive clarification on the subject of the payment of fines imposed on users of rental companies, the subject of a long diatribe: with today’s crisis, the Public Administrations notify more and more often the reports for the violations of the CDS committed by the drivers of their cars directly to the rental companies (easier to identify, especially compared to foreign customers). This procedure, in addition to being wrong, is also dangerous as it makes our roads less safe, depriving motorists of responsibility, and produces significant economic damage for the sector. Aniasa underlines that the new Highway Code establishes since 1994 that, in the event of violations committed while driving rental vehicles, the person who signed the contract is responsible together with the perpetrator of the infringement. It is a standard, in line with all European legislations, which aims to make the subject fully responsible for driving the vehicle, as repeatedly recognized by the Directorate General of the Traffic Police itself. Although the implementation of the legislation is now a consolidated practice, some judgments have recently offered a questionable interpretation of the rule, thus generating a dangerous uncertainty in its application.
In short, despite various requests, even at a political level, the rental companies continue to be damaged by the failure of some Municipalities to correctly apply the exceptions to the joint liability constraint in cases where the owner is not on board the vehicle. Aniasa complains that during the last 18 months of the epidemiological emergency there has been a dangerous trend on the part of these administrations that directly notify the rental companies of fines and massive enforcement actions concerning the last 5 years, without requesting in advance to know the data of the ‘actual offender. “The sector, already shaken by the consequences of the pandemic, today cannot wait for the revision of the Highway Code to restart – explains Massimiliano Archiapatti, president of Aniasa – it is necessary for the Government to intervene to make the current law even clearer and not to give space for dangerous interpretations, sanctioning the driver’s sole responsibility for infringements of the Highway Code. Otherwise, in addition to the damage to the sector, whose vehicles are the recipients of 2.5 million fines every year, motorists driving rental cars are not responsible, putting safety on our roads at risk ”. (maurilio rigo)
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