Why You Should Get an Extra Driver on Your Car Rental

Meggan: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. How are you doing on this lovely Tuesday, Jenn?

Jenn: I am good. It's summer and that makes me happy

Meggan: I know. And I love when we record on an actual Tuesday 'cause then we're not lying about it being a Tuesday.

Jenn: true. It's true. Although we, we usually do record

Meggan: Yeah,

Jenn: That's

Meggan: too.

Jenn: little behind-the-scenes fact about us. It's, it's usually a Tuesday.

Meggan: No idea why, but here we are. Well as we discussed a few episodes ago, uh, Peter and I were in Portugal in May. We had a great time, but when we were at the car rental agency, we did something we don't normally do. And drum roll, that is choose to add on a second driver. So normally when we rent a car, and to be honest, it's usually because we wanna save money, we just have, like, the primary driver, which is usually Peter.

Not everyone can afford, of course, the second driver option. We could probably afford it we're just cheap apparently. And maybe the other person or people on your trip actually don't have their [00:01:00] license, so that might not work for you. But if someone else does, I do wanna strongly suggest or advise to add the second driver option.

So like I mentioned, we literally never have done this before, but the price for a second driver for the duration of our trip was actually quite reasonable with the rental agency, which was Sicily by Car. We've never used them before. They were actually really great. And I cannot explain why, but I just had this overwhelming urge to add it.

I can't explain it. It might have been intuition. I have no idea. But we just went for it, and I just kept saying and think to myself, "Just in case." And I had never felt like that before. But there are some benefits I wanna talk about to choosing a second driver with a rental car.

So it does, of course, or can reduce driver fatigue. So oftentimes when a car is rented, there's a time zone change for you, and because of this, it can lead to fatigue, and if there's only one designated driver, they of course can feel the obligation to drive, and this could lead to an accident or [00:02:00] worse. It's great to have an emergency backup. Like, what if the other driver becomes unable to drive for some reason? This second driver ensures that you can still continue on and get where you need to go.

Also provides travel flexibility. So maybe on your trip you wanna separate, to do separate activities, so the driver doesn't feel like doing the same excursion or outing with you, someone else in the dr- in the group can actually drive the vehicle.

And then fourth, which I think is quite important, and that is it gives you complete insurance validation and legal protection in case someone else has to drive. So if an emergency occurs and somebody else has to drive, with the second driver on the policy, they are completely covered. Um, so on our trip, as I'm sure our regular listeners remember, Peter did get sick the day before, um, our longest drive in Portugal, and while he likely could have made it, it wouldn't have been safe.

Like his, his mind was foggy. Like, he just wasn't truly in his most, like, a defensive [00:03:00] driver state, let's say. Um, so my instinct to add the second driver was correct, and I felt, I felt very validated, you know?

Jenn: Yeah

Meggan: I love, I love trusting intuition when it actually comes true. I mean, I would have felt truly terrible to make Peter drive or take the risk, um, of driving myself while not insured, and like anything, you might add the second driver and never have to use it.

Might be like a warranty you get on something and never have to cash that in, but having the option can be so key, and there's lots of situations that we cannot anticipate. So Jenn, much like us, I know Ryan does most of the driving if you guys rent a car. Do you ever add a second driver when you rent?

Jenn: No. Uh, I don't think we've ever added a second driver. Uh, and we, we don't rent cars that often, although we do have a road trip coming up in September in Alberta, so I... As you're saying this, I'm thinking we should add a second driver or, you know, add me as a driver as well to that. [00:04:00] And I do wanna mention, actually, when we were in Scotland, um, I think I've mentioned this before, that we were traveling with my best friend's parents, they had rented a car, and one of her parents ended up having a medical emergency while we were, uh, with them, and so they were unable to drive, and so Ryan ended up having to drive.

So it was really good to have that on there, uh, 'cause it could have been a not great situation

Meggan: Yeah, no, it's exactly right. And I mean, like I said, you might not use it, but it's good to have the peace of mind

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah, for sure

Meggan: . Okay, well that's it for this week's Travel Tip Tuesday. Again, we realize that it might not always be in the budget as well for a second driver, and other circumstances as well, but if you are able to, I do suggest adding it.

The extra cost could save you in an unexpected situation. As for us, you can always find us on social media at Travel Mug Podcast on our website, travelmugpodcast.com. And if you like what we're doing here, you can leave us a [00:05:00] comment on Apple or Spotify, share the show with a fellow traveler, or buy us a coffee.

The link is in our show notes. Until next time, don't forget your travel mug, of course, and we hope that you are having a great summer. Bye everyone.