Europcar apologise for blocking Shetland family without passport ID

The family involved had travelled from Shetland to Glasgow to attend a wedding.

The father had earlier completed Europcar’s online check-in process and received confirmation that the vehicle was ready for collection.

When the car hire was refused as he did not have a passport, he instead had to hire a vehicle from another company at short notice.

After the case was highlighted, Europcar said it wanted to sincerely apologise for the “inconvenience and distress” caused.

“The company fully recognises that residents of Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, the Isle of Wight and other UK island communities are part of the United Kingdom,” a statement said.

“The issue highlighted relates to the company’s customer verification process that is designed to support identity and fraud prevention requirements where qualification checks are processed through its electronic verification system which does not recognise postcodes from a number of UK off-mainland islands.

“Unfortunately, the wording within the company’s internal guidance has led to an unintended and inaccurate classification of these communities as ‘overseas’ for administrative purposes. The company acknowledges that this terminology is inappropriate and does not reflect their constitutional status within the UK.”