UKC

Can anyone help please?

I'm flying into Geneva airport in August and then moving on to Chamonix. I know there have been changes in EU regulations about taking hire cars across borders.

I can't find a definitive answer as to whether I'm OK to hire a car from the Swiss side of the airport to be used in France, or whether I need to hire from the French side and then drive only on French Roads which requires quite a detour from the airport to get to Chamonix.

Has anyone hired from Geneva airport recently to drive on French roads? If so, what did you do?

Many thanks!!

In reply to Removed User:

I believe there's some new rules about not taking Swiss hire car to France for more than 8 days, no idea of the details and whether its enforced.

You can hire a car from the French side of the airport (generally cheaper hire rates) and drive on Swiss roads through Geneva to get to France - I've done it twice to get to Morzine and am doing again this summer. Note that don't get a vignette for Swiss motorways so shouldn't drive on them and may get forced to buy one if you do (about £30). Getting from the airport is fine, just stick no motorways on satnav and drive through Geneva to get to France (quite scenic and haven't had any significant traffic issues). Coming back is similar but need to be careful to ignore the airport signs as you get closer, the Swiss seem to refuse to acknowledge the existence of the French side of the airport so you need to ignore any signs and travel through the tunnels to the border crossing to get back to the French side and drop off you car in the correct place.

In reply to Removed User:
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I hired over Easter from the Swiss side to use the car in France. I used Budget and had no issues. I made it very clear where I was going. My understanding is that the laws (which have been in place for some time) were used a few times 18 months ago and since then not again. It is also my understanding that the major rental co's have register their GVA fleets so that they are legal to drive in France.

To double confirm I suggest that you pick your rental co and then e mail them direct.

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/cars/car-rental-abroad/index_...

"If you live in the EU and you rent a car in a non-EU country, such as Switzerland, special rules apply when driving it in EU countries.

If you plan to travel with your rental car both in EU and non-EU countries – for example from Switzerland to France, Germany, Austria or Italy – you need to tell the rental company in advance. They can provide you with an EU-registered car in order to comply with EU customs laws. Most car rental companies in Switzerland provide cars with EU number plates for EU residents in order to comply with EU customs rules, but you should check with your car rental company.

The car rental company must also ensure that the car complies with the customs and traffic rules of the country where you will travel. For example, in many countries winter tyres are compulsory during certain months of the year."

In reply to Ian Patterson:


Many (if not all) car rental companies in CH now simply register their cars in Germany so they can be taken out of Switzerland. The last couple of sets of friends who have come out to visit us have had this and they didn't even know it (so it was done without asking). It could be worth checking before you rent though.

Don't hire from the French side, especially if going to Chamonix. Avoiding Swiss motorways (which are confusingly marked green rather than blue) to get across Geneva is a real pain in my experience - its much simpler to drive out the airport and through the motorway tunnels to the border. Cars hired from the Swiss side have the vignette included (and snow chains/winter tyres in winter). Admittedly its a bit more expensive but I'd rather get my holiday off to a more relaxing start.

In reply to Removed User:
Have you heard of Google

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=swiss+hire+care+in+france&oq=swiss+hire+c...

One result among many, seems pretty definitive to me:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-4102332/EU-rules-hit-sk...

In reply to Removed User:

It's definitely worth checking the car hire prices from both sides - the prices vary day to day, year to year. Last year it was significantly cheaper to hire on the French side even factoring in the cost of the vignette etc.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Those are old articles. I think what has happened is that since then the rental companies have registered their fleets to comply.

In reply to Ian Patterson:

Thanks for the mega quick response Ian, much appreciated. I hadn't contemplated hiring from the French side and then simply not using Swiss motorways. I'm guessing finding the French side of the airport when your flight arrives is pretty easy?

When you hired your car, did you do it in advance and therefore were you able to state that you want to hire from the French side? If so which company did you use? Thanks again for the help! Rob

Has anyone else had any problems with this or know anything about not taking a Swiss hire car to France for more than 8 days as Ian mentions above?

In reply to Removed User:


No, its a pain, i would hire from the Swiss side, its much easier if the issues with cross border driving have really been sorted out.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Google? ohh, Google!! Yeah, I'd already looked at a few articles but they contradicted one another. The 2nd one here is, as you say, pretty definitive, so cheers for that. Another useful element of that same article says:

"Drivers need to log onto the DVLA's Share Driving Licence service before they leave to generate a unique code, which lasts for 21 days. This requires both a driving licence number and national insurance number. Without it, drivers could be refused a hire car. The code will enable the rental firm to access records which details convictions such as speeding and what vehicles a motorist is allowed to drive."

I've never heard of this until now so thanks again!

In reply to Removed User:

If you have a look on the snowheads ski forum there is loads of info on this from folk who have hired cars in GVA over the winter. It's total non-issue apparently.

But if you do want to hire from French side, then it's pretty easy to find.

In reply to Removed User:

Yes, it's straight forward, follow the signs directing you France - they'll say something like "Secteur France/Sector France" and might even have a French flag IIRC. It's very unlikely the door will be manned but if it is you *might* be asked to show your car hire details showing you're picking up a car from that side. The only gotcha I recall is that you might not be able to get a baggage trolley through the door so might have to abandon your trolley on the Swiss side (make sure you get your 2CHF back though) and get another once on the French side.


Again, the should be easy, when you hire online, you select country France and location Geneva Airport. Some of the car hire searches might give you both a Swiss and French option when you pop Geneva Airport in for the pick up location.


Last year I used Europcar from the French side of GVA.

In reply to Removed User:

This has come up a couple of times in recent months. I think I even started a thread last year. In the end we hired from the Swiss side and drove straight into France, the Swiss hirers are using German-registered cars to avoid the French Douanier stupidity whereby a couple of people have been stopped and forced to pay duty on their Swiss-registered cars.

In reply to Rigid Raider:

Thanks for all of these super quick replies. UKC is amazing for this sort of thing, cheers!

In reply to Fiona Reid:

Seems to be 2 sets of views here!! I concur with Fiona, all hire companies have 2 options for Geneva airport (French and Swiss) it's no problem getting to French side of the airport and picking hire car up, drive through Geneva is relaxed at a weekend and pretty scenic (don't know what it would be like during the week) it's a little bit fiddly getting back to French side but not significant hassle.

However based on the other comments I would probably only use the French side if it was significantly cheaper, I needed a car to carry 2 mountain bikes and had to pay more £100 more if used Swiss side.