April 2016
www.bvrla.co.uk
RISC News online.com
An essential update from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association
RISC is a powerful loss prevention tool available free to all our corporate and broker members, with API integration for your counter software solution and an intuitive web portal for immediate access.
Continuing to treat your customers fairly In the September edition of RISC News we reported that notifying customers that they were on RISC should be a matter of best practice for BVRLA members. Customers can often be confrontational at the counter because they turn up expecting to rent a vehicle, only to be turned away. They can also be aggressive to BVRLA staff when
we explain their rights and how they can challenge the data held on our database. Here is a template letter that members can use to advise customers that they have been put on RISC - it can also be emailed out to customers. A full copy of the letter is available on our website, visit www.bvrla.co.uk.
Dear........... BVRLA’s RISC Database I write to inform you that your personal details have been listed on the BVRLA’s Rental Industry Secure Customer (RISC) database, a platform for vehicle rental companies to share information. RISC is a tool used by many vehicle rental companies within BVRLA membership during their rental qualification process. Your information has been placed on this database because you breached our rental agreement dated [INSERT DATE]. [Members may wish to inform the customer of the reason for the breach of agreement] If you believe the data held on RISC in accurate, you have the right to appeal for your data to be removed from the system.
Some RISC statistics... On an average day: Our subscribers post ten incidents on RISC. In an average month: There are 218 RISC matches that’s the number of risk renters
and risk companies identified through subscriber searches. Throughout the year: Last year our subscribers performed 2 million searches on RISC.
RISC FAQs BVRLA’s James Mansfield answers some of the FAQs about RISC. When a renter is placed on RISC is the period of disqualification always permanent, or is there a scale depending on the offence? In keeping with guidelines from the Information Commissioner, we keep data for as long as is necessary. We retain data for five years for all notifications, unless the BVRLA member reporting the notification instructs us to remove the record before five years have elapsed. Does the BVRLA send the renter the notice of admission to RISC and the reasons why, or is this the responsibility of the member? We do not send the renter any notice of admission to RISC. As a matter of best practice, we are proposing BVRLA members do so and have suggested appropriate wording. BVRLA standard rental agreement terms, available free to members already contains appropriate notices e.g. “If you break the agreement, we can give information you have given us to credit reference agencies, the DVLA, debt collectors, and any other relevant organisation. We can also give this information to the BVRLA who can pass it on to any of its members for any purpose shown in the Data Protection Act”.
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