Adding an extra driver to a rental car in Pakistan

If more than one person will take the wheel, the rent a car extra driver question has a short answer: every person who drives must be named on the rental agreement before they drive, must show their own identity document and a licence valid for use in Pakistan, and must meet whatever age and experience conditions the supplier sets. The main renter signing the paperwork does not cover anyone else. A brother, colleague or cousin who “just does the motorway stretch” without being listed is, for insurance purposes, a stranger in the driving seat. If something happens, the policy may refuse to pay, and the bill for damage, third-party claims and the vehicle’s downtime can land on the person who signed.

So the practical job is simple. Decide who will drive before collection, collect each person’s documents, get each name written into the agreement, and confirm in writing what the extra driver costs and what cover applies to them. The rest of this guide explains why each of those steps matters and how to handle the awkward cases: changing drivers halfway through a hire, and companies whose staff rotate through one car.

The decision in five lines

• One driver only: the main renter is the only authorised driver. Nobody else drives, including for ten minutes in a car park.
• Two or three known drivers: name them all at booking, not at the handover desk. Documents are the usual cause of delay.
• A driver who arrives later in the trip: ask for them to be added before they drive, and get a written amendment back.
• A company pool of five or more rotating staff: ask whether the supplier accepts a pre-approved list; if the pool keeps changing, a car with a driver is usually cleaner.
• Anyone without a licence valid for Pakistan: they cannot be an additional driver on the rental agreement, whatever their experience at home.

What “named” or “authorised” driver actually means

A rental contract is a promise between the vehicle owner and specific people. The renter is the person who signs, pays and carries overall responsibility. A named driver car rental arrangement extends permission to drive to other identified individuals, each listed by name and usually by licence number. “Authorised driver” means the same thing in most paperwork: someone the owner has agreed, in writing, may operate the vehicle.

The authorised driver rental contract matters for three reasons that are easy to blur together:

1. Permission. The owner has agreed to let this person drive their asset. Someone not listed is driving without that permission, which is a breach of the contract by the renter.
2. Insurance. Motor policies attached to rental fleets are typically written around the drivers the owner has vetted. An unlisted driver may fall outside the terms, which is where the money problem starts.
3. Accountability. If a traffic challan, speed camera notice or damage report arrives, the owner needs to know who was driving. A named list answers that question; an informal handover does not.

Being named does not make someone jointly responsible for the whole hire in every case. The terms decide that. Read who bears the excess, the deposit and any fines when a named driver, rather than the renter, was at the wheel.

Who can drive a rental car in Pakistan: the legal floor

Before any supplier rule applies, the law sets a minimum. On national highways and motorways, the National Highways Safety Ordinance 2000 is explicit on the points that affect extra drivers:

• Section 3: no one may drive on a national highway unless they hold, and carry on their person, a valid licence for that class and type of vehicle.
• Section 5: no owner or person in charge of a vehicle may cause or permit someone who does not meet that licence requirement to drive. That is the renter’s exposure if they hand the keys to an unlicensed relative.
• Section 41: an owner may not use, or permit the use of, a vehicle on a national highway unless it is covered by “No Fault Accident Compensation” insurance from a registered insurer.
• Section 58: on demand by the police or other authorised personnel, the driver must produce their licence, the certificate of insurance and the vehicle’s registration certificate, with up to fifteen days allowed to produce missing documents at a patrol post (professional drivers excepted).

Section 5 is the one renters overlook. Handing the car to someone who is not properly licensed is not only a contract problem with the owner; the person who permitted it is also in breach of the ordinance. The penalty section of the same ordinance sets fines and possible imprisonment for driving without a licence, and the figures in older legislation are regularly revised, so treat any number you see quoted secondhand with suspicion.

For visitors, the licence test is stricter than many assume. The UK government’s travel advice for Pakistan says British drivers need both the 1968 version of the International Driving Permit and their UK licence in the car, that the permit cannot be obtained outside the UK, and that driving without the right documents can lead to detention and a police report. Every UK-licensed additional driver needs their own permit; one permit per car is not the rule. We cover the licence side in more depth in our guide to driving in Pakistan on a UK licence.

What each additional driver on the rental agreement must show

The supplier releasing the vehicle sets the exact list, and it varies. Our own terms of hire say self-drive bookings require a licence recognised for use in Pakistan and that partners may ask to see it before releasing a vehicle. Plan for every driver to be checked to the same standard as the renter. The table below shows what to have ready by driver type; it is a preparation list, not a promise of what any one supplier will accept.

Two checks are available to anyone and worth running before you travel:

• UK licences: the DVLA’s view or share your driving licence service produces a check code a hire company can use to see a driver’s record. The code lasts 21 days, so generate it close to departure rather than weeks ahead.
• Punjab-issued licences: the provincial DLIMS licence verification page checks regular, international and juvenile licences against a CNIC or passport number and the licence number. A supplier may run this check itself; running it first saves an argument at the desk if a record is out of date.

Licences issued by the National Highways and Motorway Police licensing authority have their own verification route on that site. Other provinces run separate systems, so a Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa licence is verified through its own issuing authority.

Bring originals for every driver. A photo of a cousin’s licence on your phone proves nothing to a supplier or a motorway officer.

Extra-driver fees and age conditions

There is no single published tariff for adding drivers in Pakistan, and anyone quoting you one figure for “the” charge is guessing. Suppliers price it in different ways, and conditions change. On iDrive, driver eligibility, the security deposit, mileage allowance and insurance excess are confirmed in writing for the specific hire before you commit, rather than listed as a generic figure on the self-drive car rental page.

What you should ask, in writing, before collection:

1. How is the extra driver charged? Common structures are a daily charge per added driver, a flat charge for the whole hire, or inclusion of a set number of drivers in the base rate. Each gives a different total on a long hire.
2. Is there a minimum age, and is it the same for every driver? Suppliers commonly set a minimum age and sometimes a minimum number of years since the licence was issued. A 22-year-old nephew may be acceptable on one agreement and not on another.
3. Does a young or newly licensed driver change the deposit or excess? Some suppliers raise the security deposit or the excess rather than refusing the driver outright.
4. Is the vehicle class restricted for some drivers? A supplier may accept a driver for a saloon but not for a large SUV or a premium car.
5. Does cover for the extra driver match the renter’s cover? Ask plainly, and get the answer in the document, not in a phone call.

A worked example, for illustration only: on a 14-day hire, a per-driver daily charge applied to two additional drivers is 28 charge-days; a flat per-hire charge for the same two drivers is two charges. The difference can be large, which is why the pricing structure matters more than the headline number.

The unlisted driver: where the money goes wrong

This is the part of the rent a car extra driver problem that costs real money. Motor insurance in Pakistan is sold by insurers regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and each policy has its own wording on who is covered to drive. Rental arrangements add a second layer: the contract between you and the owner, which usually says only named drivers may operate the car. Break that, and two separate protections can fall away at once.

What typically happens after an incident with an unnamed driver

1. The owner’s own damage cover may not respond. If the policy or the rental terms limit driving to named individuals, the insurer can decline the claim for damage to the rental car.
2. The renter’s excess protection, if bought, may be void. Waivers and excess reductions are usually conditional on the vehicle being driven by an authorised driver.
3. Third-party exposure becomes personal. The ordinance requires insurance to be in place; whether a particular policy pays out for a particular driver is a separate question. If it does not, the injured party’s claim can follow the driver and the person who permitted them to drive.
4. The owner claims against the renter. Repair cost, loss of use while the car is off the road and recovery charges are commonly pursued against the person who signed, often starting with the deposit.
5. Police involvement is harder to resolve. An unnamed driver in an accident has to explain why they had the car. Section 58 already requires the driver to produce the insurance certificate; a certificate that does not cover them is little help.

None of this requires the unnamed driver to be at fault. A parked car scraped by a rickshaw while your uncle was behind the wheel can trigger the same refusal, because the question is permission, not blame.

The travel insurance gap

Overseas visitors often assume their travel policy will fill the hole. Check the wording: many travel policies exclude motor liability or rental-car damage unless specifically added. The FCDO also warns that travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against its advice, which at the time of writing includes all travel to Balochistan and to most of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with further areas on an all-but-essential list. Check the current map before planning a road trip. A self-drive trip that strays into an advised-against area can put every driver’s travel cover at risk, named or not.

Changing drivers mid-hire

Plans change. A relative lands a week later, the main driver falls ill, or a colleague rotates in from Karachi. Adding someone to the agreement partway through is normally possible; doing it informally is where people get caught.

1. Tell the supplier before the new person drives. Not after the first trip, not “when we return the car”. The addition takes effect when the supplier confirms it.
2. Send documents in advance, then show originals. A scan lets the supplier check eligibility; the originals are usually seen when the driver is added, at a branch or at an agreed handover point.
3. Get a written amendment. An email or amended agreement naming the new driver, their licence number and the effective date. A verbal “no problem” from a desk agent is not evidence.
4. Check the charge restarts correctly. A driver added on day six of a fourteen-day hire should be priced for the remaining days under a daily structure, or the flat fee under a per-hire structure. Confirm which applies.
5. Remove drivers who have left. If a named driver flies home, ask for them to be taken off.

If the supplier cannot add a driver in time, the honest options are to keep driving yourself, pause the self-drive and switch the remaining days to a car with a driver, or return the vehicle. Letting the new person drive “just this once” is not one of them.

Company bookings with rotating staff

Corporate self-drive is where authorised-driver discipline breaks down fastest. A project team shares one vehicle, the site engineer hands the keys to the procurement officer, and by week three nobody can say who drove on which day. Treat the car the way a careful fleet manager would.

Set up the pool before the hire starts

• Nominate a hire owner. One person in the company signs, receives notices and answers the supplier’s questions. It should be someone who stays for the whole hire.
• Submit a driver list up front. Ask the supplier whether it will approve a list of named staff in one go, with documents for each. Some suppliers will; others cap the number of additional drivers per agreement.
• Keep a simple driver log. Date, driver, start and end odometer, route. It costs two minutes a day and answers every later question about a challan or a scratch.
• Agree how new staff are added. A named contact at the supplier, the documents needed and the turnaround time, written down before the first rotation.
• Put the rule in writing internally. Staff who are not on the list do not drive, including senior managers visiting for a day.

When a driver is the better answer

If the pool of drivers changes weekly, the paperwork of adding and removing names can cost more time than it saves. A chauffeur-driven vehicle moves the driving, licensing and much of the liability question to the provider, and leaves staff free to work in the back seat. For many business trips, particularly intercity runs on the M-2 or airport-heavy schedules, that is the more defensible choice. Our business travel car service page sets out how corporate accounts work with a driver included.

Families, weddings and the “everyone drives” trip

Family trips around a wedding generate the most informal handovers: a car collected by one cousin, used by three, and returned by a fourth. If several relatives will genuinely need to drive, name them all at the start and pay for it. If they only might, it is usually cheaper and calmer to keep one or two named drivers and book separate transport for the heavy days of the event. For families arriving from abroad who want the planning side handled in a friendlier format, our sister service Pakistan Taxi’s self-drive hire page covers the same eligibility questions for passengers and families.

Handover checklist for every named driver

1. Each driver’s name, and licence number where the form asks for it, appears on the agreement you are given.
2. Each driver carries their original licence, and UK or other foreign licence holders also carry their own International Driving Permit.
3. Each driver has their CNIC or passport with them while driving.
4. The insurance certificate and registration document are in the car, since the driver must produce them on demand on national highways.
5. The extra-driver charge, deposit and excess for each driver are confirmed in writing.
6. Everyone knows the rule: no one outside the list drives, and an addition is only valid once it is confirmed in writing.
7. Everyone has the supplier’s contact number for breakdowns and incidents saved on their own phone.

When you are ready to price a hire with more than one driver, start a request on the iDrive booking page and list every intended driver in the notes. Eligibility, the extra-driver terms and any change to the deposit are checked for that specific hire and confirmed in writing before you commit.

Questions people ask

Can my spouse drive the rental car if only I signed the agreement?

Not unless they are added as a named driver. Some rental markets automatically include a spouse; do not assume that in Pakistan. Ask for them to be listed, and bring their licence and identity document to the handover.

Does an additional driver need an International Driving Permit too?

If they drive on a foreign licence, yes. The UK government’s advice is that British drivers need both their UK licence and the 1968 International Driving Permit, and each driver needs their own.

Can I add a driver by phone after collection?

You can usually start the request by phone or email, but the driver is only authorised once the supplier has checked their documents and confirmed the addition in writing. Until then, they should not drive.

Who pays a traffic fine incurred by a named driver?

It depends on the terms. Many agreements pass fines to the renter, who then recovers the cost from the driver. Check the fines clause and keep a driver log so any notice can be matched to the right person.