Visitors to the Highlands are being charged a “scandalous” levy if they take hired vehicles on board a ferry, it has been claimed.
Tourists who hire cars from car rental company Green Motion UK are hit with an extra surcharge of £125 – plus £20 for every day of the hire – if their vehicles leave the mainland.
It means that customers who travel to an island with their cars will incur a minimum fee of £145 – with an additional surcharge of £405 if the hire is for a fortnight. The company said it was related to insurance and roadside assistance.
Local MSP, Kate Forbes, said she is “disgusted” by the charges.
The ferry levy came to light when Ms Forbes was contacted by a Badenoch B&B owner on behalf of two Swiss tourists, Maik Christen and Therese Rellstab, who cancelled a trip to the Outer Hebrides because of the extra costs.
She said: “I was disgusted to learn that Green Motion UK is applying a minimum additional levy of £145 for visitors using Scottish ferry crossings. To my knowledge no other car hire company is doing this, so it’s an absolute disgrace.
“Maik and Therese were facing a fee of over £400 to take the hire car onto Lewis for a couple of days because they were doing a two-week tour of Scotland. Understandably, they felt they were being taken advantage of because they were tourists.”
Ms Forbes has now written to Humza Yousaf, the Transport and Islands Minister and Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Tourism about the issue.
She added: “This scandalous policy should be scrapped immediately.”
The Swiss couple were told there were motion sensors and GPS tracking on all of the company’s hire cars.
Naomi Suzuki, operations director, Green Motion International, said: “Vehicles hired are inclusive of our basic standard insurance and roadside assistance.
“This only covers vehicles which are on mainland UK, and if any vehicles are taken to any islands which cannot be reached via road, an additional charge known as an overseas fee is applied to ensure that the correct level of protection and roadside assistance is available, should the customer require it.
“The Green Motion terms and conditions do advise the charges for vehicles being used off mainland UK. I cannot comment on other rental companies and their particular set of terms and conditions.
“The customers in question were made aware of the charges which I understand resulted in them changing their plans and opting to stay on the mainland.”
Falling foul
Maik Christen and Therese Rellstab from Bern, Switzerland, fell foul of the levy.
Mr Christen said: “My girlfriend, Therese, and I had been planning our trip to Scotland for quite some time.
“When we checked in at the car rental, we were asked if we planned to take a ferry to the islands. We did, but we hadn’t bought a ticket for the ferry yet.
“We couldn’t believe what followed next. We were told that there is a special insurance that costs £125 plus £20 for each day of the rental time. All together it was over £400 which was more than we had paid for the rental itself. We had no choice but to change the whole plan for our trip. Fortunately, it was possible to cancel the accommodation we had made on Lewis.”
He added: “It was a very disappointing and annoying start to our trip. But since we had already paid for the car, we had no other choice than to make the best of it and take another route.
“We read the terms of agreement again that we received beforehand and couldn’t find anything that was mentioned about an extra fee.
“I hope that the general policy regarding these conditions can be changed.”