Courtesy & loan car management software
Loan cars go out fast and come back with marks nobody can place. Complys gives dealerships and bodyshops a quick, defensible hand-over and return record for every one — so you're never blamed for damage you didn't cause.
Part of Complys Self-Drive Hire. 30-day free trial, no card required, when the platform launches.
Courtesy and loan cars are a compliance blind spot in a lot of dealerships and bodyshops. They go out quickly, often informally, to customers whose own car is being worked on — and they come back with marks nobody can place. Was that scratch there before? Who had the car? Did anyone check the licence? Usually there's no good answer, and the business either eats the cost or has an awkward argument with a customer it wants to keep.
Complys treats a loan car exactly like any other self-drive hire: verify the driver, check the licence, sign a short loan agreement, and capture condition out and back — fast enough for a busy service desk, and defensible enough to settle a damage question without a row.
The hire evidence chain
From licence check to signed handover to return condition, Complys keeps the evidence of every hire connected to the vehicle, hirer and agreement. This page covers one link in that chain.
- Hirer identity & document captureIn the first release
- DVLA licence & share-code checksIn the first release
- Rental agreement & e-signatureIn the first release
- Check-out condition & photographsIn the first release
- Deposits & paymentsLaunching next
- Return / check-in conditionIn the first release
- Damage capture & photo evidenceIn the first release
- Structured damage comparison & disputesLaunching next
- Fines / PCN administration & liability transferPlanned
- Evidence pack exportIn the first release
- Tamper-evident audit trailIn the first release
Why loan cars are the weak point
The problem isn't that dealerships and bodyshops don't care — it's that the loan car sits outside the systems that run the workshop. There's rarely a licence check, the 'agreement' is a signature on a printout if it exists at all, and the condition record is whatever someone remembers. So when a car comes back damaged, there's no baseline to compare against and no evidence of who was driving.
Complys closes that gap without slowing the desk down: a quick, consistent hand-over that produces a real record every time, tied to the specific loan and the specific driver.
Fast at the desk, defensible later
A service desk won't adopt anything that adds five minutes to every loan. The hand-over is built to be quick: confirm the driver, run the DVLA share-code check, sign a short loan agreement, walk round the car with timestamped photos, and hand over the keys. The whole thing lives in one record you can produce if the car comes back with new damage.
For a bodyshop that matters twice over: not only do you avoid being charged for damage a customer caused, you avoid being blamed for damage the customer arrives convinced you caused. A timestamped hand-over photo settles both.
- • Quick driver verification and DVLA licence check
- • Short, signed loan agreement
- • Timestamped condition photos out and back
- • One record per loan, tied to the driver and vehicle
- • Evidence pack ready if a damage question arises
Know where your loan fleet is — and that it's road-legal
Loan fleets drift: cars off the road for service, cars out on loan, cars overdue back. Complys keeps a live view of each loan vehicle's status — MOT, tax, insurance, service — and a DO NOT HIRE state on anything lapsed or defective, so a car that shouldn't be loaned out doesn't quietly go out. For a group running loan cars across several sites, that's the difference between managing the fleet and hoping.
What’s ready, honestly
Complys Self-Drive is launching. Here is exactly where the capabilities on this page stand — labelled at the feature level, never marketed as available before they ship.
Check entitlement, penalty points and disqualifications using the driver's DVLA check code, and store the result against the hire. Included in Complys Self-Drive from launch.
Record the vehicle's condition and the required photographs before the vehicle is handed over. Included in Complys Self-Drive from launch.
Record the vehicle's condition and photographs on return, mirroring the check-out. Included in Complys Self-Drive from launch.
Log existing and new damage with timestamped photos against a vehicle diagram. Included in Complys Self-Drive from launch.
Export the whole hire — verification, licence, agreement, condition, damage and charges — as one pack. Included in Complys Self-Drive from launch.
Frequently asked questions
Is this different from your self-drive hire product?
It's the same Complys Self-Drive Hire platform, set up for courtesy and loan cars. The hand-over is streamlined for a service desk, but it produces the same defensible record: verified driver, licence check, signed agreement and condition evidence out and back.
How does it help a bodyshop specifically?
A bodyshop faces damage disputes from both sides — being charged for damage a customer caused, and being blamed for damage a customer arrives with. A timestamped hand-over and return record settles both, so you neither eat unfair costs nor lose the argument.
Is it quick enough for a busy service desk?
Yes — that's the design constraint. Confirm the driver, run the DVLA share-code check, sign a short loan agreement, capture condition photos, hand over the keys. It produces a full record without adding a queue.
Can we run loan cars across several sites?
Yes. Complys keeps a live status per loan vehicle across sites, with MOT/tax/insurance/service tracking and a DO NOT HIRE state on anything lapsed or defective, so no car goes out that shouldn't.
Do we really need a licence check for a courtesy car?
It's an insurer and company-policy matter rather than a blanket legal duty, but most motor-trade policies expect it — and a courtesy car is still a vehicle you're letting someone drive. Complys builds the DVLA share-code check into the loan and keeps the evidence, worded as the insurer/policy requirement it is.
What's available at launch?
The compliance and full hand-over/return workflow — verification, licence checks, loan agreements, condition and damage capture, vehicle status and the evidence pack — is in the first release. Bookings, payments and the structured damage-comparison workflow are launching next.
Explore the rest of the hire evidence chain
- Self-Drive Hire software → — the full evidence-chain platform
- Vehicle condition report app → — the quick loan walk-round
- Vehicle damage inspection app → — settle a loan-car damage question
- Free vehicle handover form → — start with a paper loan form today
See the evidence chain in action
Book a demo or register your interest, and we’ll set you up as soon as Complys Self-Drive launches.