Car hire giants Avis Europe are planning to start charging customers who fail to collect their hire cars.

Customers who do not cancel prior to their allocated collection time or fail to turn up for collection within 24 hours of that time will be charged £40.

Avis will be the first car rental company to introduce the no-show charge but claims it is within keeping with hotels, flights, cruise and other tour sectors.

They will begin by requesting a valid form of payment when the booking is made, then throughout 2009 will implement the charge to individual customers booking through the call centre and on the web.

Wolfgang Neumann, group commercial director claimed that the charge would be in the customers best interests as it will improve availability of vehicles and ensure they can keep running their fleet to the utmost effectiveness. He added that it would hopefully encourage customers to think ahead to avoid the cancellation charges. Neumann concluded “It is also a fairer system for customers who diligently collect their cars and simply echoes standard practices across the rest of the travel industry.”