Car rental and mobility
The foreign driver, identified before the suitcase is down
The counter photographs the passport and the agreement fills with the name, nationality, document number and dates. Nothing typed, and no need for the operator to know how to read a passport.
At the counter, time is measured in seconds
The customer has just landed, has luggage, and has a family waiting. The operator has to identify them, type a name that is not in their language, a passport number and two dates, and still explain the insurance, the deposit and the fuel policy. Typing is the only item on that list that contributes nothing to the handover.
When it goes wrong, the agreement carries a name that is not the one on the document. That matters the day a traffic fine, an accident or a disputed charge arrives: the agreement has to correspond to the person who drove the car away.
And the operator at the counter is not technical, nor should they have to be. Anything that needs training, a special reader or an extra step simply does not get used at peak hour.
What it looks like at the counter
One step, on the device already at the desk. There is no reader to buy, no driver software to install and nothing new to learn beyond taking a photo.
- 1
The operator photographs the data page
With the counter tablet or phone. It is the same gesture as always; the only requirement is that the two lines of characters at the bottom are fully visible.
- 2
The fields fill the agreement
Given names, surname, nationality, passport number, date of birth and expiry go straight into the rental system without anyone typing them.
- 3
The read checks itself
ICAO 9303 check digits are recomputed on the spot. If something does not agree the screen says so and the photo is retaken: the operator never has to proofread character by character.
- 4
The handover carries on
The time saved on typing goes to what actually closes the rental: the insurance, the deposit and the walk-around of the vehicle.
Why this matters to a rental operation
The counter queue keeps moving
Typing a passport by hand takes about a minute. On a full arriving flight, that minute per customer is the difference between handing over on time and dragging the delay through the afternoon.
The agreement matches the document
The name and the number on the agreement are the ones in the passport — exactly what gets checked when a fine or a disputed charge turns up months later.
There is nothing to train
The operator takes a photo. They do not have to recognise a passport, know where the surname starts, or interpret the two lines at the bottom.
The same on every branch and every shift
The data is read off the document, so a rental record looks the same at the airport at eleven at night as it does downtown at midday.
Do I need a passport reader at every counter?
No. The tablet or phone already at the desk is enough, as long as the photo shows the whole data page with no glare. If you already own a document scanner, that works too.
How long does a read take?
Seconds, inside the same handover. In practice the operator takes the photo and carries on explaining the agreement while the fields arrive.
What about a foreign driving licence?
We read the passport, which is the document a foreign driver identifies themselves with. The licence is still checked and attached the way you do it today; what changes is that the identity on the agreement no longer depends on typing.
Do you store the image or the customer data?
No. The image is processed and discarded, and the extracted data is not retained on our side. Whatever remains about the customer lives in your rental system and under your privacy notice.
Does it connect to my rental system?
Through the API: one call per document returning JSON. Your software vendor wires the response into the agreement, and an account comes with free tokens to test the integration before you commit.
What about domestic customers?
Mexican voter credentials are read by our INE service, a separate account returning CURP, elector key and address. That site is in Spanish.