Car hire fuel policies in South Africa explained

Full to full is the fairest for most trips because you only pay for what you use, at pump prices, at a station you choose.

Prepaid can suit a very long drive that genuinely ends with an empty tank, but few trips do, and nobody refunds the quarter tank you leave behind.

1. Photograph the fuel gauge and odometer at collection, with the dashboard lit.
2. Note the fuel type. Petrol or diesel, and which grade. Putting the wrong fuel in is excluded from every waiver and it is expensive.
3. Fill up within a few kilometres of the drop-off point. Some agreements state a distance, commonly a short radius, within which the fill must happen.
4. Fill to the click, not to a bar on the gauge.
5. Keep the slip. It shows the station, the time and the litres, and it is the evidence that settles a dispute.
6. Photograph the gauge again at return, before you hand over the keys.

If a refuelling charge is applied anyway, ask for the itemisation: litres charged, rate per litre and the service fee separately. Compare against your slip.

Fuel stations here are attended. You do not pump your own fuel. Pull up, tell the attendant which side the filler is on and how much you want, and pay by card or cash at the vehicle. A small tip for the attendant is customary, more if they clean the windscreen or check the tyres.

Other practicalities:

• Petrol prices are set nationally each month, so they are the same at every station in a region. Diesel pump prices are not regulated the same way and can differ between stations.
• Diesel and petrol pumps are clearly marked but check anyway, especially on an unfamiliar vehicle.
• On long rural drives, fill up earlier than you would at home. Stations get sparse between towns.
• Ask the attendant to check oil, water and tyres on a long trip. It costs nothing.

South African distances make fuel a real budget line rather than an afterthought. Johannesburg to Cape Town is roughly 1,400 km, Durban to Cape Town further still.

Before a long drive:

• Check the mileage terms. A per-day allowance can bite on a cross-country run.
• Budget tolls separately. They are not fuel and they add up on the N1, N3 and N4.
• If you are returning to a different city, check the one-way terms and whether the fuel policy changes with them.

A diesel vehicle can be worth the slightly higher class on a genuinely long trip. Ask what is available rather than assuming the cheapest class is cheapest overall.

Fuel disputes are usually settled by evidence, and the evidence is a photograph plus a slip.

If you are charged and you disagree:

1. Send the operator your collection gauge photograph, your fill slip and your return gauge photograph.
2. Ask for their gauge reading at check-in and the time it was taken.
3. Ask for the charge itemised into litres, rate and service fee.

Escalate to head office in writing if the branch will not resolve it. The Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa (miosa.co.za) takes consumer complaints against rental businesses at no charge, and a fuel dispute with clear photographic evidence is exactly the sort of thing it deals with.