The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) is giving final touches to a black list of 600,000 people who have failed to pay their dues to car rental companies. The list, as and when it is released, will be the first of its kind in the Kingdom. Saeed Bin Ali Al-Bassami, vice chairman of the car rental committee at the JCCI, said a meeting with insurance companies will be held in the next few days to discuss unifying insurance rates between them and car rental offices through Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA.) He said the committee, formed by the Ministry of Transportation and the police which has sought to close down about 180 car rental companies for various offenses, is only seeking elimination of bottlenecks obstructing the sector's growth. The car rental rates, he said, are much lower than in many neighboring countries. A committee, he said, has identified conditions to be followed by the sector's companies including nationalization. It is also working on implementing a mechanism to rent out cars in accordance with the regulations issued by the Ministry of Transportation. Al-Bassami said a study is being conducted by the committee over renting offices to generate solutions and visions to revive the SR2.5 billion worth sector. The car rental companies, he said, have recently filed a complaint with the National Committee for Land Transportation – under the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry – in which they said they are facing obstacles getting their past dues from defaulters, noting that courts take a long time and that legal firms do not accept small collection cases. They demanded to force lawyers to accept such cases with the condition their fees do not exceed 10 percent of the disputed amount's value.
