Hiring in Melbourne - what do I need to know?
Discussion
Drive like a native. That means undertaking, no indicating, tailgate everyone and drive at warp 10 everywhere. You'll fit in nicely. Coppers will only pull you for RBTs and doing 3 over the speed limit. If you pulled make sure you get out of the car and square up to plod as they hate that.
There's a few things that are different in Melbourne to the rest of the country. If you drive into the city area you need to be aware of the special rules for trams. If you are driving along side a tram and it stops to pick up or set down passengers in most cases you will need to stop as well. There is a stop sign on the tram doors that gets displayed when the doors open. Also in the city on most tram routes when turning right you will need to pull over to the left (wait in front of the traffic going in the direction you will be turning) and make the right turn once the traffic light changes to green in the direction you are turning - these intersections are well signed, and as mentioned earlier it's called a hook turn. Nearly all the car hire companies at the airport have their cars set up for toll road charging - check when hiring as they will back charge you for it plus add $50 for the trouble as well. Not sure how much driving you have done in Oz, if new to the experience post again and we can chip in some more advice. We really drive different here to anywhere in the world. Cheees.
Agree with the good advice above, however I would add one thing on hire cars - they will offer you an additional charge to cover the excess. You need to consider that if you don't take it and something goes wrong, it could cost you thousands. For example, a single vehicle accident (which can include hail damage) is something like 5,000. So, the cost to cover this is around 25 to 30 per day!
One way around it is to get an online travel insurance for about 100 which covers lots of thing, including car hire excess, although check the fine print obviously.
Other than that, just be careful with speed cameras. Unlike other parts of the world, Melbourne has very little tolerance built into the speed cameras/ fines, so a few km over will result in a fine. As a result, you'll notice everyone has forgotten how to drive properly, as they focus on their speed.
Hope that helps.
One way around it is to get an online travel insurance for about 100 which covers lots of thing, including car hire excess, although check the fine print obviously.
Other than that, just be careful with speed cameras. Unlike other parts of the world, Melbourne has very little tolerance built into the speed cameras/ fines, so a few km over will result in a fine. As a result, you'll notice everyone has forgotten how to drive properly, as they focus on their speed.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the pointers. Yep, new to Aussie driving so will look out for hook turns in particular.
Will have a word with the hire car place ref an excess waiver and explain that I won't be paying an additional charge on top of the road tolls. Avis so should in theory be fairly straight - have used them a lot before.
Will have a word with the hire car place ref an excess waiver and explain that I won't be paying an additional charge on top of the road tolls. Avis so should in theory be fairly straight - have used them a lot before.
james280779 said:
One thing I noticed in Melbourne which was totally unexpected - If you want to turn right, indicate right then pull into the left lane to let traffic behind you pass before you turn.
Confused the hell out of me
That's not everywhere, the hook turns are to keep the centre of the road clear for the tramways.Confused the hell out of me
Well marked though so no huge drama.
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