Charge the Right Young Driver Fee by Vehicle Category

Younger drivers are a valuable part of the rental market, but they also carry different insurance risk. The Young Driver Fee feature lets you decide, category by category, how young a driver may be, when a surcharge applies, and how much that surcharge should be. Instead of turning away every young customer or charging everyone the same, you can set a policy that matches the vehicles you rent and the risk you are prepared to accept.

What the young driver fee is for

The fee is a surcharge for drivers below a certain age. You define an age range and a fee for each vehicle category, and you can optionally set a minimum age below which the driver cannot rent that category at all. The two controls work together: the minimum age is a hard restriction, while the age range and fee describe the surcharge for drivers who are above that minimum but still considered young.

That distinction is the heart of the feature. A rental business may be willing to rent a compact car to a twenty-one-year-old but not a high-performance model, and it may want to charge a premium for drivers in their early twenties on any vehicle. The feature supports both decisions without requiring a separate rule set per car.

Where to find the settings

In the admin area, open the Fees & Taxes section and choose Young Driver fee. The page shows a table with one row per vehicle category, with columns for Set restriction, Minimum age, Charge fee, Driver's age and Young driver fee. Because the table is organised by category, you can compare policies across the fleet in a single view rather than opening each category separately.

The master switch

A switch at the top of the page, Collect young driver fee, controls whether the fee is charged at all. When it is on, the fee table is shown and the surcharge is applied to bookings. When it is off, the table is hidden and no young driver fee is collected. The system ignores all configured rules while the switch is off, which means you can pause the policy without losing the age ranges you have already entered.

One rule for every category

The Set same price switch on the category column lets you use a single rule for the whole fleet instead of a different rule per category. It is off by default, so each category is configured individually. Turn it on and the category rows are replaced by a single row called "Set the same fee for all categories".

This is useful for businesses with a uniform fleet or a simple policy, and it reduces the chance of an inconsistency slipping in when a new category is added. Businesses with mixed vehicles usually leave it off, because a young driver surcharge on an economy hatchback and on a premium SUV rarely need to be identical.

The settings for each category

• Set restriction – a switch that enables the age restriction for that category.
• Minimum age – the lowest age, in years, allowed to rent that category.
• Charge fee – a switch that enables the young driver surcharge.
• Driver's age – the age range, from and to, treated as a young driver.
• Young driver fee – the surcharge amount for drivers in that age range.

Each of these is independent per row. You can restrict a category without charging a fee, charge a fee without restricting the category, or do both. That flexibility is what makes the feature usable across a fleet that ranges from small city cars to vehicles you only want in experienced hands.

Working with multiple age ranges

You can add more than one age range per category using the Add age range button, and remove a range with the trash icon. Multiple ranges let you express a graduated policy, for example treating the youngest drivers differently from those a little older, without creating duplicate categories. The Copy settings button copies one category's age ranges to other categories, which saves repetitive entry when several groups share the same policy.

How to configure it step by step

1. Make sure Collect young driver fee is switched on.
2. Choose whether to set a different rule per category or the same rule for all categories.
3. For each category, switch on Set restriction and enter a Minimum age if you want to block younger drivers.
4. Switch on Charge fee, set the Driver's age range, and enter the Young driver fee amount.
5. Use Add age range if you need more than one range for a category.
6. Click Save.

Work from the most restrictive category downwards. Deciding the minimum age for your premium vehicles first makes the rest of the table easier to reason about.

What happens after you save

After saving, the fee is applied to bookings where the driver's age falls within a configured range for the booked category. Drivers below a category's minimum age cannot rent that category. A confirmation message appears when the settings are saved successfully, so you know the change has been accepted. It is still worth testing the customer journey afterwards, particularly if you have several age ranges or a mix of restricted and unrestricted categories.

Why a clear young driver policy helps

Practical use cases

A city branch with a large compact fleet might set a minimum age that matches its insurance terms and charge a modest surcharge for drivers just above it. A premium location might set a higher minimum for its luxury categories and no fee at all, because the restriction alone handles the risk. A seasonal business may switch the fee on for peak periods and off in quieter months, using the master switch rather than deleting its settings. A multi-branch operator can standardise the policy with Set same price and then adjust only the categories that genuinely differ.

Considerations and special cases

A few behaviours are worth knowing. The Driver's age "from" value fills in automatically, and you set the "to" value to define the upper limit of the young driver range. The fee amount must be a positive number. When Set same price is on, the category rows are replaced by the shared rule, so per-category differences disappear by design. And if the Collect young driver fee switch is off, the system ignores all configured rules until you switch it back on.

Best practices

• Use a Minimum age to stop very young drivers from booking certain categories, and a separate Driver's age range to charge a fee for drivers just above that minimum.
• Use Copy settings to apply the same age ranges to several categories at once instead of entering them repeatedly.
• Keep the fee table reviewed when you add a category, so the new group does not inherit an unintended default.
• Explain the policy on your website and in the rental terms so the surcharge is never a surprise at pickup.
• Re-test a booking after changing an age range, since the fee depends on the driver's age at the time of booking.

Conclusion

The Young Driver Fee gives you a measured way to serve younger customers without ignoring the risk they represent. Set a minimum age where you need a firm boundary, define age ranges and surcharges where a fee is appropriate, and use the shared rule and copy tools to keep the policy consistent across the fleet. The result is a clearer offer for customers and a more defensible position for your business.