U-Drive | Car, Van, Minibus & Truck Hire Reviews 

I rarely leave reviews, but my experience with U-Drive was so poor that I feel compelled to warn others. The staff were shockingly rude and dismissive from the moment I arrived. Basic customer service seemed completely beyond them. They were impatient, unhelpful, and unwilling to take responsibility for mistakes.

It’s clear that customer satisfaction isn’t a priority here. The lack of professionalism and competence made what should have been a simple process unnecessarily stressful. I would strongly recommend that management address these serious issues with staff training, because as it stands, I would never rent from U-Drive again or recommend them to anyone.

Great service from Ty in Poole branch.

U-Drive

A PCN was wrongly issued on a van I was hiring. Esso Rossmore issued a PCN but fairly quickly realised it was a mistake and cancelled the PCN on my hire van and four other vehicles who’d received these fines in error on 5/7/25.
The fine in question went to U-Drive as they are registered keepers; it was then cancelled. End of? Not so. U-Drive took from my card on 15/8/25 an admin fee of £42 for them receiving a voided PCN; it has taken me until today, 8/10/25, to receive a refund. During this time, I’ve made countless phone calls and written many emails but have been constantly blanked, blamed, and treated like a fool by U-Drive’s rude and ignorant management team. I feel sorry for the staff at the Poole branch having to answer to such arrogant and condescending bosses on the daily.

EDIT
To clarify I am both the hirer and the holder of the account used to pay for the hire! Shows how much notice you pay to reviews doesn't it.
And the fuel was paid for at the time of filling we didn't go back to pay. What you're doing is trying to justify your mistakes and rotten attitude by making me out to be in the wrong somewhere
You're the wronguns

Dreadful customer service to the point of aggression and threats from a senior manager. U-Drive incorrectly charged an admin fee and for 3 months gave us the run around. When we went to the office in Poole the senior manager accused me of “pointing at her” and that she’d call the police (yes that heinous crime of pointing a finger)… I admit to using my hands to gesticulate but I was certainly not pointing at her and she clearly mistakes months of frustration and wasted time and labels me aggressive. Indeed in her words… for every finger you point there are 3 pointing back at you as I have my crew behind me. Now that sounds pretty threatening. I’ve complained to the Director and been blocked from their Facebook page so one can only assume they are closing ranks. The most disgusting display of customer service I have ever witnessed. The most embarrassing thing is this supposed leader decided to play this out in front of all her staff. No wonder the glass door reviews are so bad of the leadership. That’s 3 businesses worth of trade they’ve just lost… and because they said they would refund the money but have clearly changed their minds… we will find every possible medium to let people know how badly they treat customers. By the way, they also beached GDPR regulations and we have the proof. All this could have been sorted with an apology and a refund of £42. The price of your customer service inadequacies have cost you way over the cost to just refund the £42 fee that was applied in error. ITS NOT THE CUSTOMERS FAULT. You may say I’m wasting my time, but I’m retired… I have time on my hands to expose these dreadful displays from companies who should look after their customers. They have video footage of this episode and I hope it was recording the conversation because if they want to call the police I think we’d have a case for discrimination, defamation and threatening behaviour by this manager who decided to fuel a situation by being aggressive, patronising and disrespectful. I’m sad to say we dropped to her level at the end of the conversation but that happens when you are bullied and pushed to the point of utter frustration.
UPDATE: in response to U-DRIVES attempt at once again, blaming the customer. For the last 3 months the two injured parties repeatedly emailed, phoned and even attended your office in person. I only arrived on the scene to support my friend who had been accused of lying by your staff. I was there as a witness and what I saw was literally the worst customer service…. mainly from the senior management… who I will not name at this stage to give her the chance to apologise.
My friends have repeatedly given evidence that between Esso garage, Asda and U-Drive, they were the innocent party as were 5 other Esso customers that same day. We have an email from VARS clearly stating no PCN was issued in the end. Why you couldn’t help my friend unpack this miscarriage of justice in the first instance is beyond me. And the GDPR issue is clear as evidence you posted a letter to the driver at the hirers address. You had the drivers address on his licence that you copied but used the persons paying for the hire address to send the invoice..that is a data breach especially if there had been a dispute because of the alleged situation.
Your response below omits the appalling behaviour of the female manager in front of her team. She was patronising, derogatory and disrespectful. All my friend originally asked for was an apology … but it became a matter of principle. Now we are sharing her behaviour on every platform. No one needs to be victim to this level of bullying. I feel sorry for her staff…one of whom was trying to help.. but she felt the need to assert her authority in a defensive, volatile and toxic manner.
I repeat… my friends had been trying to sort this with your office in Fancy Road for 3 months, providing evidence… you team kept saying they couldn’t talk to the driver, they had to talk to the hirer, so the hirer contacted you only to be told that you could only talk to the driver. You cannot discuss the financial transaction with the driver.we could have said that until we were blue in the face. No wonder we were frustrated. At no point were we abusive.. in fact I brought sweets in to offer to your team as you kept us waiting for an hour and a half as the team to’d and fro’d upstairs and downstairs doing your bidding until you felt the urge to come down and threaten us with the police and tell us to get off the premises. It was almost laughable except it wasn’t.
My friend received her £42 today after all our posts and you blocking us from your Facebook page. I’m sure the Directors of U-Drive will appreciate the cost incurred to their company because no one wanted to refund £42. It probably cost over£1000 in work hours for U-Drive… plus loss of business from 3 businesses. Well done

Great company. Nice banter with cheerful staff and a great van for the day

Borrowed a transit from the bristol branch for 24 hours very easy to hire with no problems van was very spacious for a flat move and very easy to drive .The staff was very helpful especially asha who went out of her way to help you on your way over all a great experience

Hired a small van from the Bristol branch.
So easy! Excellent vehicle condition, cheap rental price for 24 hours. Easy to park my car on site for free during the hire period.
Friendly, knowledgeable staff.
Would use again, highly recommended.

Asha in Bristol went out of her way to help me out when I arrived late for a Saturday rental. Totally my fault so massive appreciation for this extra effort.
Have used U-Drive for years and always been good on service and cost.

Picked up my rental to move flats, Ty at the desk was friendly and sort sorted out all the paperwork nice and quickly.

I've used Poole before and it's always really easy!

Staff member Ty at Poole was courteous and nothing was an issue.
Needed to change van spec at short notice.
Add to this his great sense of humour which added to a stress free experience. Thank you

My first time hiring a vehicle. I have to say Ty at the Poole branch made the process easy. He was super happy and cheerful for a Friday morning which made the process a nice experience. Ty, if you see this, carry on being happy mate. You are doing a stellar job and you deserve a raise.

Exceptional customer service from Tye once again. The efficiency of getting signed up and on my way was a swift one, Along with good jokes. Always a pleasure hiring with these guys.

Exemplary customer service. Everything was clearly explained, the van was ready early - very clean (and new!). Painless. That is why we always come back to U-Drive.

I know most people will search the 1star reviews to find the real ones…

I recently hired a Nissan Proace electric van from U-Drive and had one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with a rental company.

The original van they allocated to me wasn’t usable due to a faulty battery. I was then made to wait an hour at their station for an alternative to be sourced, yet this fact was not even acknowledged in their complaint response. The replacement van arrived with the battery only half charged, and from there the day became a nightmare.
• Within 15 miles of starting the journey, I had to stop and recharge.
• Despite multiple full charges throughout the day, the van never held power for long. I was forced to stop and recharge five separate times.
• I had no load in the van, drove cautiously (often coasting at very low speeds), and used a variety of public chargers. None made a difference, the range was unacceptably poor.
• The final breakdown was on my way home from Weymouth: after a 1hr 40min charge, the van still failed to make a simple 40-minute journey. I broke down in Poole at midnight, and had to wait until 3:30am for recovery to arrive, finally getting home around 5am.

When I returned the van, staff didn’t even recognise the vehicle’s registration number, which raised serious questions about how their fleet is managed.

This was not just inconvenient, it was unsafe. I’m a man in my 40s and could cope with being stranded late at night, but had it been a family or a more vulnerable person, the consequences could have been much worse.

I raised a formal complaint, only to be told by U-Drive that “no fault could be replicated” and that it must have been down to charging methods, driving style, or load. None of these explanations apply in my case, yet they have flatly refused a refund.

In my opinion, this van was unfit for hire and should never have been rented out. U-Drive’s dismissive handling of the situation, alongside their failure to even acknowledge key parts of what happened, only underlines their lack of accountability.

If you value safety, reliability, and honest customer service, I strongly advise avoiding this company.
I know they will respond to this with their explanation made up of lies and denial, so be wary.

Dave was spectacular! Professional, very friendly and hugely helpful. Highly recommend and will use again.

I needed a van for hire to travel to France for a family holiday so I shopped around many many van hire companies to find the van I needed at a good price. Most companies didn’t even have the type of van I required or the price was too high. I then came across this company u-drive in Cardiff they had the van I wanted and the price was the best I could find so I booked the van happily. 10 days before we had to pick up the van we released we needed a crit air certificate and you need 2 weeks to allow so I was panicking I called u Drive and was asked to pop in so they could help sort this out for me I dealt with Dave and Andy who were more than happy to help and they managed to get it all sorted for me top guys. On the day of collecting the van i dealt with another very helpful gentleman I think his name was Jason he sorted the van all ready for us his customer service was excellent just like Dave and Andy. Thanks u drive Cardiff absolutely fantastic customer service great prices all round great company. Would recommend this hire company to anyone ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A great company to deal with. We hired a Ford Tourneo - 9 seater MPV for a trip to Scotland for a family gathering. The collection and return process was straightforward with very friendly , helpful and professional staff. The vehicle itself was in immaculate condition and a joy to drive and be a passenger in for the long journeys. We had 7-8 passengers during the trip as a whole and it was extremely comfortable. Highly recommend this company.

Amazing customer service from Ashu (I think that was her name) very polite, straight to the point and an asset to your team. She showed us a few different vans to make sure we were getting the right size for what we needed, doing so without making us feel any pressure.
Lovely lady, top marks.

Kayleigh was super helpful when we hired an extra long wheel base to move house. Her manner with customers was excellent and she was really thorough when inspecting the vehicle with us and giving us a demo!

These guys used to be great, but reduced opening hours and a tendency to charge for fuel illegitimately means I'll not be using them again. Very sad.