Services · Mobile app development · Car hire apps
Codeeo provides car hire app development UK hire companies can roll out across every branch they run: one booking app, one driver check process, one deposit flow and one admin platform for the whole national fleet. Running hire across Britain means dealing with DVLA and DVA licence records, UK GDPR, consumer contract rules, insurance add-ons and a growing patchwork of clean air and low emission zones that differ between England and Scotland. The app should carry those rules consistently, so each branch does not invent its own.
We work remotely with UK clients through video calls for discovery, design reviews and release sign-off. Our 80+ person team sits across Dubai, Riyadh and Karachi, and has delivered 200+ projects across the UAE and the US. You own every part of what we build.
200+ companies servedFrom a first store to an ADX listed developer
What the app can include
A hire company with branches in several UK cities faces a different problem from a single yard. Customers expect the same experience in Bristol as in Leeds. Head office wants one set of terms, one deposit policy and one view of the fleet. Yet branches still need local control over opening hours, stock and the occasional exception. And the rules change as you cross borders inside the country: Scotland has its own legal system and its own low emission zones, Northern Ireland licences come from the DVA rather than the DVLA, and several English cities charge older vehicles to enter.
The capabilities below are built for that national picture. Branch settings sit underneath company-wide rules, so you set policy once and let local teams handle what is genuinely local. When a city introduces or changes a zone, or a policy changes nationally, the update is made once in the admin platform and reaches every branch on the same day, without waiting for a new app store release.
Every branch has its own hours, stock and handover rules, and customers can pick up in one city and return in another where you allow it. One-way fees, repositioning needs and return availability are calculated before the booking is confirmed.
National coverage without every branch running its own system.
GB drivers share a DVLA check code; Northern Ireland drivers use the DVA equivalent; visitors upload overseas licences and passports for review. The app records which method was used for each driver, along with the time of the check and the staff member who approved it.
One consistent check process in every branch.
Vehicle emissions data drives warnings and restrictions for the zones your customers may enter, such as the London ULEZ, charging clean air zones in English cities like Birmingham and Bristol, and the low emission zones in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee. Rules are maintained centrally as zones change.
Customers warned before they drive into a zone that charges.
Hire terms per jurisdiction, digital signature, timestamped acceptance and a stored copy for each hire. Marketing consent is collected separately under PECR, so your booking terms never double as permission to send promotions.
A clear record of what each customer agreed to.
Excess reduction and other cover options shown clearly at booking, with the policy documents attached. Because selling insurance can bring FCA rules into play, we design these screens with your insurer or broker and your compliance adviser rather than guessing the wording.
Add-on cover sold transparently and on approved wording.
Card payments with strong customer authentication, Apple Pay and Google Pay, deposit pre-authorisation and, for account customers, Open Banking payments if your provider supports them. Refunds and deposit releases follow one national policy.
Fewer payment failures and no manual deposit refunds.
Screens designed against WCAG 2.2, with proper contrast, screen reader labels and large touch targets. Customers can request hand controls or other adaptations where your fleet offers them, and the request reaches the branch with the booking.
An app more disabled customers can use without help.
MOT dates, servicing, recalls and vehicle tax status tracked per vehicle, with alerts before anything lapses. Official data services from the DVLA and DVSA can feed these records where you choose to connect them.
No car goes out with an expired MOT.
Utilisation, revenue, damage rates and penalty notices by branch, region and vehicle class. Head office compares regions fairly, and branch managers see their own figures without access to everything else.
Decisions on fleet allocation based on real branch data.
Parking tickets, bus lane notices, zone charges and toll penalties arrive at head office from councils and authorities all over the country. The app matches each one to the hire by registration and time, shows the signed agreement and tracks liability transfer or recharge, so one central team can handle the volume for every branch.
Penalty notices from any council handled by one team.
Who this is for
National hire brands, franchise networks and regional chains each have a different relationship between head office and branches. That relationship decides how much the app centralises and how much it leaves to local teams. Here are the four set-ups we see most often across the UK, and how the first release changes for each one.
You run several branches in one region and plan to open in more cities. The app should make a new branch a configuration task, not a development project: add the location, its hours, its stock and any local zone rules, then switch it on. We build the first release around your current region, test it thoroughly, then roll it out city by city as each new branch opens. Regional managers get a view across their branches, so expansion does not depend on head office doing everything.
A new branch should take hours to configure, not weeks of build.
Franchisees own their branches but trade under your brand. The app gives each franchisee their own admin view, pricing within limits you set and their own reporting, while customers see a single national brand. Payment flows can route money to the right franchisee, which needs careful planning with your payment provider during discovery. Brand standards such as photos, terms and inspection templates stay under head office control, so a customer gets the same handover in every town.
Franchisee permissions are agreed before design starts.
Vans bring different licence categories, payload information, business customers and heavier damage patterns. The app handles both vehicle types under one account, with licence entitlement checks matched to the vehicle class and inspection templates that suit vans as well as cars. Business accounts with several drivers are usually part of the first release. Payload, height and load length details are shown at booking, which helps business customers pick the right van for the job.
Licence category checks matter more for vans.
Your current booking system works, but it was built for desks, not phones. We plan a staged replacement: the customer app first, connected to the existing system, followed by a move of branch tools and reporting to the new platform. Data migration and staff training are planned per region so the whole country never switches over on the same day. Branch staff help test each stage, which makes adoption easier when their region switches over.
Migrate region by region, not all at once.
How we work together
For a first app, a fixed-scope build covering the pilot region keeps risk contained. Once the platform is live across the country, most national operators keep a dedicated team on it, because new branches, zone changes and payment updates arrive all year. Smaller groups use a retainer instead. Everything runs remotely, with planned video reviews and written records of every decision. Optional Welsh language content can be planned in if you trade in Wales and want it.
A defined build with a deadline
We agree what the product has to do, write it down with a price and a date, and build exactly that. Changes are priced before they are made, not discovered on the invoice.
A product that keeps evolving
Named engineers who work your hours, join your standups and stay on the codebase. You direct the backlog; we own the quality of what ships.
Something live that needs looking after
A monthly block of hours for improvements, fixes and the small requests that otherwise wait months. Unused hours carry for a quarter.
Technology
A cross-platform customer app, a browser-based admin platform with branch and head office roles, and cloud hosting in your own account. Integrations use the published APIs of your payment provider, insurer, telematics supplier and accounting software. Each branch, region and head office user signs in with their own role, and access changes take effect across the country at once.
01Mobile
02Data and cloud
03Marketing and tracking
Mostly in rules, permissions and rollout planning.
A single-branch app can hard-code a lot. A national one needs company-wide policy with branch overrides, different terms where Scots law applies, licence checks covering both DVLA and DVA records, zone rules that change from city to city and reporting by region. The customer screens may look similar, but the admin platform and the rollout plan are where most of the extra work sits. Planning the rollout order early also shows which branches need the most training and which can move with little support.
Schedule a free consultation and get a written recommendation, with costs, before you commit to anything.
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