How KeyProof works, answered.
Quick answers below. For the step-by-step version of any of these, the help centre walks through each task in the portal.
How does a handover work, step by step?
You send the hirer one link in the chat you’re already in. Before they arrive they prove who they are, hand you a DVLA share code to check, sign your agreement and put up the deposit. You photograph the car as it goes out and again when it comes back. It all lands in one record, dated and sealed, and the record opens by stating what is on it and what is not.
How does the hirer verify their ID and licence?
Two separate things. For ID, they photograph their document and take a live-camera selfie, and the two are matched to each other through Stripe Identity: this runs on every link today. For the licence, they generate a one-time DVLA share code and give the last 8 characters of their licence number, and you run the free check on gov.uk with one tap from the booking. KeyProof never contacts the DVLA and never sees their driving record. No app, no account, done on their own phone before they arrive.
What happens when the car comes back?
You capture the condition again, so you have before and after side by side. If it’s clean, you release your deposit as normal. If there’s damage, you’ve got timestamped before-and-after proof to back any charge or claim.
Whose hire agreement is used?
Yours. You keep your own wording. KeyProof captures the hirer’s signature and binds it to the booking. You own the agreement, we capture the proof.
What if a hirer won’t verify?
You decide whether the keys move, and the product handles the honest version of that decision instead of blocking you. If you hand the car over anyway, KeyProof will not pretend the check happened: you type a reason, that reason is written to the timeline and prints in the pack, and where the hirer never submitted the link at all, the record and the pack also flag the missing check-in at the top. Nothing is fabricated to fill the gap: no signature, no identity result, no licence check. The condition photos you take yourself are unaffected and stand on their own. That is deliberate, because an honest imperfect record beats no record, which is what a blocked hire would leave you holding.
What about a hirer on a foreign licence?
It has its own route, because a licence issued outside GB has no DVLA record to check and no equivalent service anywhere else. The hirer answers where their licence was issued, then declares the issuing country, the licence number and expiry, and an international driving permit if they hold one. You inspect the physical licence at handover and record that you did. The record then says exactly that, in words: a non-GB licence, inspected by your firm on that date, with the declared details marked as declared and not verified. Whether you take non-GB licences at all is your own setting per firm, GB only, GB plus EU/EEA, or worldwide, and it is enforced at the first question so a hirer you would refuse never gets ten minutes in. The declared licence number is erased on the same 30-day schedule as a DVLA share code.
What do I do if there’s damage or a dispute?
One tap pulls the full record: verified ID, signed agreement, before-and-after photos, the timeline. Hand it to your insurer or use it to back the charge on your deposit. You’re never stuck on your word against theirs. You decide what counts as new damage, every time: KeyProof records the before and the after and never scores them.
How are deposits handled?
Your choice, per booking. Take the deposit the way you do now, cash or your own card machine, or let the link place a refundable hold on the hirer’s card like a hotel. The hold runs on your own Stripe account and settles to your own bank: KeyProof is not a payment processor and never sits between you and your money. Either way it is recorded alongside the verified ID, signed agreement and photos, so if there’s damage your proof sits right next to the deposit you’re charging against.
A fine or PCN comes in weeks after the hire. Can KeyProof help?
Yes, that’s one of the strongest things it does. Log the fine against the booking and the record already knows who had the car at that time, with their name, date of birth, address and signed agreement. You have exactly what you need to recharge the hirer or transfer liability to the council, and you can track it through to recovered instead of eating the cost.
Can I send one hire record to my insurer without giving them a login?
Yes. One tap on the record mints a read-only link to that one hire: no account, no login, and it expires after 7 days. It carries the identity result, the licence check, the signed agreement and the photos. The DVLA share code never appears on it and the hirer’s contact details are withheld, because your insurer’s counterparty is you, not your hirer. Creating the link is stamped on the booking’s own timeline, so sharing is part of the chain of custody rather than something that happened off the record, and if a link goes to the wrong address you can revoke every live link on that booking at once.
Could a record be deleted while I am still arguing about it?
No. A hire is held back from the deletion schedule for as long as a dispute on it is flagged, an insurance claim on it is open or with the insurer, or a fine on it is unresolved. The hold has no fixed length and nobody has to remember to apply it: it is read live from those three states, so it lifts by itself the moment the argument ends. A deletion attempted against a held hire is refused and tells you why.
Does it change how I take bookings or payment?
No. Keep using Instagram, WhatsApp, cash, whatever you do now. KeyProof sits alongside it and captures the proof. Nothing about how you take bookings, payment or deposits has to change.
How is this different from rental management software?
Rental management platforms replace how you run the business: your bookings, fleet and billing all move onto their system, priced for fleets and onboarded over weeks. KeyProof doesn’t touch how you work. Same DMs, same agreement, same deposit; it adds the proof: verified ID, licence check, signed agreement and condition photos in one record. Live the same day, from £49 a month. If you grow into full fleet software later, you’ll still want that proof underneath it.
Do my customers need to download anything?
No. It’s a link in the chat you’re already in. They complete it in the browser on their phone, then they’re back in the conversation. No app, no account.
What devices can I use it on?
Any of them. Run it from your phone, tablet, or computer in the browser, and install it like an app if you want. Your hirer only ever needs their phone.
Can my staff use it too?
Yes. Add your team with their own logins, so every handover they do lands in the same place, under your firm.
Does KeyProof manage my bookings too?
Yes. Alongside the proof, KeyProof runs an availability calendar per car, refuses an overlapping booking unless you explicitly confirm the clash (and writes the override to the hire’s timeline), keeps a record on every customer, and tracks the hire price, payments and balance on each booking. You can also subscribe your Google or Apple Calendar to a read-only feed of your hires. You still talk to hirers in your own channels, Instagram, WhatsApp, phone; KeyProof keeps the operation behind it straight.
Can it track my fleet: MOT, insurance, service and ULEZ?
Yes. Every vehicle carries its own status: MOT from the DVSA record, plus insurance, service and ULEZ, with a service log and a document vault for the paperwork (V5, insurance schedule, MOT certificate). KeyProof warns you before an insurance or service renewal is due, so a car never quietly goes out with something lapsed.
Can it show me which cars actually make money?
Yes. KeyProof records rate cards, invoices, deposits, fuel, mileage and running expenses against each car, then totals them into profit per vehicle and how many days it was out on hire. The car that looks busy but loses money stops hiding. KeyProof never touches the money itself; you take it your own way.
Can I keep a private blocklist of hirers who caused trouble?
Yes. A hirer who caused a problem goes on your own private blocklist so they cannot quietly book again. It is your list, kept to your firm, never shared or sold. You can see the full management side on the product page.
How long does it take to set up?
Not long, because there is nothing to install and no new system to learn: KeyProof works through a link you send your hirer. While the founding cohort is open it is a session rather than a project. One of the founders puts your cars, your rates and your own agreement wording in with you, then walks your first real hire through the link start to finish while you watch. You can be live the same day.
Is there anything my customers can see that shows I verify hirers?
Yes, and it costs nothing extra. Once your account is set up you get a public KeyProof page at your own address, plus a badge you can put on your site or in your Instagram bio, that states you verify hirers through KeyProof. Be clear on what it is: it states what you do. It is not a certification, KeyProof does not vet, approve or rate your firm, and the page says so itself. It carries no hirer data and no booking numbers, just your firm and the fact that you run the checks.
Will using KeyProof lower my insurance premium?
We make no promise on your premium: what you pay is between you and your insurer or broker, and anyone who guarantees a discount is guessing. What KeyProof gives you is the thing insurers and claims handlers actually ask for after an incident: dated proof that you verified the hirer’s ID and licence, captured the car’s condition at both ends and had the agreement signed. A firm that can produce that on every hire is an easier risk to write and an easier claim to defend than one relying on a photocopied licence in a drawer. Whether it shows up at renewal is your insurer’s call, but it is exactly the evidence the conversation turns on.
Who pays for the ID and licence checks?
A flat £4.99 verification fee is added at booking and covered by the hirer, so the checks cost you nothing per hire.
What if a hirer won’t pay the verification fee?
The £4.99 verification fee is the hirer’s, and it is shown to them plainly before they pay, so it is never a surprise later. It covers their own ID and licence checks. You never pay it and you never chase it: if a hirer will not pay it, they do not complete the check, and you decide from there whether the keys move, exactly as with any hirer who will not verify. Because they agree to it up front, before a penny is taken, there is nothing to dispute after the fact.
Is there a contract or a trial?
Every plan starts with 30 days free, founding included. There is no signup form yet, so it starts with a conversation: put your firm forward on the founding page and we reply, usually the same day, then we set your fleet up with you, and the 30 days run from your setup with nothing charged until they end. No card is needed to start them on any plan: where your plan pays by card we ask for one before the free days run out, and the first payment lands only when they do; a founding firm has no card on file at all, because founding is billed by standing order, dated from the same free days. You run your own hires through it before you pay for anything, and if you say so before the first payment, nothing is taken. After that there is no contract and you can cancel any time. The 30-day money-back guarantee is the alternative to the trial rather than an addition to it: it covers a firm that starts paying without taking the trial first, because the trial already gives you a month of the real thing before a penny moves. The hirer still covers their £4.99 verification fee during the trial, because that is their payment and not yours.
What does founding access cost, and what do I get?
Founding firms pay a flat £49 a month at ANY fleet size, locked for life, in exchange for being a reference as we build. That is the whole of it: a 60-car firm on our largest paid tier pays £179 a month for the identical product. It includes every feature and every future feature, your fleet set up for you by one of the founders, a direct line to us instead of a support queue, and what you ask for built next. It is open to a cohort of 5 firms. The hirer still covers the £4.99 verification fee per booking.
What does it cost after the founding cohort is full?
Paid plans are tiered by fleet size, a flat monthly price per tier: Starter £69/mo for up to 10 cars, Growth £119/mo for up to 25, and Fleet £179/mo for up to 60 cars. There is no setup fee on any plan. Over 60 cars or running multiple sites, plans start at £289 a month: talk to us and we will price it on your fleet and how many sites you run. Everything is included on every tier: the checks, the named nine-shot condition capture on every hire, sealed records, fines, reports, your branding on the hirer link and priority support. The tier buys fleet capacity, nothing else. The hirer-paid £4.99 verification fee stays the same, so the checks still cost you nothing per hire.
Can I pay annually?
Yes, and it is cheaper. Monthly is the default, with no contract and cancel anytime. Pay for a year up front and 2 of the twelve months are free: Growth is £119 a month, or £1,190 for the year.
My fleet is mixed: some prestige cars, mostly standard. What do I pay?
You pay for the tier your fleet fits, not per car. A 12-car fleet is a Growth plan at £119 a month whatever the cars are worth. There is no per-car treatment to price either: every hire, on every car, runs the same evidence standard, the named nine-shot condition set at handover and return, the hire terms initialled one by one, and a hash-sealed agreement. The one per-car setting is the default deposit: set a higher one on a high-value car and every booking on it starts from that figure, which you can always override.
Do prestige cars get a different treatment to standard cars?
No, and that is deliberate: there is no lesser version to be on. Every hire, on every car, runs the full evidence standard. The condition record is a named nine-shot guided capture, front to roof (front, rear, both sides, both alloys, interior, dashboard and odometer, roof), taken at handover and again at return, and the car cannot be marked out until the set is complete. The hirer initials the extra hire terms one by one before they can sign: the mileage cap, no track use, the agreed territory and the damage excess. And the agreement is hash-sealed at signing with every photo timestamped. The one thing you set per car is the default deposit: give a high-value car a higher default and every booking on it starts from that figure.
Can I record additional named drivers?
Yes, on any booking and on every tier. Log each named driver against the hire with their licence details, so the record matches who was actually allowed behind the wheel rather than just the person who paid. To be exact about what that is: you check the extra driver’s licence at handover as you do now and record them, and KeyProof does not run its own check on them. The ID and licence checks in the link are for the hirer who books.
Is the data secure, and whose records are they?
The records are yours and you can export them whenever you want. The part worth knowing is that KeyProof does not hold your hirers’ identity documents at all. The photo ID and the live selfie go through Stripe as the regulated provider: Stripe holds the document and matches the face to it, and KeyProof stores the pass-or-fail result and a session reference, never the passport or licence image. So there is no folder of ID for you to protect and none for us to lose. KeyProof Ltd is registered with the ICO and carries its own professional indemnity and cyber cover with Hiscox, and every third-party service in use is listed publicly with what it handles and where.
Is KeyProof GDPR compliant?
Built to UK GDPR. You’re the data controller for your hirers’ data, and KeyProof acts as your processor under a data-processing agreement. We handle ID and licence data only to run the identity check, capture the share code and keep your record, nothing else.
Where is my hirers’ data kept, and for how long?
It is minimised to what the check needs, and deletion is not a policy somebody remembers, it runs on scheduled code. A DVLA share code (or a declared non-GB licence number) is erased 30 days after signing. The whole booking record is deleted 24 months after the hire ends. The one exception is an evidence hold: while a dispute on that hire is flagged, or a claim or a fine on it is still open, the record is kept back from the sweep and released automatically once it closes, so nothing disappears in the middle of an argument and nothing outlives it. You can also export or delete any record yourself.
Does KeyProof hold my money or deposits?
No, never. Take money your own way, cash, bank transfer or your own card machine, or run the deposit and the hire fee through the link, in which case they go direct to your own Stripe account and settle to your own bank. KeyProof is not a payment processor: it records the price, the payments and the deposit against the booking so your figures sit next to your proof, and it never holds a penny of yours.
Can I get my data out?
Yes, and here is exactly what that gets you. From Bookings, one tap each gives you a bookings CSV and a customers CSV, built from the list the app has loaded, which is your 100 most recent hires and 200 most recent customers. From Money, a dated accounting ledger for a month, the last twelve months or everything, reading up to 500 hires and saying so in the file if it reaches that. Any single hire prints as a full record pack, or goes out as a read-only link that expires after 7 days. What there is not yet is one button that archives every sealed record and its photographs at once, so a full clear-out is a hire-by-hire job today. Hirer check-in data also deletes on its own schedule, so you are never holding sensitive data longer than the hire needs. The full position, including what happens when you cancel, is at keyproof.co.uk/the-hard-questions.
You’re a new, two-person company. What happens to my data if KeyProof shuts down?
A fair question to ask a young company, and the answer is that you are not trusting us to still be here to get your data back. Your records are yours: export your bookings, customers and accounting whenever you like and keep your own copy. KeyProof never holds your hirers’ identity documents in the first place, Stripe does as the regulated provider, so there is no folder of passports and licences here to be stranded. The operator agreement lets either side end it on the other’s insolvency, and every termination carries the same 30-day window to export. What we will not claim is an escrow or a third-party guarantee, because there is not one. Take a copy at month end and the question stops being ours to answer. Set out in full at keyproof.co.uk/the-hard-questions.
Does KeyProof affect my insurance, or the Motor Insurance Database?
No, to both. KeyProof is not an insurer: it underwrites nothing, pays no claim and never decides who is at fault. It has no connection of any kind to the Motor Insurance Database, so your vehicles and your policy sit there exactly as they do today, recorded by you and your insurer. What it changes is what you can prove: who was driving and how you know, that the licence check was run and when, your own agreement signed and sealed, and timestamped condition photos at both ends, in one record you can send to a handler on a read-only link. Your own cover and its terms stay between you and your broker. KeyProof carries professional indemnity and cyber insurance of its own, which backs KeyProof’s work and insures nobody else. The longer answer is at keyproof.co.uk/the-hard-questions.
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