The paper pack was never protecting you anyway.
A photocopied licence, a signature on a carbon pad, a tick-box damage sheet filled in at arm’s length: it feels like process, but the day a hire goes wrong it proves far less than it feels like it should. Going paperless saves paper, which is the least useful thing about it. What matters is that every step then produces evidence that stands up.
Private beta applications open, public launch January 2027The hirer pays their own £4.99 verification feeSet up with you by a founder
No firm has signed yet. KeyProof is choosing up to five UK hire firms for its private beta, set up and walked through their first real hire by a founder: request beta access.
KeyProof Ltd 17333773ICO ZC195906Own PI £1m + cyber £500k, Hiscox
One link in the chat. The paper pack, gone.
- The photocopied licence becomes a verified identity
- Instead of a photocopy you must store and protect, the hirer’s photo ID is matched to a selfie, and they hand you a DVLA share code for the free check you run on gov.uk. You keep the result, not the copies.
- The carbon-pad signature becomes an e-signed agreement
- Your own hire agreement, your own wording, signed on the hirer’s phone and bound to their verified identity and the booking. No more deciphering a scrawl on a faded copy when it matters.
- The tick-box damage sheet becomes timestamped photos
- A diagram with an X on it convinces nobody. Photo sets at handover and return, timestamped and side by side, are what a condition record should have been all along.
- The filing cabinet becomes one record per hire
- Identity, the licence share code you checked, agreement, deposit record and photos in a single timestamped file per booking, ready to export for an insurer instead of being reassembled from a drawer and a camera roll.
No app. No new system. Your chat, plus proof.
Most paperless systems assume you will move your whole business onto their platform. KeyProof assumes the opposite: you keep taking bookings on Instagram and WhatsApp, keep your own agreement and your own deposit, and drop one link into the conversation you are already having. The hirer opens it in their browser, no app and no account. KeyProof's private beta opens in November, with a founding cohort of UK hire firms still being chosen: how it works, beta access, and the demo to try the flow yourself.
What every hire leaves behind
IdentityPhoto ID matched to a selfie
LicenceDVLA share code, for your own check on gov.uk
ConditionTimestamped photos, both ends
AgreementE-signed, sealed with a hash
DepositLogged, traceable to the hirer
Retire the clipboard.
Keep the proof.
The paperwork becomes a link, and the link becomes a record you can print.
KeyProof is selecting UK car hire operators for its private beta, ahead of public launch in January 2027.