JEDDAH: The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) is close to completing a black list containing the names of around 600,000 people in Jeddah who have failed to pay car rental fees, causing an annual loss of around SR500 million to the SR2.5-billion industry.

“The list, which will come out soon, will enable car rental companies to collect cash owed to them,” said a JCCI spokesman, adding that this would be the first list of its kind in the Kingdom.

Saeed Al-Bassami, deputy chairman of the Car Rental Committee at the JCCI, said the chamber would soon meet car insurance companies to fix a unified price for car rentals.

“The charges are reasonable. They are less than the rates in neighboring countries. There is no intention of increasing them,” said Al-Bassami.

Speaking about a decision to close down 180 unlicensed car rental firms, he said this was the concern of the Ministry of Transport. He added that the Car Rental Committee is working to resolve a number of problems facing the industry.

Asked about the misuse of rented cars by customers, Al-Bassami said the committee had established a computer network linking all car rental firms for the sharing of information on such people.

He added that the Car Rental Committee had set up regulations which car rental companies have been asked to commit to, including the Saudization of jobs. The committee is also working on a mechanism to reduce the issue of people not returning vehicles.