In short: if you rent out vehicles without a driver in Italy, the law requires you to send the State Police the ID details of the person taking the vehicle. You do it through CarGOS, when the contract is signed. Here is what you need to know.
What CarGOS is
CarGOS (also written Ca.R.G.O.S.) is the Italian State Police (Polizia di Stato) system that collects the details of people who rent a vehicle without a driver. The obligation comes from article 17 of Decree-Law 113 of 2018 (decreto legge 113/2018); the technical rules are in the Ministerial Decree of 29 October 2021.
The idea is similar to hotels reporting their guests' details: whoever hands over a vehicle must know, and let the authorities know, who they are handing it to.
Who must use it
Businesses that rent out vehicles without a driver: cars and vehicles with at least four wheels (motorcycles are excluded). So rental companies, but also garages, body shops and dealerships that rent out under their own licence.
Car sharing and shared mobility contracts are excluded.
What about free courtesy cars? A free courtesy car is a free loan, not a rental. But if you charge for it, it is a rental, and the obligation applies.
When to report
When the contract is signed. According to guidance from the Questure (provincial Police Headquarters), the report must be made at the same time as the contract is signed and in any case well before the vehicle is handed over.
What you need to get started
- Login credentials: you request them from the Questura (Police Headquarters) of the province where the company has its registered office. Companies with several branches send data centrally.
- The customer's ID details, the ones you already collect for the contract.
- The receipt: every day the portal issues a receipt with the number of contracts sent, which you should download and keep.
The most common mistakes
- Reporting after handover: the report must arrive before, not once the rental has started.
- Retyping data by hand: every detail copied twice is a chance to get one character of the licence number wrong.
- Not keeping the receipts: in an inspection, they are your proof that you reported.
How you do it with Movolab
Enter your CarGOS credentials in the app once. From then on, when you open a rental, the customer's details (which Movolab reads from a photo of the driving licence and ID card) go to CarGOS without retyping.
Want to see it? In a 30-minute demo we show you a complete rental, CarGOS included. → Book a free demo
This article is for information only and is not a substitute for official guidance from the Italian State Police or for professional advice. Last source check: October 2026.
Sources
- Questura di Padova (Police Headquarters of Padua) — CaRGOS service, reporting rentals of vehicles without a driver (in Italian)
- Questura di Venezia (Police Headquarters of Venice) — CaRGOS service (in Italian)
- Questura di Teramo (Police Headquarters of Teramo) — CaRGOS, reporting rentals of vehicles without a driver (in Italian)