The London 2012 Olympics are less than a year away now and van hire companies throughout London and the South East are expecting to experience a peak in demand for daily van rental before, during and after the games.

Business demand is likely to be especially high, as businesses such as couriers, catering suppliers, companies supporting the Olympic infrastructure (think electricity, television, catering, hospitality, athlete and staff transport), shops and restaurants all experience additional demand for their services.

In addition to this, business will have to deal with the disruption and limited access resulting from the Olympic Route Network (ORN). vanrental.co.uk understand that the ORN will be a network of lane closures on roads linking Olympic venues – the closed lanes will be used to ensure that athletes and games personnel can make their way between locations efficiently and to a reliable schedule. It will, of course, have the opposite effect on local businesses and deliveries…

The ORN is another reason to expect an increase in demand for van hire – some businesses may have to reschedule their delivery activities into non-Olympic hours – meaning additional vans will be required at certain times of day. For example, some businesses might decide to carry out all delivery operations at night, rather than distributing them evenly throughout the day.

You can full details of the ORN and travel advice for businesses here, on the London 2012 website.

Tips For Businesses

If your business operates in London or the south-east, then you need to start planning your van hire requirements now. If you believe you will need additional van capacity then vanrental.co.uk would strongly advise that you book vans well in advance.

You may have to run the risk of having too much capacity – but having an empty rental van for one day will probably have less impact on your bottom line than being short of a van for one day…

Tips For Individuals

Demand for van hire traditionally peaks during summer months anyway – both individuals and businesses often find they need additional van hire in July and August. It is a popular time to move house and for other sporting, musical and DIY activities that all require hire vans.

Although the Olympics will not cause individual demand for van hire to increase, high business demand for hire vans will mean that individual renters will need to plan further ahead than usual if they do not wish to be disappointed.

What’s Next? In an upcoming post, we will list all of the Olympic locations in London and the South East. Olympic events are taking place over a wide area and the impact of these on van rental companies and other local businesses will be high, even outside London.