Author Archives: Van Rental

Mr Raja’s customised Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport X, including a purple vinyl wrap!

Distribution company boss Zamir Raja chooses Mercedes-Benz trucks and vans for their unwavering reliability and low operating costs. When it comes to his personal transport, though, he prefers a vehicle with a touch more individuality and flair.

That vehicle is the dynamic Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport-X, a machine that proves you can mix business with pleasure.

Powered by a fire-breathing V6 engine that pumps out an eye-watering 224 hp, and with muscular Brabus-styled looks to match, the Sport-X is the van industry’s “wolf in wolf’s clothing”.

Mr Raja, the Managing Director of Hemel Hempstead-based Multi Distribution Ltd (MDL) has just taken delivery from Hatfield dealer S & B Commercials of his third successive Vito Sport-X.

Mr Raja has personalised his new van by wrapping it in vibrant purple vinyl, with co-ordinated interior details to match. The result is a vehicle which, with its 18-inch alloy wheels, customised spoiler and chrome sidebars, is guaranteed to turn heads wherever it goes.

“I just love the Vito Sport-X,” he declares. “It’s a vehicle that appeals to the heart as well as the head by being roomy and practical, yet at the same time beautiful. Plus, of course, it’s fast and great fun to drive.”

Not that the manufacturer makes any concessions when it comes to safety. In addition to the market-leading armoury of active and passive features fitted as standard to other models in the Mercedes-Benz van range, the Vito Sport-X also gets powerful bi-xenon headlamps with LED daytime driving lights.

Multi Distribution was founded by Mr Raja in 1999, and operates a 73 vehicle, all Mercedes-Benz fleet from its headquarters in Hemel Hempstead, and from other depots in Croydon and east London. The company specialises in the delivery of office supplies and furniture throughout southern England for an impressive portfolio of customers, the biggest of them being VOW Europe.

Latest additions to the Multi Distribution fleet are a pair of 7.5-tonne Atego trucks with GM Billings curtainside bodies and 1.0-tonne Dhollandia column tail-lifts, and two 3.5-tonne Sprinter 313 CDI Lutons by Allied Bodies, their extra volume capacity allowing them to carry more bubble-wrapped furniture than a panel van (see here for the vanrental.co.uk guide to van sizes)

Used Van Values Flatline In July: Still Up 12.8% On Last Year

1 Reply

Van at BCA auction Used van values remained largely flat in July, compared to June, according to the latest figures from auction specialists BCA.

BCA’s July sales figures show that the average light commercial vehicle sold for £4,772 in July, just £6 more than in June. Average age remained largely unchanged at 58 months but, average mileage rose for the third consecutive month.

Despite monthly falls over the last three months, used van values remain 12.8% (£543) higher than they were in July 2012, and vans are selling at an average of 101.3% of their CAP values — up from 99.6% during July last year.

Looking beneath the headline figure, BCA says that fleet and lease values fell, but dealer part-exchange values rose strongly, to the third-highest monthly average value on record.

Commenting on the figures, Duncan Ward BCA’s General Manager – Commercial Vehicles, said:

“The summer holiday period is typically a weaker time for demand but values have been maintained at a similar level to last month largely as a result of the low levels of supply. Trade buyers are continuing to focus on the very best retail vehicles which are routinely making exceptional money, while vans in poor condition may struggle for attention. ”

Average LCV values from June 2011 – July 2013 (courtesy of BCA)

As the graph above shows, the trend in used van values has been relentlessly upwards over the last two years, but Duncan Ward believes this could moderate come September, thanks to an influx of realistically-priced dealer part-exchange vehicles:

“Sellers should consider adjusting valuations now on poorer condition vans with a view to remarketing them before volumes begin to rise and buyers have more choice from mid-September onwards.”

“Vans entered from dealer part-exchange sources have outperformed the market in recent weeks, and values rose sharply during July. Dealers are valuing their part-exchange vans realistically to tempt buyers in and have reaped the rewards of rising average values, a CAP percentage that is ahead of the wider market performance and good sale conversions as a result.”

The dramatic and long-lasting fall in new van registrations since 2007 has helped support used van values, as the supply of decent quality, one-owner vans has fallen steadily as operators have held onto their vans for much longer than previously, or reduced their overall requirements.

New van registrations have recently started to turn up, and this seems to be being reflected in both UK CV manufacturing output, which has risen recently, and in used van values, which have started to weaken after reaching record highs.

What Size Van Can I Drive On A Car Licence?

1 Reply

This article was last updated on 31 January 2018.

The driving licence requirements for driving a van are fairly simple, but we do get a lot of questions asking about driving licences for vans, so I thought I would take a closer look to help clarify the situation.

Driving a Van – licence requirements

If you have a car driving licence (category B) than you can drive all vans with a maximum gross weight of up to 3,500kg (3.5t).

This includes vans like the Ford Transit and Volkswagen Transporter. It also includes minibuses with up to eight passenger seats.

Almost all of the vans operated by van hire companies in the UK are 3.5t models or smaller, so you shouldn’t have any problem renting and driving a van with a standard car licence.

Most hire companies have a minimum age limit and require you to have held a full driving licence for a minimum period of time. Please visit our driving licence/age restriction page for more information.

Ready to hire a van?

Note: It’s important not to confuse the maximum permitted weight of the van with its payload, or load capacity. A 3.5t van might typically have a maximum load weight of 900kg – 1,300kg, depending on the model and size of the van.

Driving Vehicles over 3,500kg (C1)

To drive a vehicle with a MAM of between 3,500kg and 7,500kg (3.5t – 7.5t) you need category C1 entitlement on your driving licence. This enables you to drive 7.5t lorries, of the kind that are offered by many van and truck hire companies.

If you passed your car driving test before 01/01/1997, you will have C1 entitlement. If you passed you car driving test after 01/01/1997, you will not have C1 unless you have taken a seperate C1 driving test.

However, not all van and truck rental companies will allow you to hire their 7.5t vehicles, even if you have C1 entitlement. There are two reasons for this.

The first reason is that 7.5t trucks are much larger and more difficult to drive than cars. Most car drivers do not have sufficient experience in larger vehicles, so many hire companies think it is too risky to rent these vehicles out to inexperienced drivers.

The second reason is that some hire companies will insist that you must have a goods vehicle operator’s licence to hire a 7.5 tonne lorry. This is legally required if the vehicle will be used for business purposes, although it is not required for personal use such as a DIY house removal.

However, by restricting 7.5t hire to customers with an operator’s licence, hire companies can avoid many of the problems which might result from inexperienced drivers renting these large vehicles.

Hire a 7.5 tonne lorry:

Driving a Minibus

Driving licence rules state that you can drive a minibus with up to 16 passenger seats using a car driving licence, as long as it is not for ‘hire or reward’ – in other words, as long as no one is paying for the minibus service to be provided (cash in hand for fuel, for a social trip is ok).

To drive a minibus for hire or reward, you need category D1 on your driving licence.

Hiring a minibus: Some rental companies will only allow drivers with D1 entitlement to hire a minibus, regardless of whether the minibus is going to be used for ‘hire or reward’. As with some companies’ restrictions on hiring C1 vehicles, this is likely to be due to insurance and risk restrictions.

Ready to hire a minibus?

Disclaimer: All information was believed to be correct when this page was last updated (31 Jan 2018) but vanrental.co.uk will accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for any consequences arising from the use of this information. Future changes to the rules may not be notified on this page. If in doubt, check directly for yourself before driving or hiring a vehicle – the gov.uk website has an excellent guide to driving licence categories.

Child Seat Hire With Van Rental: How Much Does It Cost?

2 Replies

A group 1 child seat In today’s article, I’m going to continue my ‘How Much Does It Cost?’ series with a look at child seat hire, a widely available optional extra on car and van hire.

Although you may be more likely to need a child seat when you’re hiring a car, most of the big van hire companies also offer this service with van hire, since these vehicles do have three seats and are often used for family removals and other occasions where a child may be travelling in the van.

As anyone who has bought a child seat will know, a child seat isn’t simply a child seat. Broadly speaking, child seats come in four types, catering for children from birth up until 12 years old (or 135cm in height). Here’s a brief explanation (all ages are approximate, weight and/or height are more important to ensure a good fit):

Group 0 / 0+: Rear facing, suitable from birth until 9/12 months or 0-13kg
Group 1: Age 1-3 years or 9-18kg
Group 2: Age 4-6 years or 15-25kg
Group 3: Full seats or booster seats for children aged 6-12 years or under 135cm

Group 2 and 3 are sometimes combined, and you may see this in some rental companies offerings, too.

If you’re a parent and in need of a child seat, you’ll probably know this stuff already, but if you would like more information you can find details of the legal requirements for child seats in a guide I wrote for SimpleMotoring.co.uk a while ago, as well as some more details on the different types of child seats.

Hiring a child seat?

A group 2 or 3 child seat booster So what do you need to know if hiring a child seat from a van hire company?

Well, vans are unlikely to have ISOFIX mounting points than cars, so child seats will have to be fastened using the seat belt option or by using an ISOFIX base onto which an ISOFIX seat can be mounted.

You can expect reputable hire companies to offer you a suitable package to fit in the van you’ve hired. If you ask for assistance fitting the seat, you may be refused – most hire companies seem to have a policy that the customer must fit the seat themselves, presumably to avoid insurance/liability claims in the event of an accident where the seat was incorrectly fitted.

As with cars, passenger air bags should be deactivated when you use a rear-facing child seat, although I don’t know how feasible this is with common models of van.

How much does it cost to hire a child seat?

I’ve gathered together the daily rates for child seats from all of the main hire companies listed on vanrental.co.uk, together with details about the terms and conditions where I’ve been able to find them. This isn’t an exhaustive guide, but it should give you an idea – remember that advanced booking is normally required:

Europcar & National: Child seats of all sizes cost £10.99 per day, up to a maximum of £109.99 per rental. Lost, damaged or stolen seats will incur a £200 charge. Booster cushions cost £3.99 per day, up to a maximum of £39.99 per rental. Lost damaged or stolen booster cushions will incur a £50 charge.
Hertz: Hertz only offers child seats and booster seats for larger model vans; at the time of writing*, these were listed on Hertz’s website as Ford Transit Dropside and Tipper models only. Child seats are available to cater for children aged 9 months – 6 years (9-36kg), not for younger children. Hertz’s daily rate for child seats is £11.88 per day, up to a maximum fee per rental of £83.16. Booster seats are available to suit children from 6-11 years of age, for a daily rate of £4.62, up to a maximum fee per rental of £32.64.
Sixt: Baby seats (Group 0+ / 0-13kg), child seats (9-18kg) and booster seats (15-36kg) are available for a daily rate of £10.00 or £59.99 per month.
Thrifty: Child seats are available to suit children from birth to 12 years/135cm. All seats are £5 per day, with a maximum of 10 days charged. Subject to local availability, contact the hire branch directly to confirm availability.
Argus Car Hire: As a broker, availability and cost of child seats varies depending on the rental supplier for your booking.
Van Hire 3000: As a broker, availability and cost of child seats varies depending on the rental supplier for your booking.

Who is the cheapest?

Thrifty’s child seat hire is by far the cheapest of all the companies listed – at £5 per day up to a maximum of 10 days charged, it leaves you wondering how much profit companies charging more than £10 per day are making on each child seat.

In my last article on the cost of sat nav hire, Thrifty was also cheapest (along with Hertz), so it’s definitely worth getting a quote from Thrifty if you want to hire a van with extras.

To learn more about the true cost of van hire, check out the following articles:

*This article was written on 9 August 2013.

Top Gear Hovervan Heads For Beaulieu

1 Reply

See? It floats. Jeremy, Richard and James with the mk2 Hovervan on the River Avon

You can always rely on the Top Gear team to come up with crazy-but-just-doable ideas that will make entertaining television, even if they do annoy the half of the population that doesn’t like Top Gear.

On that basis, the mk2 Hovervan is a cracking idea. The mk1 model was less good (it sank), so the mk2 Hovervan was fitted with bigger engines, larger skirts and additional floatation devices.

These modifications enabled it to “skip gracefully across the surface of the River Avon causing barely a ripple”.

Allegedly.

Based on a highly modified Ford Transit, the Hovervan has also been described as “noisy – and dangerous – and thirsty – and disruptive – and destructive – and uncontrollable – and expensive”.

You can now make up your own mind about the Hovervan, because it has joined the ranks of wacky and crazy Top Gear vehicles in Beaulieu’s World of Top Gear. Other Top Gear triumphs at Beaulieu include the Hindustan Ambassadar taxi, which was recently crowned by Jeremy and the lads as the world’s best taxi.

The Hovervan in action on the River Avon. Fancy a closer look? The Hovervan is now on display at the Beaulieu World of Top Gear, along with other classic Top Gear ‘designs’.

Away from Top Gear, Beualieu is also home to the Bond in Motion exhibition and of course the National Motor Museum. For a petrolhead — or anyone with a passing interest in how cars and popular culture have developed hand-in-hand over the last century — it’s a great day out.

The Competition Is Drained As EEG Chooses More Sprinters

Van Sales Dip In July As Truck Sales Rebound

2 Replies

After rising by 9.3% so far this year, van sales fell in July, with 18,417 new vans registered, down from down from 18,913 in July 2012, and significantly lower than the 23,041 vans that were registered in June.

Total CV registrations were stable in July at 22,211 (-0.6%) with 177,708 registrations over the year-to-date, a 6.5% rise, while truck demand rose by 10.3%, helping to cancel out the falls that have been seen over the last few months.

UK van and truck registrations: 2013 and % change on 2012

	July	% change	Year-to-date	% change	Rolling year	% change
Vans	18,417	-2.6%	151,594	9.3%	252,536	1.6%
Trucks	3,794	10.3%	25,114	-7.8%	43,580	-8.8%
Total	22,211	-0.6%	176,708	6.5%	296,116	0.0%

Data courtesy of SMMT (www.smmt.co.uk)

Nigel Base, the SMMT Commercial Vehicle Manager, says that the rise in truck registrations was expected, but he’s confident that despite this month’s dip, van sales will finish the year strongly:

“We’ve been expecting a rise in truck volumes as the Euro 5/6 issue comes to a head. In July, trucks rose 10.3% continuing the trend begun a month earlier – a momentum that should continue to the end of the year.

Van registrations have fluctuated through the year with dips following sizable peaks in demand. We are confident that the van market will end the year strongly, up 9.2% on 2012, topping 261,000 units.”

As was the case last month, the biggest rise in van registrations was in the popular 2.0t – 2.5t small van category, which includes modesl such as the Citroen Berlingo and Ford Transit Connect. Sales in this category rose by 24.3% last month, compared to July 2012, while sales of larger vans in the 2.5t – 3.5t category fell by 8%.

Europe’s the problem

The SMMT press release was accompanied by an interesting graph I haven’t seen before, comparing sales across the 27 EC member countries, for the 12 months to June 2007 and June 2013.

It’s a telling story, and shows how CV sales in several major European CV markets remain deeply depressed compared to their pre-recessions levels:

EC(27) new CV registrations for the 12 months to June 2007 and June 2013 (courtesy of SMMT)

This graph shows just how far the UK CV market is lagging behind it pre-recession levels — but perhaps the most interesting thing about this graph, for me, is what it reveals about our European neighbours.

Greece and Spain, as you would expect, are deep in the doldrums, with CV registrations of less than half their pre-recession levels. Yet Italy — which is often talked about as a potential bailout target in the same breath as Spain — has CV registrations that are closer to 2007 levels than those of the UK. If CV registrations are any kind of barometer of economic health, then Italy and Spain are very different cases.

Germany and France remain in relatively good health, but both of these companies are notably biased towards home-grown products when it comes to vehicle purchases, so neither is likely to help boost UK CV manufacturing figures.

Graphics Firm Is ‘Citan’ly Happy With Mercedes Van Family!

1 Reply

Dragon Signs & Print’s fleet of Mercedes-Benz vans – Citan, Vito and Sprinter

It’s been a long time since Mercedes-Benz offered a small van, meaning that van operators needing this choice have been forced to choose another marque, or absorb the cost of running Mercedes’ larger model, the Vito.

The introduction of the new Citan, in February, changed this, and Mercedes now offers a full range of van sizes, from the Citan upwards. One firm that has taken advantage of the German company’s new offering is Cardiff-based Dragon Signs & Print, which supplies exterior and interior signage and vehicle livery services.

The company’s Citan 109 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY Extra-long Dualiner is now working alongside examples from the two other model lines – the Vito and the Sprinter – which make up the core Mercedes-Benz van range.

The inherent economy of the 109 CDI model’s 90 hp diesel engine is enhanced for Dragon by a series of clever BlueEFFICIENCY measures including the ECO start/stop function – which turns off the engine whenever the vehicle is stopped in traffic, then restarts it as soon as the driver depresses the clutch – low rolling resistance tyres and optimised alternator and battery management systems. The result is a market-leading economy figure of up to 65.7 mpg and CO₂emissions as low as 112 g/km.

Managing Director Rhys Harrington and his brother-in-law Adrian Ward, the Technical Director, founded their company seven years ago.

“I’m a big fan of Mercedes-Benz vans,” says Mr Harrington. “They’re reliable, practical, comfortable and cost-effective to operate, while they also convey an image of quality which can only reflect well on our own business.

“I also have a great relationship with the dealer. Product quality is important, of course, but so, too, is service – I’m a great believer in the idea that ‘people buy from people’ and Euro Commercials look after us very well.”

As a Dualiner model Dragon’s Citan is fitted with a split-folding bench seat behind the driver’s and front passenger’s seats, allowing it to carry up to five members of the company team in comfort and safety. The Extra-long configuration still leaves a practical load compartment length of more than 1.3 metres.

Dragon Signs & Print also operates a pair of mid-sized Vito vans, a 109 CDI and a stylish 116 CDI Sport Dualiner. Completing the line-up is a Long-bodied 3.5-tonne Sprinter.

“We use the Sprinter for large external signage installations and the two Vito models for most routine projects,” continues Mr Harrington. “But even they’ve been too big on occasion, which is where the Citan comes in. It’s ideal as a little runaround for smaller jobs, and means that we’re able to restrict our fuel costs to an absolute minimum.”

vanrental.co.uk blog

UK van news and van hire tips

Author Archives: Van Rental

Van Hire Isn’t The Only Cheap Way To Move Stuff

Niki Lauda’s Rush Ferrari Team Van Is For Sale

Is This The Hottest Vito On The Road?

Used Van Values Flatline In July: Still Up 12.8% On Last Year

What Size Van Can I Drive On A Car Licence?

Driving a Van – licence requirements

Driving Vehicles over 3,500kg (C1)

Driving a Minibus

Child Seat Hire With Van Rental: How Much Does It Cost?

Top Gear Hovervan Heads For Beaulieu

The Competition Is Drained As EEG Chooses More Sprinters

Van Sales Dip In July As Truck Sales Rebound

Graphics Firm Is ‘Citan’ly Happy With Mercedes Van Family!