Author Archives: Van Rental

New Fiat Doblo Work Up Offers Dropside Option

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Fiat has launched a new version of its Doblò light van – a dropside version. It’s a model never offered before by a major van manufacturer for this class of van (the Doblò is broadly the equivalent of the Citroen Berlingo or Ford Transit Connect).

Fiat Doblo Work Up - dropside

The Doblò Work Up is a fraction under 5m long and has an impressive payload of up to 1000kg with a load area of 4m² (2.3m long x 1.82m wide). This makes it reasonably compact for urban use but surprisingly capacious – it can take 3 Euro pallets or 33 fruit boxes. It should be ideal for a wide range of jobs – although I don’t imagine it is likely to appear in many van hire fleets.

The Doblò Work Up comes with a choice of two Euro 5 diesel engines – a 1.3 MultiJet 90bhp and a 1.6 MultiJet 105bhp. Both feature a Start-Stop system as standard, along with a diesel particulate filter. The cab comes with a glazed bulkhead window with protective metal grill as standard and there is a tool storage compartment concealed under the rear load bed.

The new Doblò Work Up costs £16,065 (basic) for the 1.3 MultiJet 16v Euro 5 and £17,065 (basic) for the 1.6 MultiJet 16v Euro 5.

Long-Term Van Hire – A Good Alternative To Leasing?

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The traditional way for companies to operate vans has been to purchase them outright (or on finance) or to lease them from specialist leasing companies.

However, both of these approaches require medium-term financial commitment. Given the current economic uncertainty affecting many European economist (including the UK’s), many business owners are shying away from new commitments of this kind, especially given that finance is harder to arrange than it used to be.

At the same time, businesses are anxious to meet existing demand and exploit new opportunities – which may require additional or replacement vans.

Long-Term Van Hire – A Better Solution

If your business requires vans with few modifications from stock, the best solution might be a long-term van rental. Companies such as Europcar offer Month+ hire schemes aimed at providing you with long-term use with no onwards commitment.

Europcar will invoice you monthly and you can change – or return – your van at any time, without penalties.

You can either book for a set period – perhaps 4 weeks – and renew at the end of every four weeks, or you can book for several months ahead – to cover the busy Christmas period, for example.

To get a Month+ quote from Europcar, simply enter your requirements into the booking engine and choose the van (or car) you are interested in.

Toyota To Discontinue Hiace & Exit UK Van Market

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Toyota has announced it is to discontinue its Hiace van and exit the UK van market at the end of 2011, due to the impending requirement for all new vans to meet Euro 5 emissions standards. The Hiace’s current 2.0l diesel unit doesn’t meet the Euro 5 standard – and somewhat surprisingly, Toyota cannot or will not come up with a suitable replacement.

Although it is not a very major player in the UK van market, I’ve always liked the Hiace and it does have a steady following amongst tradesmen and other owner-drivers looking for an alternative to the VW Transporter.

Hilux drivers need not fear that Toyota is going to abandon the commercial market completely – the company has already announced an updated Hilux model for 2012.

Moving Abroad? A Place In The Sun Live 30/09/11-02/10/11

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Holiday villaIf you are thinking of moving abroad or buying a holiday home in the sun, you will have a lot of decisions to make and questions to answer before you can complete the deal and take possession of the keys to your dream home.

One way of speeding up this process is to get all the information you need in one place – and the best way to do this is to visit a large overseas property exhibition. A Place In The Sun Live is one of the UK’s biggest overseas property shows and it is taking place at the Birmingham NEC this weekend (30th September – 2nd October)

A wide range of exhibitors from all the popular overseas home markets will be at the show – Spain, Portugal, Florida, Turkey, Cyprus and more. Of course, the presenters of the A Place In The Sun television series – Jonnie Irwin, Jasmine Harman and Amanda Lamb – will also be there with advice and tips for overseas home buyers.

Remember: If you are planning to buy (or sell) a home in Europe, we have a number of unique resources on vanrental.co.uk that will help you arrange the move abroad:

  • Van Hire To Spain – our unique guide to the UK companies which offer one-way van hire between the UK and Spain
  • European Van Hire – many UK van rental companies allow you to take their vans across the Channel – find out more here
  • Book A Ferry – our ferry guide talks you through the information you will need to book your hire van on a ferry and shows you all the most UK-Europe ferry routes, including direct sailings to Spain and Ireland.
  • Finally, don’t forget to check out our guide to driving a van abroad.
To find out more about A Place In The Sun Live, visit the organiser’s website.

Overnight Van Hire & One-Way Van Hire from Europcar

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Overnight Van Hire

If hiring a van by the day doesn’t fit in with your schedule, why not hire one overnight, instead?

Europcar is currently offering a new Overnight Van Hire service which allows customers to hire a van from 5pm to 9am the following day from just £29.

Most Europcar branches are open 8am – 6pm or longer, so choosing to hire a van overnight allows you to finish work, collect your van, use it, and then return it on your way to work the next morning.

To find out more or book overnight van hire, visit Europcar’s website.

One-Way Van Hire

One-way van hire is a surprisingly popular service and one which requires little explanation.

One-way van rental allows you pickup your hire van at one rental location and drop it off at a different location. Obviously one requirement of this is that the company you are hiring the van from has branches in both locations – that’s why large van hire companies with national networks of branches have a big advantage offering this service.

Two of the biggest companies offering this service in the UK are Europcar and National. These two well-known rental brands actually share a network of branches in the UK and have more than 180 branches nationwide, making one-way hire a realistic proposition in most areas of the UK.

To find our more or book a one-way van hire, visit Europcar’s website.

Automatic Van Hire in the UK – Is It Available?

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Vans and other commercial vehicles have traditionally had manual gearboxes, meaning that drivers who can only drive automatics have been unable to drive rental vans. The good news is that automatic van hire should become more common in the next few years.

At present, there are still very few van rental companies in the UK that will guarantee to provide you with an automatic van – we only have one company in the vanrental.co.uk database, Bucks Vehicle Hire in High Wycombe, that offers this service. Other hire companies may sometimes have automatic vans on their fleets but they do not guarantee to provide an automatic – not much use if you can only drive automatics.

The Technical Stuff – Automated Manual Transmission

Most vans are now available with automatic gearboxes, albeit at extra cost (hence why most hire companies don’t provide them).

These automatics use a relatively new technology that has improved hugely over the last few years. This new breed of automatics is known as Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) and they work by using a conventional [manual] gearbox combined with an automated clutch and gearshift.

This means that drivers just have to put the gearbox into Drive or Reverse and then use the accelerator – there is no clutch and although it is possible to manually select gears, it is not necessary.

Automatic vans usually offer slightly better fuel economy than their manual equivalents – although this can depend on the driver and how the van is used.

Many drivers are sceptical when they first try an automatic van, but most, in my experience, are rapidly converted. I suspect that automatic vans will become much more common over the next 5-10 years, perhaps even becoming the standard choice, as is happening in the HGV market.

If your van rental company offers an automatic van hire service and you’d like to advertise on vanrental.co.uk, please contact us for more details.

Sixt Van Hire: Exclusive Discount Code & Autumn Special Offers

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vanrental.co.uk EXCLUSIVE Discount: Sixt Van Hire from just £29/Day

Don’t forget that we are currently running an exclusive Sixt discount code providing van hire from just £29 per day at selected locations. This deal is only available through vanrental.co.uk.

This deal applies to weekday hire (Mon-Thur) at the following locations and is valid until 15th October 2011:

This offer has now expired.

Bishops Stortford
Bristol South
Bromley
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Airport (EDI)
Epsom
Feltham / Hatton Cross
London Battersea – Vauxhall
London Bow
London Fulham / Chelsea
London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
London Ilford
London Kings Cross
London Shepherd’s Bush
London Stansted Airport (STN)
London Victoria Station
London Walthamstow
London Wembley
Manchester Airport (MAN)

Click on the banner below to get a quote using our exclusive discount code:
Sixt.co.uk

Westfield Stratford City – London’s Olympic Shopping Centre Opens

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A new, giant, shopping centre has opened in Stratford, East London. Billed as the gateway to the Olympics, the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre will be the physical gateway to the London 2012 Olympic Park and it is estimated that 75% of the expected 10 million visitors heading into the athletics venues will pass through the shopping centre – a whopping 7.5 million people.

It seems a strange way to enter the world’s premier sporting competition, although I suppose that it this one way to try and ensure that the London Olympics is one of the rare Games that turns a profit: funnel all the spectators through Europe’s largest urban shopping centre.

Stratford will be at the heart of London’s Olympic venues, hosting the majority of athletics events. It is expected that London van hire companies will experience a peak in demand during the 2012 Games – shortages are quite likely, so advanced booking is essential for business and private van rental customers.

A similar rush in demand is likely for minibus hire firms all over the UK – so booking ahead is essential if you are planning group trips by minibus to the 2012 Olympics.

Northgate Shrinks Van Rental Fleet – Summer Demand Insufficient

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The peak months for the van hire market are generally thought to be from late spring through to late summer. However, new figures released by Darlington-based Northgate plc, one of Britain’s largest van rental firms, suggest that the expected summer peak in demand has not materialised this year.

Northgate’s fleet utilisation rose from 89% in April to a peak of 91% in August. However, to achieve this improvement in utilisation, the company reduced its fleet size by 4,700 vehicles between April and the end of August. Northgate’s fleet now stands at 56,500 vehicles.

That’s an 8% cut in fleet size to achieve a 2% rise in utilisation – suggesting a fall in demand of 6%. Not great for the busiest time of the year.

In an interim management statement, Northgate said that vehicles on hire have fallen from 53,800 at 30 April 2011 to 51,400 at the end of August, a fall of 2,400 units, in line with the fall noted in the four months to August 2010.

Northgate, which serves business van users more than retail customers, is seen by the financial markets as a useful guide to the health of the van rental sector. This news is not surprising but does reflect ongoing challenging trading conditions for the van rental sector.

One good piece of news is that second-hand van values appear to be holding up, at least for good stock. Northgate reported that despite the increased number of vehicle disposals this year, residual values per vehicle remained at a similar level to the previous financial year.

Transit Retains ‘Most Stolen Van’ Title

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Ford Transit Super Sport Van - Transits are the most stolen van in Britain

The Ford Transit is the most stolen van in Britain

The Ford Transit has retained its status has the most stolen van in the UK (click here for last year’s results).

Coming in second was the Land Rover, followed by the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and then the Volkswagen Transporter.

HPI’s hit rates for stolen vans tell the story – 17.6% of Ford Transits that undergo a HPI Check turn out to have been stolen, compared to 11.8% of Mercedes Sprinters and VW Transporters.

The Ford Transit is also most likely to have been involved in an accident and written off, too.

A whopping 15% of Transits that undergo a HPI Check are found to have been previously written-off as a total loss by an insurance company. This figure is much higher than for any other van – the next highest van on the list is the Volkswagen Transporter, with 8% of those checked having been written-off by an insurance company.

It all adds up to a stark warning – if you are buying a used van, use the HPI Check service to make sure that the van is not stolen, has no outstanding finance (another common problem) and has not been written-off by an insurance company.

Source: Fleet News