Author Archives: Van Rental

A Turning Point For Biofuels?

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Shortly after news comes of the EU introducing sustainability certification for biofuels comes a report that in the USA, farmers might be about to lose the long-held and highly lucrative subsidies they receive for producing corn for ethanol production.

Over the last decade, the percentage of US corn grown for corn ethanol production has risen from 6% to 40% of the crop, raising concerns about the knock-on impact this has had on food prices, especially in the developing world.

Environmentalists have also concluded that using corn ethanol has no environmental benefits, thanks to the large amounts of energy and water that are required to convert corn into fuel-ready ethanol. Bill Freese of the Centre for Food Safety told The Guardian that:

“The research is very clear by now. Turning corn into ethanol is not environmentally sound … It’s really an environmental disaster.”

While Congress have yet to finalise whether the corn subsidies will go as part of the American government’s deficit reduction plan, it seems likely and in fact quite appropriate. Removal of the market imbalance caused by strong government support for corn ethanol should level the playing field for other potential alternative fuels, allowing those offering genuine benefits to gain more support.

However, from a European perspective, what is most interesting is the possibility that this could mark a turning point for the current policy of mandatory biofuel use in regular fuels. So far, any evidence of genuine, whole life-cycle environmental benefits is shaky at best and downright dishonest at worst.

After all, where the USA leads, others, especially the UK, tend to follow. Let’s hope in this case that some of the current half-baked, short-sighted biofuel policies that inflate food prices and don’t provide significant carbon reductions will be phased out and replaced with more meaningful and less prescriptive directives that encourage development of new ideas and reward genuine reductions in environmental impact.

16% Of Drivers Think Amber Means Green

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Traffic light at amberA new survey by Thrifty Car & Van Rental has found that 38% of drivers rarely stop at amber lights while 16% treat amber traffic lights as if they were green – and drive straight through with no intention of trying to stop.

A massive 80% of those surveyed admitted that they did sometimes try to run amber lights, despite the fact that failure to stop at an amber light is an offence, unless it is unsafe to do so. According to Thrifty’s survey, the worst offenders are in Chelmsford, followed by Leeds, Coventry, Liverpool and Brighton.

This survey reminds me of something I was once told in a presentation by a traffic police officer. You may have noticed that not all amber lights are the same length – I often notice that on motorway roundabouts, the amber period is much shorter than at town centre lights, for example.

Apparently, amber periods have been lengthened over the years to try and improve safety. Unfortunately, this seems to have had the side effect of encouraging people to drive through amber lights because there is such a long pause before the lights go to red.

Anyone who has driven on the continent will have noticed that in most European countries, traffic lights often go from green to red almost instantly, with minimal amber periods. This makes it almost impossible to run an amber light – you will almost certainly end up driving through the red light, instead. This does seem a good idea to me, as does another continental idea, that of flashing amber lights in all directions at quiet times.

This is an idea the Department for Transport has been looking into, although so far has not decided to adopt. What happens is that at quiet times, all the traffic lights at a junction will flash amber, warning drivers that they can proceed but must take care to ensure that nothing is coming the other way. This is similar to what happens when a set of traffic lights stops working in the UK – people still manage to get across the junction – often faster than usual, in my experience. The only time that traffic lights really seem to help is at very busy junctions, where gridlock would result without them.

Tips On Van Hire For eBay Collections

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You can’t (yet) arrange van hire on eBay, but you may well need to hire a van if you have purchased one of the larger items for sale on eBay – a new sofa, garden furniture or a fridge-freezer, for example.

If you are shopping on eBay for anything that won’t obviously be posted, it is always worth checking what shipping methods the seller is offering before you make a bid. Some sellers will not ship at any price and will insist on collection only. Don’t be the kind of plonker who makes a winning bid and then realises that the item they have bought is Collection Only but they can’t collect it…

If the item you have bought is not too far away, hiring a van might be cheaper than using a courier or delivery service. These usually charge a per-mile rate – find out what’s on offer and compare it to the cost of hiring a van for a day, plus the cost of the diesel you will use. Fuel consumption on modern vans is pretty decent – even large vans will manage 30mpg on a long run, although short journeys and driving through town can be much worse.

Remember to check out the size of the item you need to collect and make sure the van you hire is big enough – but not too big. There’s no point in wasting money on a van that’s needlessly large.

All vans up to 3.5t (that’s almost all rental vans) can be driven on a regular car licence, although most hire companies have a minimum age requirement for van hire that’s somewhere between 21 and 25 – check before booking if this is an issue for you.

Europcar Introduces Sunday Opening At 60 Branches

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Europcar has announced that from September 2011, 60 of its UK branches will be open 7 days a week. The branches will be airport and city locations – 22 airports and 38 cities. Not all airport locations offer van hire but city locations normally do, so Europcar’s new opening hours will make them in a minority of UK van rental companies that offer Sunday opening hours.

Europcar Group UK Managing Director Ken McCall said:

“We have been trialling extended opening hours at selected locations over the last few months, with considerable success” added Ken McCall. “It therefore made perfect sense to roll out this service to more locations.”

Europcar’s move is certainly one that will offer great value to van rental customers – at present, weekend rentals usually mean exactly that – a Friday night or Saturday morning pickup followed by a Monday morning return. Being able to collect and return vehicles on Sundays will be very useful.

Update: Van hire branches with extended opening hours include Birmingham (Bristol Street), Leeds (Low Road), Bristol North (Berkley, Clifton) and Manchester (Oldham Road).

Last Night Of The Proms & Festival Minibus Hire

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It’s summer – and that means that people all over the UK have a sudden urge to do things outdoors that they would normally do indoors, like cooking, drinking and listening to live music.

If live music outdoors is your thing, you may be planning a trip to one of the year’s major outdoor music events – we’ve already had Glastonbury, but the BBC’s Proms in the Park is still to come, as are a load of other outdoor music events:

  • Leeds Festival & Reading Festival (26th – 28th August)
  • V Festival (20th-21st Augus, near Birmingham & Chelmsford)
  • Creamfields (26th August)
  • Bestival (8th September)
  • …plus the unmissable Wakefield Rock n Wrestle Festival!

Check out the UK Festival Calendar website for loads more info and ideas!

While I’m talking about BBC Proms in the Park, it’s worth noting that it is not just taking place in London‘s Hyde Park this year – concerts are also being put on in Dundee, Caerphilly and Bangor (just east of Belfast, not the Welsh one!).

There’s also a new ‘Last Night of the Proms’ taking place this year – at Scarborough‘s Open Air Theatre, which only opened in 2010 but has already played host to Elton John, Jose Carreras and N-DUBZ, amongst others. This year’s Last Night of the Proms will be a classical event starring opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Why not treat yourself to a weekend by the seaside?

Getting There

If you are planning to travel in a group to any of these events, then what you will probably need is to hire a minibus. (Unless you are playing at any of them, in which case you may need to hire a splitter van).

Hiring a minibus makes a lot more sense than taking two or three cars. Not only are you doing your bit to reduce traffic congestion going to the event (and thus reduce your queueing time), you will also spend less on fuel and only need to make sure that you have one driver who is sober and correct when the time comes to drive home – leaving everyone else free to carry on partying a  little longer…

If you are driving the minibus, don’t forget that it will not go under car park height barriers and it will be wider, slower through corners and need longer to brake than you may be used to. Apart from that, you shouldn’t find any major differences – modern vans and minibuses are very easy and pleasant to drive.

Are You Planning A Booze Cruise To France?

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The idea of crossing the channel to buy a load of cheap wine and beer does not seem as popular as it used too, but it is still done and can still make good sense, especially if you live close enough to Dover for an easy day trip and would like to buy a reasonable amount of wine.

You may be able to manage with a large car, but if you want to buy a reasonable amount – for a large wedding, party or family occasion – you may find that a car is not up to the job of carrying that much weight and you need to hire a van.

We have produced a ‘Booze Cruise Van Rental Guide‘ that covers all the things you need to know if you are planning a big wine or tobacco shopping trip. Here are our top tips:

  • Try to limit the maximum number of people to three – most vans seat three. Restricting your party to three people will leave plenty of payload free for wine and beer supplies – bottled drinks are surprisingly heavy.
  • A bottle of wine weighs around 1.2kg – so a box of 6 weighs about 7.5kg. Champagne and sparkling wine bottles weigh much more because the glass is thicker. If three of you are buying a lot, you may end up exceeding the maximum weight for your van.
  • Dover-Calais by ferry (90 minutes) is usually the cheapest way to cross the channel and there are lots of big supermarkets and wine warehouses near Calais (e.g. Pidou, although the (in)famous Eastenders has now closed)
  • Eurotunnel (Folkestone-Calais) is quicker, taking just 35 minutes – and Folkestone is slightly quicker to get to for most people
  • Remember that although there are theoretically no limits to how much alcohol or tobacco you can import from another EU country, customs will take an interest if you have a really huge amount. The current guidelines are:
  • 3,200 cigarettes
  • 200 cigars
  • 400 cigarillos
  • 3kg of tobacco
  • 110 litres of beer
  • 90 litres of wine
  • 10 litres of spirits
  • 20 litres of fortified wine (for example port or sherry)

Boozes cruises can still pay, although in reality the savings are not as big as they used to be five or ten years ago. The key is efficient planning and clubbing together – three people, three sets of purchases and one hire van can make the whole day seem very cheap!

Remember that not all van hire companies let you take vans abroad  – and it needs to be arranged in advance. Click here for our European van hire guide.

Surf’s Up! Time To Hit The Road In A VW Transporter

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Volkswagen Transporter SportlineIf you and some friends are heading down to Cornwall (or any of the other good surfing areas in the UK) to do some surfing, you may find that your normal wheels are not quite up to the job.

Either you won’t have enough space for you, your mates and your surf boards, or you just don’t want to turn up in your old Vectra – you want to live the dream with a VW Transporter.

The good news is that there are quite a few van rental companies that do offers VW vans – one vanrental.co.uk advertiser (near Dartford) only has VWs.

If you are planning to hire a van for a surfing trip and haven’t driven one before, check out our van driving tips – in short, remember that vans are wider, heavier and don’t handle as well as cars and have lower speed limits. That said, a VW Transporter is about the best-handling and most luxurious medium van you’ll find, so it you should still enjoy the drive.

Using A Van To Transport Scaffolding

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ScaffoldingAre you planning to hire a van for a small scaffolding job? Perhaps you are working on a self-build home or a holiday home renovation.

Scaffolding comes in a wide range of shapes and sizes and can be quite heavy. You definitely need to have a rough idea of what you will be transporting before you choose a hire van (or 7.5 tonne truck) to carry it; paying for delivery sometimes makes more sense.

Types of Scaffolding

There are two main types of scaffolding – conventional scaffolding and system scaffolding.

Put simply, conventional scaffolding is what scaffolding companies use – it is suitable for all jobs, can be built to almost any shape and size and is very strong and long-lasting. It is also requires skilled scaffolders to erect it – it is not DIY friendly if you don’t have any experience of scaffolding.

System scaffolding is designed for DIY use – it is a bit like the scaffolding equivalent of flat-pack furniture. You can buy it in kits and it comes with instructions! Most people working on self-build and DIY renovation projects will choose system scaffolding if they want to put up their own scaffolding – it is safer and easier.

This website sells both types of scaffolding and has lots of good information – it is well worth a read if you want to learn a bit about scaffolding from the experts.

What Size Van For Scaffolding?

Scaffolding tube comes in a variety of lengths.

Conventional scaffolding tube comes in various different lengths, up to 21ft (6.4m). The longest size that can be accommodated in an extra-long wheelbase panel van is 13ft (4m). If you do transport scaffolding this way, only do so in a van with a steel bulkhead and make sure you push the scaffolding tubes hard up against the bulk head. You don’t want the scaffolding tubes to come shooting forwards underneath you if you have to brake suddenly…

The size and weight of scaffolding tubes is why scaffolding for large jobs is always transported on a lorry, usually a 7.5 tonne dropside.

System scaffolding such as Kwikstage and Cuplok seems to come in shorter lengths. I think this is due to the modular way it is constructed. The longest lengths I have found are 12′ (3.6m) – so you should be able to load this into an extra-long wheelbase van without problems. Again, make sure you load the tubes so they are lying flat and are pushed up against the bulkhead.

Remember: If you are planning to transport scaffolding, make sure you understand its weight and dimensions accurately before arranging a hire van with suitable payload and loadspace dimensions. This article is provided for information purposes only and is not a definitive guide.

Click here for our guide to van sizes.

Volkswagen Launches New Crafter Van

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Volkswagen Crafter vanVolkswagen has just launched the new version of its Crafter van. The Crafter is VW’s largest van and has never been as popular in the UK as the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, despite the two vans being built in the same factory and being very nearly identical, except for having different engines.

The engine appears to be the biggest difference again – VW has replaced the 2.5TDi engine that was previously used in the Crafter with the same 2.0l, 4-cylinder engine that is used in the VW Transporter.

VW says that the engine has been retuned for use in the Crafter so that it provides more torque at lower engine speeds, reducing wear and tear and improving the driving experience. The new engine will be available with approximately the same power levels as the 2.5l unit it replaces – 109PS, 136PS, 143PS and 163PS.

Despite this, the engine will meet not just Euro V emissions standards but the EEV (Enhanced Environmentall Friendly Vehicles) standard, which is something of a halfway house between Euro V and Euro VI. VW says that in Bluemotion trim, the Crafter’s CO2 emissions will start from just 199g/km, very impressive for a large van.

Fleet News was impressed with the new Crafter when they drove it recently and it will be interesting to see if it makes any further headway against the Sprinter, especially in the van rental market.

VW’s official fuel consumption figures look impressive; the 109PS engine is expected to be the most popular and should provide an 11% improvement in fuel consumption on the outgoing model, according to VW’s figures for the combined cycle. Whether it will gain market share against the Sprinter and Iveco Daily is another question.

Volkswagen Crafter cab interior

The new Crafter's cab - a very nice place to spend time

Mercedes has a powerful brand advantage – the Sprinter’s reputation is legendary, as is the mileage some Sprinter engines reach. One concrete advantage the Sprinter has always had has been its low maintenance chain cam engine.

VW has always favoured a cambelt-driven engines meaning that the belt requires periodic replacement, as with most car engines. However, maintenance intervals keep getting longer on all vehicles and VW says that owners can opt to run the new Crafter on LongLife oil – meaning service intervals of up to 25,000 miles or 24 months, depending on how the van is used.

Update: In what is perhaps a deliberate move to try and break into the 3.5t fleet market currently dominated by the Sprinter, VW has announced that it will be making 80 Crafters available to large fleet customers for an extended six-month ‘try before you buy’ demo period. These vehicles will be in addition to VW dealer’s regular demo vans. Full details on Fleet News.

Taking A Van Abroad? Keep The Rear Doors Locked

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Illegal immigrants trying to smuggle themselves onto Channel ferries by climbing into lorries is old news – but the illegal immigrant problem goes further and can apply to vans, too.

Leaving aside the problem of drivers deliberately trying to smuggle people into the UK (like this recent case at Hull), anyone driving a big van or a luton should still take care to keep the rear doors locked at all times, even when they are in the vehicle.

I often see luton vans driving around with unlocked roller doors – this may be an acceptable risk in the UK, but I would not recommend it if you are anywhere near a ferry port. This does not just apply to Dover-Calais crossings, either – as the case above shows, immigrants are quite willing to endure a longer crossing such as Hull-Rotterdam and perhaps even the Portsmouth/Plymouth-Bilbao service. Someone with a half-full hire van driving back from Spain would make an ideal target.

If you are in a hired luton van with a roller door that has no lock (quite common), make sure you take your own padlock to keep it secure while you are using the van, especially if you are driving abroad. Remember that you will be responsible for whatever ends up in the van – whether it’s illegal people or illegal drugs. You may also want to protect your own possessions from being stolen!

Both Customs and the UK Border Agency seem to be increasingly active at ferry ports. I recently travelled to the continent on the Hull-Rotterdam crossing and my van was stopped by customs for an inspection on the way out. On the way back, we were sniffed by a sniffer dog before boarding at Rotterdam and when we arrived in Hull, we found that the UK Border Agency were having a field day and checking everyone’s vehicle details on the computer as they came off the ferry.

The UK Border Agency makes no secret of the range of facilities at their disposal – sniffer dogs, heartbeat monitors and CO2 detectors all form part of its armoury, especially at Dover, which is the main point of entry to the UK for illegal immigrants. I have also had my van checked over by sniffer dogs at Rotterdam and Bilbao before now, so the chance of detection is quite hig, whichever route you are travelling on.

The law generally holds the driver responsible for the contents of their vehicle, even if people or drugs have been smuggled into the vehicle without the driver knowing. The best protection is good security and an open pair of eyes – you don’t want to be the one that gets caught out.