Category Archives: Europcar 4 Vans

News and special offers from Europcar 4 Vans – Europcar’s specialist van hire division. One of the larger van rental companies in the UK.

Europcar Wins Green Award

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Car and van rental company Europcar has been named the World’s Leading Green Transport Solution Company at the 2008 World Travel Awards. It was also named World’s Leading Leisure Car Rental Company.

The World Travel Awards are the Oscars of the travel industry and awards are decided by the votes of 167,000 travel professionals worldwide – making them highly prestigious.

Last year, Europcar’s commitment to green issues made it the first company in Europe to be awarded the Bureau Veritas Green Charter. Bureau Veritas are the world leader in inspection and certification services for areas such as the environment, health and safety and quality.

Hourly Van Hire Increasingly Popular for Home Purchases

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The growth of eBay and the increasing popularity of DIY removals has created a growing market for hourly van hire – hiring a van by the hour, rather than by the (24 hour) day.

London-based hirers are already served by the Streetvan service but van hire customers elsewhere in the country don’t have many choices.

In fact, there is only one national contender – Europcar that I know of.

Europcar‘s DriveTime service offers hourly van hire from more than 250 UK locations. According to the company, hourly van hire starts from just £6.99 for a Transit-sized van and the maximum hire period is 8 hours – after which it is always cheaper to hire for a day.

To make an hourly van hire booking, simply specify the start and end times you would like when completing your quote – Europcar’s booking system will automatically find the cheapest solution for you. Europcar has recently increased the number of Luton vans with tail lifts in its fleet by 50% – making transporting large or heavy objects much easier than before.

However, loading and unloading goods from a van can be a short cut to back injuries and muscle strains, so to help customers make the most of their hire vans and stay safe, take a look at our tips for safely loading a van and remember to take car when lifting and seek assistance if you can’t manage on your own.

Here is some advice from Europcar on safely lifting and carrying heavy objects:

Assess the situation

· Test the weight of a large object by lifting a corner, can you lift the load safely by yourself or do you need help?

· If the load is too heavy or an awkward shape is it possible to break-down into smaller parts?

· Check how far you have to carry the load and if the path is clear of anything which may cause you to trip. Check that all doors have been opened in advance.

·  Once the load is lifted, will it block your view?

Correct lifting techniques for heavy items

· Before you lift a heavy object make sure you have a firm footing.

· Stand close to the object and centre yourself over it with your feet shoulder width apart, squat down to the ground.

· Before starting to lift make sure you have a good handhold.

· To lift, straighten your knees and rise from the ground in a smooth, steady motion. Concentrate on keeping your back straight and let your legs do the lifting. Tightening your stomach muscles will help to support your back.

· Never bend your back to pick something up.

· Once upright do not twist or turn your body, keep your head up and look straight ahead. Focusing upwards will help to keep your back straight.

Carrying the load

· Hold the object close to your body and keep it steady with your arms bent, the further the object is from your body the heavier it will feel.

· Keep your feet about shoulder width apart, take short steps and move slowly.

· Change direction by turning your feet and once facing in the right direction continue to move forward.

· If you are straining or feel tired set the load down and rest for a few minutes.

· To lower the object, once again position your feet shoulder width apart, tighten stomach muscles and lower to the ground by bending your knees in a smooth and steady action. Only release your grip when the load is securely set down upon a firm surface.

Europcar Boosts Eco Credentials with E.ON Deal

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Europcar has won a new contract to be the exclusive suppler of rental vehicles to energy company E.ON.

The deal requires Europcar to supply only cars with rated carbon emissions of below 120g/m2 or 140g/m2. By doing this E.ON will be able to verifiably reduce their corporate carbon footprint and meet their stated environmental targets.

E.ON will also benefit from Europcar’s pan-European presence. Europcar also owns the National and Alamo brands in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle-East and Africa) and has a total of 5,600 branches in 160 countries. The company’s fleet exceeds 215,000 vehicles.

Europcar Selling Cheap Fuel For Rental Customers

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With most car hire and van rental companies, customers are charged a penalty fee for returning vehicles with insufficient fuel in. They are then charged an inflated per-litre rate for the fuel required to top up the vehicle’s tank.

Now that might be fair enough – after all they should have filled up – but Europcar have come up with a much better solution that will save customers both time and money when it comes to refuelling.

Anyone hiring a car or van for more than 3 days who thinks they will use a whole tank of fuel will be given the option of paying for a full tank of fuel at the beginning of the rental at 3p per litre under the average high street price. I’m not sure how they calculate the ‘average high street price’ but this certainly sounds like a cost-effective, pragmatic view to refuelling charges.

It certainly compares well to a recent experience I had with another very large, international car and van hire company (who shall remain nameless).

Their fuel policy was the normal ‘return it with the same amount of fuel it had when you picked it up’. Fair enough, except that the vehicle was running on fumes when I collected it, so to avoid giving fuel away that I’d paid for, I had to somehow manage to return it with the needle buried right in the red, too…

Europcar Introduces Home Delivery Service

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Leading UK van hire company Europcar has introduced a home delivery service for all car and van hire customers.

The service costs just £10 for delivery/collection points within 5 miles of the nearest Europcar office. Locations further than 5 miles away will incur an additional charge of £1.25 per mile for each mile thereafter (one way).

Given that Europcar has 250 branches throughout the UK, the company reckon that there is a Europcar branch within an average of 20 minutes of all UK addresses.

Europcar Adds 50% More Luton Tail Lift Vans – Thanks to Credit Crunch

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Car and van rental giant Europcar has increased the number of Luton tail lift vans it has available by 50%. Tail lifts are invaluable when loading and unloading heavy objects and often enable the driver to manage single-handedly and avoid any heavy lifting.

The new vans are the result of a 15% increase in consumer van rental seen by Europcar over the last year. Hiring a van for DIY moves or deliveries and collections is a popular way to save money and Europcar Marketing Director Catriona Lougher is convinced that the credit crunch is responsible for the increased popularity of van hire:

With the slowdown in the economy, homeowners need to watch their pockets.  The increase in van rentals certainly seems to indicate a savvy attitude to this slowdown … Renting a van for a few hours is often far more cost-effective than having items delivered and with the popularity of sales on auction sites, it’s a great way to transport a ‘bargain’ home.

Europcar is one of the largest van hire companies in the UK, with a combined fleet of more than 6,000 hire vans across 250 UK locations. Click here to find your nearest rental location and get an online quote.

Europcar Makes Accidents Less Stressful

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Having an accident is always a stressful and difficult event. Having one in a rental van can be even worse – you can end up unsure about who to contact and worried about receiving a huge bill for damage from your hire company.

Europcar have understood this and introduced a new service for UK customers that aims to simplify and de-stress accidents and breakdowns. First Call provide a single number to contact in the event of accident or breakdown – and ensure that everything necessary, including claims paperwork, is handled quickly and efficiently.

The First Call service is already offered by National Van Rental and Europcar say that they hope it will result in more customers reporting minor accidents straight away – rather than leaving it until they return the vehicle, making claims more difficult.

Europcar4 Vans & National Van Rental – Same Branch Addresses?

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I had an email the other day from a visitor to this site who was puzzled as to why the National and Europcar van hire branches in the location she’d chosen (Sheffield) had the same addresses.

As this is a common question, I thought I would answer it here as well as emailing her back.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of consolidation within the global car rental industry. One of the changes that has taken place is that Europcar UK Group own the National brand in the UK.

What this means is that the two companies have decided to combine their rental fleets and some of their branches. The result is a combined van fleet of 6000 vehicles and 250 locations across the UK – and 60,000 cars in the UK. In some locations, branches have been combined for efficiency and both companies now list branch offices with the same address.

Sheffield is just one example of this. A few others are Stoke on Trent, Aberdeen and Brighton – but there are many more.

Although the branches are the same, each company still operates its own pricing structure and has slightly different rental policies. This means it is always worth getting a quote from both Europcar and National – don’t assume they will be the same price, as they probably won’t be!

Van Hire Deals From Europcar & National Van Rental

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As the winter weather finally starts to show signs of receding, I wanted to take a few minutes to remind you about some of the special deals and offers our van hire partners National and Europcar are currently providing.

National Van Rental

  • Free Additional Driver on all van rentals
  • GPS units for hire at selected branches

National’s ‘Free Additional Driver’ special offer is currently in full swing. It’s a great deal, allowing you to have a second driver on every van rental for no additional charge.

An additional driver usually costs £7.27 per day when hiring a van from National, so this really is a money saver on top of their already competitive rates.

National are also one of the first major car and van hire companies in the UK to introduce the option of hiring a GPS (satellite navigation) unit with your car or van. At present, GPS units are only available for hire from National’s Heathrow, Gatwick, Oxford, Kings Cross and Marble Arch branches.

Europcar

  • Great rates on one-way van hire
  • Discounted mid-week van hire
  • Hourly van hire

Europcar is one of Europe’s largest car and van hire companies, with a fleet of 6,000 vans in the UK alone. It is also still the only major van hire company in the UK to offer van hire by the hour.

Hourly van hire can work out really well if you only need a van for an hour or two – to collect some furniture, for example – saving you the cost and hassle of having to do a daily rental.

Europcar also currently have a fantastic mid-week van hire deal – with daily rates starting from just £22.50 a day from selected locations

(Currently available at Aberdeen City, Aberdeen Airport, Carlise, Dundee City, Edinburgh City, Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow Gity, Glasgow Airport, Inverness City, Inverness Airport, Teeside Airport, Newcastle Airport).

To book hourly van hire or mid-week van hire, visit Europcar’s website now.

Any mention of Europcar wouldn’t be complete without discussing their superb one-way van hire deal. The truth is that although one-way van hire is extremely useful for renters, it’s an expensive pain in the neck for van rental companies – who end up with their hire vans in all the wrong places!

That’s why most companies charge a huge extra fee for one-way hire – often £200+.

Europcar, on the other hand, have managed to put together a special deal that lets you have one-way van hire for an extra charge of just £24.99.

There are some conditions – the rental must be between 8am Monday and 4pm Thursday, it only applies to panel vans (not Lutons) and I’m not sure whether it’s available between all rental branches.

However, it’s still a great offer – if you need one-way van hire, it’s well worth getting a quote from Europcar to see whether you are eligible for this deal.

Europcar Introduces Carbon Offset Scheme

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Europcar is introducing a scheme later this year that will allow rental customers to offset the carbon emissions caused by their rental.

The scheme will be voluntary and the rental giant – who handle more than 10 million rentals each year across Europe – expect around 5% of customers to opt in. Customers will have to pay for the service, although charges have not yet been announced.Europcar Van Hire UK

Europcar Group’s chief executive officer, Salvatore Catania, said that the scheme “will be rolled out to all countries” and “is not a marketing tool, it is part of a 10 year commitment we have shown to the environment.”