Category Archives: Van Hire News

News and special offers from other UK van hire and rental companies.

Save Money With Hourly Van Hire

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Sometimes you don’t need a van for a whole day – just a couple of hours.

Despite this, with most hire companies you have to pay for a whole day’s hire – even if you return the van early.

Europcar’s hourly van hire service is designed to solve this problem by enabling you to rent vans by the hour.

Vans can be hired for up to 8 hours, after which daily van hire becomes cheaper. Most of Europcar’s UK van hire locations offer hourly van hire and there is a minimum charge of £14.12. It’s available on weekdays only, up until noon on Friday.

Hourly van hire must be booked online – to make a reservation, go to the Europcar4Vans website and select the location, date and times you want your van for, then proceed as normal with the booking.

That’s it! Your rental will automatically be charged as an hourly van hire if it is short enough and  (as long as the location you have chosen offers this service – most do).

Is Your Load Secure? It Should Be

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Let me tell you a story about a low speed head on collision involving a loaded van. The front of the van did its job and the occupants were safe. But only through luck. In the rear, the situation wasn’t so good. One object at the back of the van (a water container weighing around 25kg) was not properly secured.

It came hurtling towards the front of the van in the crash, damaging or destroying everything in its path (mostly wooden furniture and plastic storage crates. There was more damage in the back of the van there there was in the front – thanks to a single item in the load that was not properly secured.

Fortunately, the van had a bulkhead that stopped the water container from continuing its journey into the front part of the van.

The lesson here is basic physics – the power of momentum. The force needed to stop a moving object is considerable – and that includes restraining your load when you stop, start and corner.

To learn about loading your van securely when moving house, have a look at our “How to load your hire van” guide. It’s not rocket science but it is important.

Save Money with Hourly Van Rental

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According to Europcar, ‘nesting’ – staying in and carrying out home improvement – is the latest trend among cash-strapped Brits. I don’t know about that – I thought that home improvement was pretty old hat – but I do know that renting a van by the hour or being able to do can save you a lot of money and hassle.

You can hire a van with Europcar from just £5.99 per hour for a car-derived van and £6.99 per hour for a larger, Ford Transit-sized van (for a guide to van types and sizes, click here).

Hourly van hire is available from 0800 Monday – 1200 Friday each week – as vans need to be available for weekend hires. To get an hourly van hire quote from Europcar, click here and then enter your required times.

P.S. If you’re thinking of hiring a van to move house yourself, why not download our free DIY Removals guide?

It covers everything you need to know to hire a van and move your possessions safely – without breakages or the cost of a professional removals service.

Van Hire in Dublin & Cork

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easyVan at Silverstone with StelioseasyVan has just opened three new branches in Ireland – in Dublin and Cork.

easyVan is one of the most popular and fast growing van rental businesses in the UK. Its van hire broker business has proved remarkably successful, taking advantage of Northgate and other rental companies’ established branch networks to build a retail-focused, 160-branch van hire offering.

easyVan has now expanded further with two new branches in Dublin and Cork. The move into the Republic of Ireland means that easyVan’s reliable and affordable service is now available outside the UK.

The two new locations are:

  • Dublin: 38, Rosemount Business Park, Ballycoolin
  • Cork: Advance Pitstop, Little Island and Advance Pitstop, Togher Industrial Estate

We’re working on a way of expanding our van hire directory to include Ireland as well as the UK – until that happens, you can get quotes for these new locations by going directly to easyVan’s website.

Update: We’ve now added both Dublin and Cork to our van hire locations database. You can find branches in the Dublin and Cork area by searching for van hire at those locations or you can visit the location pages for these cities:

New Survey Highlights Big Opportunity for Van Hire Companies

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We’ve already seen large van hire companies forecasting that they will do well out of the economic downturn. They expect businesses to shun buying and leasing vans in favour of more flexible van rental deals.

[Update: Here’s another van rental company predicting the same]

Now it’s time to examine the current reality.

A new survey of UK van owners by the Department for Transport has found that just 12% of vans are leased or hired – with almost 90% owned outright by businesses or individuals. Of these, 59% are owned by businesses and 28% owned by private individuals (presumably including sole traders).

Of the owned vehicles, 53% were purchased second hand and 46% new. That makes sense – intuitively it seems likely that most vans will have one or two secondhand owners after their new owner – but probably not more than this, on average.

What does this mean for van hire companies?

While 12% may seem like a small proportion, it is a small slice of a very large pie. In 2007, there were 3.2 million licensed light goods vehicles (vans) in the UK. 12% of 3.2m is 384,000 – enough vans to keep a lot of lease and hire companies in business.

The DfT report didn’t mention the split between short-term rental and leased vans, but it’s probably a reasonable assumption that lease or contract hire vehicles form the bulk of the 12%, with short-term rentals taking a minority share.

I believe that the van hire companies are right in predicting strong business during the downturn – especially if they can provide the cost-effective, low risk flexibility that businesses will want and need.

With credit in short supply in the UK, rental companies who are able to facilitate the removal of multi-year vehicle leases and finance deals from a company’s books by offering flexible short-term rental services should attract new customers.

Companies who are lucky enough to own their vehicles outright might also be attracted by the possibility of reducing their fleet size and overheads and benefiting from increased liquidity instead – perhaps using this to fund areas of credit shortfall.

I don’t believe anyone (me included) can really predict how the economy will pan out over the next couple of years. However,  I do believe that flexibility and the ability to cost-effectively scale operations up and down will be an essential ingredient in the tool kits of businesses that survive.

Van hire should be able to play a part in this for many UK businesses.

What do you think?

Van Rental Increasingly Popular As Recessions Bites

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Van Hire firms are reporting strong business as the UK economy moves into recession.

According to several major van rental companies, rentals are up and durations and frequency are increasing, as many businesses start considering short-term van hire as a serious alternative to owning or leasing vans.

As uncertainty over future business prospects increases, the attractions of on-demand van hire with no future financial commitments are also increasing. Van operators are choosing to delay replacing vehicles or even to sell their fleet and rent when necessary instead.

Ian Lawrence, Managing Director of van rental firm Sixt, says that the company has already seen customers saying that “they’re thinking of cashing in their fleets and want to rent a CV from us on a long-term basis.” He also comments that renters are “returning vehicles immediately after the job is done” – a sentiment echoed by Chris Sharp of Burnt Tree, who says that “over the last three months we’ve seen a marked increase in the number of enquiries regarding flexible fleet arrangements”.

Source: RoadTransport.com

One-Way Van Hire to Spain – Specialist Van Rental Services

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Hiring a van to move to Spain may not be an everyday requirement for most people – but it is a service that’s become increasingly in demand over the last 10 years or so.

Spain is not only one of the most popular holiday destinations for Brits – it’s also perhaps the most popular country to relocate to. Thousands of Britons of all ages move to Spain every year – and many of them want to do the move themselves, with a hired van.

The only problem is they don’t want to have to bring it back again, afterwards.

That’s where one-way van hire between the UK and Spain comes in. The two companies I know of who operate this service both maintain rental offices in the UK and in Spain – in the Alicante / Costa Blanca regions, which are most popular with British expatriates.

This allows you to pickup a UK-registered hire van in the UK, load it up with your possessions, drive to Spain and hand the van back somewhere close to your new home. The system works because there are also a similar number of people needing to hire a van from Spain to the UK. The result is reasonable daily rates, no catches and a really useful service.

There are two companies I know of who offer this service:

On our van hire to Spain page, you will find full details of the locations, vans and services offered by each of these companies. They both offer similar services and charge similar rates, so in truth your choice might be dictated by which has the more convenient branch locations for you.

If you need to hire a van to move to Spain then it is definitely worth getting a quote from each of these companies.

Regular rental companies – even those that let you take vans abroad – won’t let you drop off their vans abroad. You normally have to return hire vehicles to the country in which they were rented – not much good when you have just moved house 1,000 miles away.

J-Hire and Way2Go Hire are unique (as far as I know) in offering a one-way van hire service between Spain and the UK – so take a look here if you are planning to move to Spain.

Van Rental Increasingly Popular for Longer Periods

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Tightening credit availability and uncertain economic times are having an effect on the way businesses hire vans, according to GE-owned TLS Vehicle Rental. In an article in Fleet News, major UK B2B van rental companies TLS and Northgate have confided that companies are turning to them to hire vans where they might previously have bought or leased them.

By owning fewer commercial vehicles and renting for longer periods, customers are able to reduce their liabilities and gain increased flexibility – if a van isn’t required for a couple of weeks, it can go back to the hire company and will cost the business nothing.

According to Carl D’Ammassa, TLS’ Chief Operating Officer, having “no long term financial commitment” is one of the “key benefits” of renting. He says that the ability to “hand back the vehicle at any time” is “very attractive” to many businesses in “tough economic times”.

Ross Clarkson, Marketing Director of Northgate, the UK’s largest van rental company, echoed the sentiment of D’Ammassa’s comments, telling Fleet News that they are seeing companies “that would have outright purchased their vehicles” switching to rental. Customers are attracted by the flexibility of van rental and are also being discouraged from buying by difficulties securing credit.

Of course, van rental has always had a number of benefits – not least a lack of responsibility for maintenance, repair or replacement of hire vehicles. When a rented van needs replacing or repairing, the van rental company will arrange this automatically and provide a suitable alternative, resulting in near-seamless vehicle availability without any hassle.

See Fleet News for more details.

Green Van Hire Gets ‘Easy’ with Northgate Vehicle Hire

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Reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions are undoubtedly the big issues of the moment for most van owners.

While motorway warriors might already enjoy decent mpg figures, historically it has never been so easy for vans used on urban work to reduce their fuel consumption. Idling time – whether at traffic lights or in queues – wastes terrific amounts of fuel.

The Mercedes-Benz ECO-Start system is designed to address this and one of the first vehicles to benefit from it is the company’s award-winning new Sprinter range. ECO-Start is now being fitted as standard to all 4-cylinder, manual Sprinters and it has now made its way into the rental market, courtesy of leading van hire company Northgate Vehicle Hire.

The Northgate name might not be familiar to you, but one of the companies they supply with hire vehicles is easyVan – and the new ECO-Start Sprinters are being trialled at three easyVan branch locations.

The trial locations are:

Mercedes state that the ECO-Start system can reduce fuel consumption by up to 10% – but trials in Commercial Motor and Motor Transport magazines have produced far bigger savings – of up to 30%, according to BigLorryBlog (penned by Commercial Motor editor Brian Weatherley).

I expect that the ECO-Start system will be a big hit with fleet and rental buyers – once it proves its long-term reliability and van drivers get used to the idea of the engine stopping and starting on its own! If you’re keen to try one out, then get in touch with one of the Northgate branches listed above or head over to your nearest Mercedes-Benz van dealer for a test drive.

New Flexible Van Hire Service Launches In London

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An innovative new van hire service has launched in London. Streetvan is an extension of the popular and successful Streetcar service, which provides unmanned 24/7/365 car hire from a wide range of locations in London.

The way the service works is simple – you register to become a user and then have access to Streetvan’s fleet of VW Transporters, which are kept parked in reserved parking spaces in more than 50 locations around London.

You can make bookings on Streetvan’s website or over the phone and bookings can be made anything from 60 seconds to six months in advance. Collections and drop offs can be at anytime – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – unlike conventional hire services, as the collection/drop off process is completely automated and unmanned.

Each registered user has a smartcard that enables them to unlock the vans and deactivate their immobilisers – keys are kept in the glove box as they are no use without the Streetvan member’s smartcard and PIN.

Van rental rates start from £8.95 an hour and you can rent a van for anything from 1 hour to 6 months. Streetvan even permit vans to be taken abroad (unlike many rental companies), although this does incur extra charges.

Hourly van rental can be a boon for picking up eBay purchases or large items from shops – the only downside is that Streetvan is only available in London!

If you need hourly van hire outside London, the only company I know of that offers this service is Europcar — visit our hourly van hire page for more information.