Tag Archives: van rental

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.

Van Rental Location Guide: 2012 London Olympics

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As promised in my recent article about the London 2012 Olympic Route Network, this article will provide a guide to the venues being used for London 2012 Olympic events.

These fall into two categories – in London and out of London.

London Olympic Venues

London venues will be at the heart of the Olympic games and will undoubtedly draw the largest numbers of visitors – often to areas that are already busy with tourists for much of the year.

Knowing where the busy venues are and planning your van rental requirements well ahead of time will be essential if your business (or personal) activities are to remain on schedule and not be disrupted by poor van availability or traffic chaos. Here’s a list of London venues and nearby London van hire locations:

Olympic Venues Outside London

Away from London, the Olympic venues are more widely spread out. Here’s the run down:

For full details of all London 2012 venues, visit the official website.

Back To University? Save On Van Hire With VanRental.co.uk

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Student hat and degree scrollIt’s that time of year again when thousands of students across the UK need to move themselves – and their belongings – back to their university accommodation for the start of the new academic year.

Very often, this involves parents hiring a van and shuttling their children’s belongings back to their university accommodation.

Although some companies do cater for younger drivers (see our Student Van Hire page), van hire is not generally available for drivers under the age of 21. In addition, one-way van hire is usually considerably more expensive than returning the hire van to the original rental branch.

All of this means that parents are often called upon to hire a van, drive it to the university, and then drive it back again.

If your child is about to head back to university and you’ve got a transport headache, here are a few suggestions:

  • Why not share the cost of a hire van with one of your child’s friends who’s heading in the same direction?
  • Check out our exclusive Sixt van hire discount  – hire a large panel van for just £29 per day until 15th October 2011 (selected locations).
  • If your child’s university is a long way from home, why not consider self storage for bulky items next year? Self storage pioneer Big Yellow has stores in 74 UK locations and even provides free van hire for local moves! What’s left for the summer should easily fit in your car.
If you are worried about driving a van, don’t be. Modern vans are surprisingly easy to drive and the majority of your journey will probably be on motorway and A-roads, meaning that you don’t have to worry about width too much. Take a look at our van driving tips for more help.

Sixt Discount Voucher: Hire Any Van For £29 Per Day [EXPIRED]

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** THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED **

Hire any van for just £29 per day* with our Sixt Discount Code EXCLUSIVE to vanrental.co.uk!

We’ve managed to negotiate a special voucher code for Sixt van hire that is only available when you click through from vanrental.co.uk.

This great discount enables you to rent any van for just £29 per day from participating locations – a saving of up to £10 per day on Sixt’s usual van hire rates.

This exclusive vanrental.co.uk discount is available at the following Sixt locations:

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)
  • Only available at the locations listed
  • Max. rental period 3 days (Need longer? Click here)
  • Valid Monday – Thursday only
  • Excludes Minibuses, Luton, Dropside & Tipper vans (click here for these)
  • Valid until 15th October 2011

Click here for discount van hire from Sixt - only available from vanrental.co.uk

This voucher code is only available through vanrental.co.uk and is valid for the locations above until 15th October 2011.

This offer has now expired.

Sixt.co.uk

*Terms and conditions apply. See Sixt website for more details (Click here for terms and conditions)

Van Hire Shortage Likely During London Olympics

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The London 2012 Olympics are less than a year away now and van hire companies throughout London and the South East are expecting to experience a peak in demand for daily van rental before, during and after the games.

Business demand is likely to be especially high, as businesses such as couriers, catering suppliers, companies supporting the Olympic infrastructure (think electricity, television, catering, hospitality, athlete and staff transport), shops and restaurants all experience additional demand for their services.

In addition to this, business will have to deal with the disruption and limited access resulting from the Olympic Route Network (ORN). vanrental.co.uk understand that the ORN will be a network of lane closures on roads linking Olympic venues – the closed lanes will be used to ensure that athletes and games personnel can make their way between locations efficiently and to a reliable schedule. It will, of course, have the opposite effect on local businesses and deliveries…

The ORN is another reason to expect an increase in demand for van hire – some businesses may have to reschedule their delivery activities into non-Olympic hours – meaning additional vans will be required at certain times of day. For example, some businesses might decide to carry out all delivery operations at night, rather than distributing them evenly throughout the day.

You can full details of the ORN and travel advice for businesses here, on the London 2012 website.

Tips For Businesses

If your business operates in London or the south-east, then you need to start planning your van hire requirements now. If you believe you will need additional van capacity then vanrental.co.uk would strongly advise that you book vans well in advance.

You may have to run the risk of having too much capacity – but having an empty rental van for one day will probably have less impact on your bottom line than being short of a van for one day…

Tips For Individuals

Demand for van hire traditionally peaks during summer months anyway – both individuals and businesses often find they need additional van hire in July and August. It is a popular time to move house and for other sporting, musical and DIY activities that all require hire vans.

Although the Olympics will not cause individual demand for van hire to increase, high business demand for hire vans will mean that individual renters will need to plan further ahead than usual if they do not wish to be disappointed.

What’s Next? In an upcoming post, we will list all of the Olympic locations in London and the South East. Olympic events are taking place over a wide area and the impact of these on van rental companies and other local businesses will be high, even outside London.

Charity Cyclists Hire Van After Train Won’t Take Bikes

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When I wrote about the upcoming Tour of Britain recently, I forgot about a more obvious use for van hire in the cycling world – one-way van hire after one-way bike rides. Although a more obvious solution for getting home after a long journey is a train, taking bicycles on a train can require careful planning, especially if you are in a group – as Sunderland charity cyclist Fraser Kennedy recently found out.

Fraser had just finished the ultimate one-way bike ride in the UK; Land’s End to John O’Groats. Having done all the legwork and raised £2,500 for charity, he was looking forward to a relaxing journey home by rail.

Unfortunately, ScotRail had other plans and refused to allow several members of his party on board because they had not made cycle reservations. ScotRail apparently requires bike reservations on long-distance journeys, including all journeys between Wick, Thurso and Inverness.

The end result for poor old Fraser was that he had to find a van hire company in Inverness who could rent him a van (one way) to complete his journey back to Sunderland, resulting in a lot of extra cost and frustration.

The moral of the story is that Britain’s railways do not welcome cyclists in the way they did when all trains had guard vans. If you want to travel any distance by rail in the UK, make sure you plan it carefully and make the appropriate reservations along the way.

8 Top Reason To Hire A Van

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Whether you are a private individual or a business, there are plenty of good reasons to hire a van instead of buying or leasing one (or using an unsuitable car):

Here are our top 10 reasons to rent a van:

  1. Less wear and tear on your own car – why scuff up the interior of a decent car for the sake of a £40 van rental?
  2. Easier to load than a car if you’re moving large objects – large, flat floor and wide-opening doors.
  3. Gives you the opportunity to try a vehicle before buying it – can’t decide between a Transit and a Trafic or a Combo and a Caddy? (sorry, I couldn’t resist it…)
  4. Many rental companies will now collect you from your home or workplace and take you to their branch to collect the van – so you don’t need your own transport at all.
  5. You need a van for a few months, you aren’t sure how long: Long-term van rental is often very competitively priced and avoids the commitment of a lease or contract purchase plan. Many hire companies (like Europcar) offer long-term hire, but consider services like Norflex, too.
  6. Your van broke down / was pranged yesterday and you have a busy schedule today: Hired vans are the perfect way to provide cover at short notice for fleet vehicles while they are repaired or serviced.
  7. Hiring a van can be cheaper than paying for delivery of an item or using a ‘man & van’ service.
  8. You are a small business that need to make deliveries – but not every day. Idle vans cost nearly as much as busy vans to run – so think carefully about whether you actually need a dedicated, full-time van. Many hire companies will be very flexible to met the need of regular business customers.

I’m sure there are loads more reasons than this – if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Upcoming Events: British Superbike Championships

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I was at Oliver’s Mount race track in Scarborough recently and saw some great real road motorbike and sidecar racing. I’ve been to quite a bit of motor racing over the years and have always enjoyed it – although my all-time favourite was truck racing, which I once saw at Thruxton (just west of Andover) a few years ago.

If you have never been to any motor racing before, you’ll find that most of the UK’s circuits are rural affairs, many of which were once airfields – for obvious reasons, these have converted quite well to motor racing circuits over the years and are now firmly established in UK and global motorsport calendars (Silverstone and Brands Hatch in particular).

Anyway, my appetite has been whetted for some more two-wheeled action this summer, so I took a look at the British Superbike Championship schedule for the rest of the season.

There are only four rounds remaining this year:

  • 27-29 Aug: Cadwell Park (near Louth, Lincolnshire)
  • 9-11 Sept: Donington Park (J24 M1, 6 miles south-east of Derby)
  • 23-25 Sept: Silverstone Arena (about 12 miles south of Northampton)
  • Season finale 7-9 Oct: Brands Hatch (near Swanley & Dartford)

The BSB is the premier UK motorcycle circuit racing championship and has some seriously talented riders, many of whom have ridden or will ride in the World Superbike Championships. Superbikes are highly modified versions of regular road bikes like the Honda Fireblade and Ducati 1198, so they are real enough to identify with but exotic enough to be seriously fast.

Van & Minibus Hire

If you are entering any of these races or working in any of the catering or retail stalls at the event, it is not too late to book a hire van to transport your bike or gear to the race. Similarly, if you are planning to go to the race with a group of friends, you could hire a minibus to cut down on fuel costs and enable all but one of you to enjoy a few beers with your racing!

Upcoming Events: Tour Of Britain 2011 (11/09-18/09)

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Hot on the heels of this year’s exciting Tour de France (we were backing Europcar‘s Thomas Voeckler – 10 days in the yellow jersey) comes this year’s Tour of Britain, which takes place from the 11th to the 18th of September.

Its eight stages and British terrain may seem pretty middling after the brutal challenges of the Pyrenees and the Alps, but the Tour of Britain still manages to encompass three of the UK’s four countries (missing out Northern Ireland) and covers some great scenery, including the Scottish Borders (the first stage is from Peebles – Dumfries) and parts of Devon, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, and central Wales.

Although the race is now close, it is not too late to book either minibus hire or van rental for all or part of the Tour – whether you are competing, supporting the riders, volunteering, or just spectating with like-minded friends.

Here are the start and finish locations of each stage to help you work out your requirements (remember, we can offer van and minibus hire in almost all of these locations):

For full details on all the stages in the race, the teams and how you can volunteer, visit the Tour of Britain website.