People hire vans for all kinds of reasons, but many of them relate to moving house or to business-related moves where the destination is a long way from the starting point.

This can make it expensive and inconvenient — or sometimes impossible — to return your rented van to the location you collected it from.

You can get an instant quote for one-way van hire on our dedicated page, but in this post, I’d like to explain a little more about how this works — and the extra costs you may need to be aware of.

Do all companies offer this service?

Not all companies allow one-way van hire, even if they have a national network of branches. One reason for this is that some companies, such as Sixt, use franchised branches in most areas of the UK. This means that the branches are not owned or directly operated by Sixt — they are really independent businesses who are hooked in to Sixt’s booking system.

Naturally, as independent hire companies, they need to keep control of their own vans, and cannot allow them to be dropped off at another company’s branch, somewhere else in the UK.

Who does offer one-way van hire?

If you want one-way van hire, your best bet is with a company that has a UK-wide network of corporate branches.

In our experience, the best choices in the UK are Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty. Each of these companies has 90 more UK branches and will usually allow you to pick up a van at one branch and return it at another location, as long as you specified this when you made your booking.

The other good thing about all four of these companies is that the one-way fee is included in your online quote — at least they were, when I tried some test quotes today.

How much will it cost?

Unfortunately, one-way hire fees (sometimes referred to as drop-off fees) vary widely. Companies sometimes charge different rates depending on the drop-off and pick-up locations, or the distance between them. Additional fees sometimes apply for locations within London, too.

The best approach is to use the our one-way booking engine, and then click through to the hire company’s website to check that everything you want is included in the quote. Remember that online rates are often only valid for online bookings — walk-in and phone bookings can cost most.

Any question? Drop us an email, tweet us @vanrentaluk, visit our Facebook page or leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to help.

Make sure you save money on van hire buy checking how much extras such as an additional driver, or sat nav hire, will cost, before you make your booking. The cheapest basic hire rate isn’t always the cheapest total cost.

Extra costs can be a minefield when hiring a vehicle, transforming a cheap daily rental rate into an expensive experience.

One common requirement is for an additional driver; not all drivers are used to driving long journeys, and even if you are, doing a long journey in a large, unfamiliar van can be much more tiring than making the same trip in your car.

(If it’s your first time driving a van, check out our ‘Driving A Van’ guide).

For this reason, having an additional driver is always a popular option for van hire customers — but it isn’t always obvious is how much this may cost.

On vanrental.co.uk we list a number of different hire companies, including seven well-known international hire companies and two major brokers which offer national coverage.

I’ve had a look at how much each charges for an additional driver, and the differences are surprising!

How much for an additional driver?

Remember, each company charges different daily van hire rates, too, so the cheapest additional driver fee isn’t necessarily the cheapest overall.

However, let’s take a look at the fees charged for an additional driver by some of the UK’s biggest van hire operators*:

• Europcar: FREE
• Thrifty: £5.50 per day (maximum 10 days charged)
• Sixt: £8.99 per day
• Hertz: £12 per day (maximum 10 days charged)
• Argus Car Hire (broker): £varies depending on which hire company the van is booked with

Which company offers the cheapest total rental costs? It’s impossible to say, I’m afraid, but these figures may give you some indication of what to expect when comparing rental rates with our price comparison engine.

Other extras will vary

You may not need to have an additional driver, but there’s a good chance you will want another optional extra.

Perhaps you’ll be travelling on your own and would rather hire a sat nav to help with the navigation — or maybe your passenger will be a young child, who needs a child seat?

I’m afraid that in every case, charges vary between companies vary, and the only way to get a precise, all-inclusive quotation is to click through to each rental company’s website and complete a full quotation.

Sorry, but that’s the way it is — and anyone who tells you otherwise may not be being completely honest with you.

I’ll take a closer look at the cost of sat nav and child seat hire in future posts — stay tuned for more information.

*All figures were checked at the time of writing in July 2013, but these may be subject to change vanrental.co.uk and the author take no responsibility for any errors, omissions or future changes. Please check yourself before booking.

Daily van rental is usually charged for on a 24-hour basis. So if you collect your van at 9am on day one, and return it by 9am the next day, you pay for one day’s hire.

Unfortunately, if you pick-up a hire van at 9am and return it at 10am, you still pay for a fully day’s hire.

Similarly, if you collect your van after work at 5pm, and return it first thing the next morning, you still pay for a full day’s hire.

More flexibility?

The thing about van hire is that people only hire a van when they need to. It’s not like hiring a car for a weekend away — when you need a van, you may need it at any time of the day or night, and you don’t want to pay a penny more than necessary. 

For example, what about those times when you need to pick-up some furniture from Ikea on a Saturday afternoon, or pick-up a big eBay purchase one evening?

Perhaps you’re in a band and only need a van in the evenings, when you’re travelling to gigs that you fit around your day job?

The good news is that things are improving and that companies are starting to offer genuinely flexible services. Here’s an overview of what’s available:

Overnight Van Hire

If you want to hire a van overnight — say from 5pm to 9am — then Europcar is your best bet.

Europcar is Europe’s largest car and van hire firm and now offers overnight van hire from just £29* at most of its UK branches.

The deal is simple — collect the vehicle after 5pm and return it before 9am (if you return it after 9am, you’ll be charged a full day’s hire costs).

To learn more about overnight van hire from Europcar, click here.

Hourly Van Hire

The other common problem with daily van rental is that you may only need the van for an hour or two. This often means you have no choice but to pay for a 24-hour hire, despite  only needing the van for a small fraction of that time.

It’s worth noting that almost all hire companies will let you book a van for a few hours — or even one hour — but in most cases, you will be charged for a full day’s hire, regardless. You won’t explicitly be told about this — the company’s booking engine will just quote you a price that’s the same as the daily rate.

The best option we know of for standard hourly van hire is Europcar.

Europcar currently offers hourly van hire from just £11 per hour*  – click here for an instant quote.

What about car and van-sharing?

Hertz offers hourly van hire through its standard rental service, but it also offers something a little different — a car-sharing membership scheme called Hertz 24/7, which allows members to book, pick-up and drop-off Hertz 24/7 vehicles from Hertz 24/7 locations.

The deal is simple — as a member, you get a special key fob that gives you access to the vehicle you have reserved. The ignition key will already be in the vehicle and you simply get in, drive off, and then return the vehicle when you are done.

Members can book Hertz 24/7 vehicles online and billing is taken care of automatically — whether hourly or daily.

This scheme is similar to Zipcar and a number of other schemes that are increasingly popular, especially in big US cities, but also in London.

To learn more, visit the Hertz 24/7 On Demand website.

*Prices correct at the time of writing on 22 July 2013. T&Cs apply.