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).

Van Hire Special Offers – May

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Sixt Van hireVan hire giants Sixt are currently running some irresistable spring special offers on popular van hire models:

  • Ford Transit for just £29/day (mileage limit of 50 miles applies)

Daily Specials

Discounted daily rates on a range of vans – e.g. Ford Transit 350 for just £45 per day

Weekend Specials

Moving house? This one is perfect.

Rent a high roof Ford Transit Jumbo for just £114 for a long weekend – (Friday noon – Monday 9am)

Weekly Specials

Finally, rent a VW Caddy for one week from just £172.

Terms and conditions apply to all of the above offers, mileage limits and advanced booking requirements apply to some offers. All offers subject to availability – so get booking now!

Visit Sixt’s booking site now!

London Edgware Van & Minibus Hire – EU Commercials

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I’m very pleased to welcome EU Commercials of Edgware, London, to the vanrental.co.uk directory. Based at Canons Park Station, Whitchurch Lane, Edgware, EU Commercials offers a wide range of vans and minibuses for hire, including:

  • Small vans (e.g. Ford Transit Connect)
  • 5-seat crew cab vans (e.g. Transit Connect crew cab)
  • Ford Transit SWB and LWB panel vans
  • Luton vans with tail lifts
  • 9 & 15-seat minibuses
  • 7-seat MPVs (e.g. Ford Galaxy)
  • 3.5t Transit-based tippers

EU Commercials can supply all of the above on short and long-term rental and can also arrange for contract hire and leasing of brand new vehicles for terms of 12 months to 5 years.

EU Commercials offers a full range of rental services to both individual customers and corporate customers, specialising in monthly hire to corporate fleets. Customers can choose whether to provide their own insurance or purchase insurance from EU Commercials with their hire vehicle.

For customers whose insurance does not cover hire vehicles, EU Commercials has a partnership with a specialist insurance company that does offer this service at competitive rates.

If you’d like to see your van hire company listed on vanrental.co.uk, click here for details of our advertising options.

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 20% on Europcar Car & Van Hire

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From the 6th April – 3rd May 2009, Europcar is offering up to 20% discount on UK car rental and van hire. The deal is valid for bookings with pickups between 6th April and 31st May 2009, but your booking period cannot include any bank or public holidays.

This special offer makes Europcar’s already competitive rates even better. Whether you are planning a trip to Ikea, moving house or need to take your band or sports team on the road, a hire van from Europcar will be just the ticket. The company has a huge UK branch network, so you are rarely far from a Europcar branch. (To see a list of all of Europcar’s UK van hire branches, click here.)

UK Biodiesel Prices to Rise?

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It’s been a while since I mentioned my not so favourite fuel, biodiesel.

It’s been just over a year since I took a look at how biodiesel manufacturers were abusing a government subsidy arrangement in the USA to enable them to undercut European biodiesel manufacturers.

The European Union has now come to the same conclusion The Guardian did one year ago and started applying an additional duty to biodiesel imported from America, in a move to provide a level playing field for European producers of biodiesel.

More details here.

Electric Charging for London, Hybrid Trials & More

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Fiat van becomes car

Fiat appears to have turned its Fiorino van (aka Citren Nemo, Peugeot Bipper) into a car.

The Fiat Qubo was thoroughly slated by Jeremy Clarkson in The Times last weekend, if you fancy a laugh.

Electric Charging Stations for London?

Also in The Times, news comes of a company that’s planning to setup a network of electric vehicle charging stations across London. Evoasis hopes to have six charging stations setup by the end of next year.

The stations will charge at 440V rather than the domestic norm of 240V, resulting in much faster charging than usual – Evoasis claims that charging could be completed in 20 minutes for suitably adpated vehicles.

Still seems a bit slow compared to filling up with petrol…

Finally, FedEx Hybrid Van Trial Saves 26.5% On Fuel

A six-month trial of 10 diesel-electric hybrid Iveco Daily vans by FedEx has resulted in fuel savings of 26.5% and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 7.5 tonnes when compared to conventional, diesel-only vans.

The vans participating in the trial apparently only did 4,900 miles in six months, so I would hazard a guess that they were being used on urban delivery routes, but the results are impressive nonetheless.

The only thing they don’t tell us is which solution would have cost more (assuming the hybrids were purhcased at market prices).

Ealing Van Hire – Sam’s Van Hire

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sams-van-hireI am very pleased to welcome Sam’s Van Hire, of Ealing, west London to the vanrental.co.uk van hire directory.

Sam’s Van Hire is located on Wadsworth Close, in Perivale and offers a full range of rental vans for business and private customers:

  • Small vans
  • Medium wheelbase vans
  • Long wheelbase vans
  • Extra-long wheelbase vans
  • Luton vans (with tail lift)

Sam’s operates a very simple, all-inclusive pricing scheme with insurance and RAC cover included in every rental.

Sam’s Ealing branch is open from 8am – 8pm 7 days a week – a lot longer than many van hire companies and very useful for weekend hires and late drop offs.

To find out more or book a van, visit www.samshire.co.uk or call Sam’s on 020 8997 0607.

If you’d like to see your van hire company listed on vanrental.co.uk, click here for details of our advertising options.

Today’s Van News In Short

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Here’s a selection of interesting links covering UK van industry developments and the future of electric vehicles:

Van Makers Are “Missing a Trick” – Royal Mail

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Vehicle manufacturers are “missing a trick” by not focusing on developing low emission urban delivery vans ahead of passenger vehicles, according to Mark Cavill, Royal Mail’s carbon management programme manager.

In an article on RoadTransport.com, Cavill commented that “commercial vehicles represent the ideal platform to showcase future propulsion technology.” Apparently, Royal Mail’s vans average just 47 miles per day and most travel on predefined delivery routes – meaning that range limitations and recharging requirements are not an issue in the way that they are for privately-owned vehicles.

Royal Mail is currently working on ways to reduce its total CO2 output by 50% by 2015. At present, 40% of Royal Mails CO2 emissions are due to its road transport operations.

Source: RoadTransport.com