Book early for the holidays!
Book early for the holidays!
No, we’re not only talking about Easter, but bank holidays and summer too, in fact any time when demand for rentals for more than a day is likely to be high.
Why is this such an issue?
It’s all about the supply chain. There’s a shortage of car parts and new vehicles, making it hard to get repairs done or to add to our fleet.
So if you know you will want to book a rental care for a week at Easter, or in the summer particularly please give us as much notice as you can but certainly a minimum of two weeks
Thank you
Offering rented electric vehicles is not yet practical
Offering rented electric vehicles is not yet practical
Have you ever wondered why car rental companies do not offer hybrid or electric vehicles for rent?
Mostly, the reason is the availability of the charging infrastructure, but it is also about pricing.
Generally, rental companies require vehicles to be returned with a full tank of fuel and many have petrol pumps available on site or there is a petrol station nearby.
That would not be a practical proposition for electric vehicles. For example, in Colchester, there are just two charging points in the city near our location. Also, the time it takes to fully charge is considerably longer than filling up a fuel tank.
Setting up charging facilities on our sites would mean a significant investment and there would still be the issue of the time it takes to fully charge a vehicle while a customer waits.
Equally, charging points are not always available near to our customers’ homes or businesses and in a typical town terraced street, how could enough charging points be made available to enable vehicles to be charged overnight?
The investment a rental company would have to make in electric vehicles would be considerable as they are generally considerably more expensive than petrol or diesel-powered cars.
Then there would be the issue of determining a viable level of pricing that would be realistic for the rental company and affordable for the customer.
While in an ideal world it would be nice to offer the option of a more environmentally friendly electric vehicle, sadly, it is not a practical proposition yet.
Wishing you a happy christmas
Book early for Christmas and new vehicles
Book early for Christmas and new vehicles
We are advising people to book now if they are going to need to rent a car during Christmas.
There are very few spaces left so please let us know as soon as possible.
Meanwhile our search for replacement vehicles goes on.
We have recently taken delivery of two new seven-seater people carriers made by Dacia and three Maxus drop-sided vans.
Given the delays in deliveries of replacement vehicles we are actively seeking alternative manufacturers who can deliver on time.
Book soon to avoid Christmas disappointment
Book soon to avoid Christmas disappointment
After the lockdowns of the last 18 months, it is no surprise that people are looking forward to seeing relatives they haven’t met for some time over the festive season.
We are seeing a huge rise in booking rentals for both cars and people carriers for the run-up to Christmas and are close to being fully booked.
To avoid disappointment, we are asking customers to please book a vehicle as soon as they can.
The minimum period for a rental is seven days if your rental coincides with Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
Latest time for your rental collection is by 1pm on December 24 after which we will be closed until December 29.
Merry Christmas
Book vans early for Christmas
Book vans early for Christmas
If you are hoping to rent a van before Christmas we are asking our customers to please give us at least two weeks’ notice.
The demand for transit vans has gone through the roof in the last few weeks, partly because of the latest pandemic lockdown and partly because there has been a huge shift to online shopping.
With Christmas on the way both delivery drivers and the Royal Mail are coming under increasing pressure and although we have added to our fleet to try to keep up with their demand we are struggling to meet them.
We now have 80 vans rented out for parcel deliveries and the companies are warning that if people don’t put in their orders soon they are unlikely to receive their deliveries before Christmas.
So, if you are a private customer looking for a van for a day, perhaps for a house move, we would appreciate your giving us at least two weeks’ notice.
As ever, we are keeping to our sanitisation and hygiene routines for both vehicles and visitors to our offices.
Happy Christmas
Chrsitmas Rentals
Christmas rentals, bike awareness and the rise of the SUV
Private rentals of ours for the Christmas period are coming in fast so if you know you will need to rent a car, let us know as soon as possible.
The road safety charity Brake has been highlighting the dangers to cyclists during 2018 Road Safety Week. It says that those travelling on two wheels are 63 times more likely than drivers to be killed or seriously injured when out on the road and that a rider is killed or seriously injured on UK roads every hour, two thirds of these accidents occurring on rural roads.
Last year, according to Government figures, 100 cyclists died on UK roads and 470 pedestrians were killed, an increase of 5%.
Among Brake’s tips for drivers are giving cyclists more space, leaving riders a 150cm gap when overtaking and opening a car door using the ‘Dutch Reach’ method. The procedure involves the driver or passenger opening their door from the inside with the hand that’s furthest away from the door handle, which forces them to turn their body and increases the ability to look out of the car and spot passing cars and cyclists.
This technique may feature in an updated Highway Code, which is among the possible measures the Government is considering to improve cycle safety.
Among other suggestions is encouraging insurers to offer motorists cheaper insurance if they take a course to make them more aware of cyclists on the roads and giving local councils more powers to tackle parking in cycle lanes.
The rise of the SUV
This is the time of year when we start to put in our orders update our fleet of rental cars and we have discovered that many of the manufacturers are discontinuing the large saloon cars, such as the Toyota Avensis and the Vauxhall Insignia.
The popularity of these cars has been diminishing in recent years, making them uneconomic for the manufacturers to produce as demand has risen for SUVs.