It is stated in our rental agreement that vehicles will be supplied with a full tank and must be returned that way.

Most of our customers try to make sure that their rented vehicle is returned with a full tank of fuel, but sometimes they miscalculate.

There can be several reasons for this.

The first is, and this applies to diesel, when filling a tank, the liquid foams, in the same way as pouring a beer, a fizzy drink or champagne does.  So, the pump will click as full before it actually is.  The secret is to wait for the foam to settle, then continue to add fuel.

The second is that customers can miscalculate the amount of fuel a vehicle will consume on what may seem a relatively short journey.

All our vehicles should be returned to the depot where they were hired, so, for example, if a customer has been on a long journey and is, they think, fairly close to their destination, they may pull into a services station at, say, Ipswich to fill up.  However, they are then surprised to discover how much fuel the vehicle has consumed by the time they reach our Colchester depot. It can be as much as 3.2 litres.

Robertsons’ depots have their own fuel pumps, so a top up is easy to do and waiting until arrival at the depot will avoid these problems.

Customers will not be overcharged, we make very little profit on the fuel.  We do, however, understand that perhaps the prices at the pumps elsewhere, particularly at superstore petrol stations, are highly competitive and there is the added incentive that people can earn bonus points on their loyalty cards, which can be particularly useful at certain times of the year.

We do our best to ensure we have a good relationship with our customers and hope this advice will help avoid that niggling, and fairly common, disagreements that arises at a vehicle rental return.

Watch out for our December blog when we will have news of a special Christmas offer.