starting a van hire company

[lurch]

Afternoon everyone, i'm currently considering starting a van hire company with older owned vans on a budget basis. Target customer will be someone who wants one to move house collect items from ikea etc and possibly targeting companies who run their own vans but want a backup plan in case of breakdowns etc.

As this is a new area for me any advice would be appreciated. Now insurance I know some budget hire companies ask the customer to arrange their own insurance is this a good move or not? If I provide insurance I would probably do this on a PAYG basis as I know it can be steep can anyone give me a quote on this?

Rental agreements, should I buy a template and alter it to meet my needs? if so anyone got a good place to get one as most i've found are for the US.

Driver checks, when previously hiring vehicles myself my driver details have been checked with the DVLA via computer does anyone know the cost associated with this?

 

[Luolou]

Our only two local van hire companies have both decided to cease doing van rental in the last 3months and have diversified into other things as they were just not making money at it. The cost of repairs to vehicles - even if done in house like one of these companies - was getting way too expensive and they found people treated their vehicles with compete disdain. And getting any money from the customer for damage often proved impossible as they would cancel credit cards etc. The chip from the satnavs were often stolen too.

We are actually going to struggle in the future as we hire various size vehicles from both companies but as our work is often London based the larger vehicles have to have these new emission things on them which is too great an investment for them.

Not trying to put you off, just thought our experience might help..

 

[TheGuru2010]

Afternoon everyone, i'm currently considering starting a van hire company with older owned vans on a budget basis. Target customer will be someone who wants one to move house collect items from ikea etc and possibly targeting companies who run their own vans but want a backup plan in case of breakdowns etc.

As this is a new area for me any advice would be appreciated. Now insurance I know some budget hire companies ask the customer to arrange their own insurance is this a good move or not? If I provide insurance I would probably do this on a PAYG basis as I know it can be steep can anyone give me a quote on this?

Rental agreements, should I buy a template and alter it to meet my needs? if so anyone got a good place to get one as most i've found are for the US.

Driver checks, when previously hiring vehicles myself my driver details have been checked with the DVLA via computer does anyone know the cost associated with this?

Good Morning Op,

have you done a fair amount of homework in this? Just a quick question before we get down to the nitty gritty, how do you think you can turn a profit from this? How do you plan to compete with the "Big Boys".

If you take a look on my previous post you will find some info posted about Self Drive Hire.

Jamie

 

[Billmccallum]

from

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/AdviceOnKeepingYourVehicle/DG_4022067

Making an enquiry by phone

The DVLA has two phone services and the lines are open during the following times:
Driver and Vehicle General lines - Monday to Friday 8.00 am to 7.00 pm; Saturday 8.00 am to 2.00 pm
Electronic and Driver licensing online - Monday to Friday 8.00 am to 8.30 pm; Saturday 8.00 am to 5.30 pm
Vehicle check service
You can check a vehicle’s:

• date of first registration
• year of manufacture
• engine capacity (cc)
• CO2 emissions
• colour

The phone number is 0906 185 8585. This is at the premium rate and charged at 49p per minute.

 

[JoyDivision]

I don't think it can work as you need more than one van in but most the time you will find you just have vans which cannot be utilised. Your vans will need to be reliable as well.

For your target market a man with van is probably a better idea. The last thing I would ever want to do is hire a clapped out Transit, would be a pure cop magnet.

 

[Mitch3473]

You can also check out suspicious drivers/licences with the DVLA

You will find that unless you get your foot in the door with some form of contract hire to companies,and you'll need decent vans for that,you ,as you say,aiming for the removal market,blokey type things,that your vans will only be out at weekend and be parked up during the week.You will need between 60 - 80% utilisation and the higher the utilisation the more they will cost you on upkeep and services.It's a fine balancing act.You will need quite a few vans and poss a minibus.

 

[FE]

There are a lot of considerations. We are a van hire business and it is a very competitive market. If you look up companies like TLS (backed by GE Capitol and closed down), Leaseway (administration), Newtown Vehicle Rental (administration), Reflex (administration but going through a MBO).

Yes it can work as there are sucess stories but you need to obtain finance as in my experience running anything over 4 years old just does not work as most of the profit is when you sell the vehicle at the end.

Cash Hire i.e. to the general public, you will need to provide insurance and this is hard to get. If serious then i would look at a frnachise that offer these things as you will need the correct paperwork (look at BVRLA), consumer credit license etc etc

Best of Luck though where abouts are you based is there any competition?

FE

 

[lurch]

thank you all for your feedback it is most informative. After taking into consideration your advice i'm now considering moving away from vans to cars again older ones for the budget conscious. I'm finding decent insurance deals hard to find can anyone point me in the right direction? it will be minimum hire of a week.

 

[jimuk]

Hi lurch,

I stumbled across an article that discusses setting up a vehicle hire company, so might be worth a quick read? Quite a few handy tips etc.

wikihow.com/Start-a-Vehicle-Rental-Business

Good luck!