Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

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Zelandeth
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Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Zelandeth »

Okay...sure I can't be the only one who finds himself on occasion wishing to have a van to transport an item from point A to point B and not drive back again. Especially when point A is in rural Aberdeenshire and point B is in Milton Keynes.

About the only mainstream rental company (locals are obviously not much cop for this - even those who initially made sense for an extra days hire have 500 mile rental limits with a £1/mile charge thereafter) who do this seem to be Enterprise. Northgate who are my preferred hire company by a country mile don't allow drop off of the vehicle at a different site to pickup.

However, just tried to book a van next week to pick up in Aberdeen for a run back down here in the weekend. ...nothing in the large van (or Luton) category available. Seriously?!? You are telling me that as a supposedly leading rental company that you have no LWB Sprinters, Masters, Transits (or God help me) Transporters in the whole north east of Scotland available for the whole week?

I'm trying to throw a not insignificant amount of money your way - far more than i should as you actually let me drive one way rather than there *and* back...but nope...you can't source me a van. Virgin's customer support were thankfully very understanding of the situation and fully refunded my suplosedly non refundable ticket - and let me keep the miles on my loyalty card - as they said the cancellation was "due to circumstances beyond my resasonable control." Hats off to them for that. Thanks guys.

...seriously tempted to buy a cheapie locally, service it, do the run then sell it...

...or just take the Xantia and cram in what I can. They are made with the same tech as the Tardis after all...been wanting to give her a decent run for a while. MK to Aberdeen and back would strech her legs nicely I think.

Open to suggestions as to how I can find a van to do an Aberdeen to MK run in the next week for vaguely sensible money!
Current fleet:
06 Peugeot Partner Escapade 1.6HDi, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
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daviemck2006
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by daviemck2006 »

Buy a cheapie and flog it again would be my preferred option I think. Or if you are feeling brave get an easy jet up to Aberdeen, buy a cheap up here then drive it down there and sell. Less miles in the heap, easyjet ticket cheaper than diesel, o ly an hour and a bit instead of all day driving. Or even braver if you know anyone in ne Scotland get them to buy a van for you so you know you have one [emoji4]
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Gingerposer »

Too expensive to get a haulier/courier to ship it for you? ( I have no idea what these cost btw) - there's loads of transport operators up here running nationally.
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Stickyfinger »

Most pallet loads are about £80 , Ero pallet/1tonne, door to door kerb drop.
Can you not get a load made and wrapped well in shrink ?
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by isisalar »

These people could give you a pleasant surprise, especially if someone is looking for a back load.
https://www.shiply.com/
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Zelandeth
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Zelandeth »

Biggest issue I've got is that it's a load of my assorted "junk" mostly in the dark recesses of my parent's loft. Which after the Council re-insulated it is nigh on inaccessible. Father's the only one there now and is quite badly disabled, so no chance he's going up there. The house being 30 miles from nowhere doesn't help.

My plan is basically to stuff the whole lot in the back of the van, dump it in our garage here then over the course of a couple of weeks go through and decide what's to be kept, what's to be binned, what's to be eBayed and what's to be taken to the charity shop or what's to be given away to better homes. It's going to be far easier to do that here than it is up there. Once my stuff is in the van, the rest of his stuff is going to be getting dumped in what was formerly my room so that he can go through that and clear out at his leisure.

I do have a friend who lives not far off and is car savvy (he's in equal measure responsible for my Saab and Skoda obsessions), so probably not a stupid idea asking him the question actually of whether he could grab something...Problem if I ended up with a proper old Merc 208/308D is that I'd then not want to sell it on afterwards...have a big soft spot for them having owned one for a while years ago.

Last time I did this I had hassle with the van hire as well (the previous hirer failed to turn up so they had to scramble a van from elsewhere - ended up picking it up four hours late as a result), it was tipping it down with rain and they were run off their feet so never did a proper handover - I then got stung for an £80 odd bill for scratches on the side of the van that I had nothing to do with. Lesson learned there...

Also learned another lesson about vans a while ago when we were picking up our pool table. That's that I'll be actively telling them "Don't give me a VW Transporter or else." Had a 63 plate SWB one for that, and it had to be about the most hateful thing I have ever driven. About as much power as my old 1980 T25 (the much maligned 1.6 version...), a clutch that had two settings within about 1.3mm of travel, and brakes that were literally on or off - not ideal when you have a tonne or so of pool table in the back! Can't even have been that clapped out as it only had about 11K on the clock...
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by daviemck2006 »

I still say get the mate to buy something for you and fly up. If he gets a good bargain up here you might even make a bit on the sale price and pay the rest of the expenses! Job done for free[emoji4]
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Zelandeth
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Zelandeth »

Especially if I give it a decent service and cosmetic tidy up prior to sale...it's amasing what a bit of paint and polish can do to first impressions!

Shame I wasn't doing this right after Citylink went under...imagine there were a few bargains flying around then!
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Here's a 2005 Fiat Ducato on Gumtree (Bridge of Don) listed at £1200

Image

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daviemck2006
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Re: RE: Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by daviemck2006 »

Zelandeth wrote:Especially if I give it a decent service and cosmetic tidy up prior to sale...it's amasing what a bit of paint and polish can do to first impressions!

Shame I wasn't doing this right after Citylink went under...imagine there were a few bargains flying around then!
You should have seen the difference I made to the red fiesta! It went from 50 shades of pink to 3 shades of shine red lol
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by dnsey »

My local self-storage guy rents out his vans when he's not using them. Might be worth asking if you have a similar setup near you.
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Zelandeth
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Zelandeth »

A good thought, and one I had investigated. Couple were happy to - but with the proviso that you weren't going to do more than 500 miles, and above that they imposed extorsionate excess mileage rates. Door to door by the most direct route I think we're looking at 526 miles from memory - one way...so well over 1000 miles there and back. Given that it's a 36 mile round trip to the nearest small town and 70 odd to the nearest big city, if you're there for a day or two and run a few errands, a few hundred miles can vanish in a flash. When I lived there doing 750 miles in one week wasn't unknown - and I wasn't commuting!

One of the companies were actually willing to talk and told me that the limit was actually due to wording in their hirer insurance policies on hire length. So that may be where the seemingly arbitary 500 mile limit comes from.
Current fleet:
06 Peugeot Partner Escapade 1.6HDi, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
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daviemck2006
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by daviemck2006 »

Where is it that you actually are going to Zel? I'm thinking the 70 miles odd is to Aberdeen so I'm guessing out either deeside or more likely donside.
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by van ordinaire »

f-w-i-w: Europcar do 1-way van rental
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Zelandeth
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1985 Sinclair C5.
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1975 Rover 3500.
1973 AC Model-70.
x 1403
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Re: Minor rant...how hard can it be - Van hire

Post by Zelandeth »

Place is about 15 miles west of Inverurie. Basically draw a triangle on a map between Turriff, Huntly and Inverurie, and our house is almost dead centre on that triangle.

Didn't realise Europcar did it too, may need to investigate them as well then.

Pallet wise I'll definitely be keeping that company bookmarked, as I'll hopefully be trying to get an old Lister diesel generator set shipped down at some point in the next couple of years - and that's going to be a pallet job given the weight and bulk of it. Still trying to work out how to get it out of the garage! Generator bit I reckon shouldn't be too bad with an engine hoist and some brute force - engine weighs a tonne though and looks at first glance to be a ruddy awkward shape...that will eventually be a toy to live in the back of my garage to tinker with on rainy winter evenings...
Current fleet:
06 Peugeot Partner Escapade 1.6HDi, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
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