There are almost endless reasons why people would hire a car, van, or truck rather than buying one outright. Not the least of these is that they may only need to use a vehicle for a short period of time. For instance, a couple may have an “old banger” which they use for doing the weekend shop and popping over to see parents or other relatives occasionally. That’s fine.
However, if you want to go on a fortnight’s holiday and go touring around Britain, for instance, you probably wouldn’t want to do it in the old banger because the chances of it breaking down in the middle of nowhere may be quite high. So, you hire a car instead because the chances of a breakdown are extremely low. It’s a lot more comfortable too.
But there are many other reasons to hire vehicles, one of which is that you need something for a particular job which is going to take a couple of days to do, but then you won’t need it again. For instance, think of skip hire in Chesterfield. You might have inherited a home from a relative and you need to clear out all the old furniture so that you can put the home on the market. But that’s not something that you need to do on a regular basis. So, a skip would work fine in this instance.
Very many businesses use van and lorry hire for a variety of reasons. For example, a business may have its’ own fleet which will cover its’ needs for most of the year, but it may also have fluctuating requirements. At some times of the year, it is busier than others, and when it needs extra cover the obvious solution is to hire for those few weeks, or whatever.
You might run a business and secure a large contract which means that you need extra vans or trucks for that particular job. Maybe that job is going to take six months, so you need the vans for that length of time. There is no point in purchasing them and then selling them on when the contract is finished because you would lose a considerable amount of money, even though those vans are only six months old.
Maybe your business normally works by using small vans, but then along comes another job which requires you to use a couple of large trucks. The obvious answer in those circumstances is truck rentals in Lincoln or wherever the job requires you to go.
The ULEZ Zone
Another scenario is where you find that you suddenly need to make deliveries to London which is where you would normally never have to go. Now you have to have a vehicle that is ULEZ – Ultra Low Emissions Zone – compliant. When you hire a truck or HGV it will be fully compliant with all those sorts of requirements because the hire company will have the latest vehicles and ensure that they are. Incidentally, while on that subject, it is not just London. Other cities are also introducing the same sorts of requirements as well, and so this will become more important as time goes on.
If you operate in Europe, much the same applies. Not only that, but different countries have different regulations. For instance, in France there are six different categories of “Crit’Air Vignette” which are needed to drive in environmental zones during the day. There is a similar scheme in Austria, and a sightly less complex one in Denmark. However, the problem is that if your vehicle happens to enter one of those zones, the fines for being non-compliant can be very heavy. However, when you rent a vehicle, it should automatically be compliant with all of the European requirements.
You may even need to buy new vehicles for your fleet, in which case you will obviously need models that are compliant. However, the lead time for new vehicles has been as much as six to nine months recently, chiefly because of a shortage of semi-conductors which are used in the vehicle’s electrics. If you need to be compliant in the meantime, hiring vehicles is the answer.
There are lots of other benefits to hiring rather than buying. For instance, you don’t have to carry out any maintenance or repairs, nor do you have to insure vehicles.
Of course, hiring may, or may not, be your best option, but if you have not considered it seriously before, it is well worthwhile sitting down and doing the sums.
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