I’m pleased to announce that long-time MyLocalVanHire.co.uk advertiser Practical Car & Van Rental has just opened a new branch in Hounslow. It’s conveniently located just off the A4 and is only a mile from Heathrow Airport. Practical is happy to arrange pickups from Heathrow Airport as well as other nearby locations.

The Hounslow branch offers the usual comprehensive selection of hire vans, including:

• Small vans (e.g. Vauxhall Combo)
• Short, medium and long wheelbase panel vans
• Luton vans (with or without tail lift)
• 7.5 tonne box vans
• Refrigerated vans

One-way and long-term rental deals are also a possibility – contact the branch direct for rates.

To find out more, click here to visit Practical’s website or call direct on 0208 577 4460.

I’m very pleased to welcome our newest advertiser, A2B Budget Rentals of Kingston-upon-Thames, to the MyLocalVanHire.co.uk van hire directory.

A2B Budget Rentals offers a range of vans at competitive prices from its base at The Yard, Norbiton Avenue, Kingston-upon-Thames:

• Short wheelbase panel vans
• Long wheelbase panel vans
• Long wheelbase & high top panel vans
• Luton box vans

All A2B hire vans have an inclusive mileage allowance of 100 miles per day and the company’s hire period runs from 9am-9am.

Vans can be hired by anyone over 21 (2 years’ clean driving history & surcharge applies age 21-24) and breakdown and recovery assistance is included with all hires.

To find out more about A2B Budget Rentals in Kingston, visit their website or call them direct on 020 8296 9206.

I’m very pleased to welcome our newest advertiser to the MyLocalVanHire.co.uk directory. A new Jolly Good Van Hire branch has opened in Shrewsbury, offering both UK and European van hire services. Jolly Good’s website includes a van size calculator to help you work out what size van you need along with details of loadspace dimensions for each van.

Jolly Good Van Hire’s location in Bayston Hill just south of Shrewsbury, is right by the A5/A49 and very easily accessible. A full range of vans is available for hire:

• Small vans (e.g. Peugeot Partner)
• Short wheelbase panel vans (e.g. Ford Transit SWB)
• Long wheelbase panel vans (e.g. Mercedes Sprinter)
• Luton box vans with tail lift (e.g. Mercedes Sprinter box van)

All vans are less than 18 months old and include insurance, 24-hour breakdown cover and unlimited mileage. Jolly’s vans can be taken abroad but this must be arranged in advance – additional costs apply.

To find out more about Jolly Good Van Hire in Shrewsbury, visit their website at www.jollygoodvanhire.co.uk or call them direct on Freephone 0800 078 7363.

I’m very pleased to announce that we have just launched what may be the UK’s first mobile-friendly van hire site! MyLocalVanHire.co.uk has now gone mobile and we have published a cut-down, small-screen friendly version of our van hire and minibus hire directories.

As most van and minibus hire websites aren’t very mobile-friendly, what we’ve done is to provide a telephone number along with the address of every branch in our directory – so you can find the branch you need on your mobile then call them straight up. Until mobile websites improve a bit, I think that telephone is the best option unless you have a decent-sized screen at your disposal – an iPhone at least!

Here’s how it looks:

For anyone who wants to have a look, our mobile website can be found at: http://m.mylocalvanhire.co.uk. It works fine in a PC browser too (but why would you want to?!?).

Any comments or feedback most welcome – I’d love to know what you think.

Roland

MyLocalVanHire.co.uk founder

It’s a pleasure to welcome our newest advertiser, First Van Rental of Coventry, to the MyLocalVanHire.co.uk van hire directory.

First Van Rental offers van hire in the Coventry and Birmingham areas and has a conveniently-situated base in Coventry city centre. All hires of seven days or more include free delivery and collection, too. First Van Rental’s hire van fleet includes:

• Small vans – e.g. Ford Transit Connect
• Medium vans – e.g. Citroen Dispatch
• SWB Transit – e.g. Short wheelbase Ford Transit or equivalent model
• LWB Transit – e.g. Long wheelbase Ford Transit or equivalent model

Unlike many hire companies, who use cubic metres to describe the loadspace of their vans, First Van Rental’s website actually specifies the length, width and height of its vans’ loadspaces – far more useful to normal people like you and me, who don’t imagine things in cubic metres…

For business customers, First Van Rental also offers a long-term van rental option, allowing you to expand and reduce your fleet as needed – without any of the cost and commitment of contract van hire, leasing or other long-term hire options.

To find out more about First van Rental, visit the website or call them on 0870 095 0010.

At this moment, MyLocalVanHire.co.uk lists 694 van hire branches in 367 UK locations (we’ve also got a few in Ireland). We also list a growing number of minibus hire locations.

These rental branches belong to a mixture of large, big-brand rental companies – such as Sixt and Europcar – and small, independent rental companies that may only have a single branch each.

Every branch gets equal treatment and our search results page automatically lists branches by distance – so the nearest branch to the customer’s location is always listed first – helping improve clickthrough rates from our website to our advertisers’ websites.

We track the number of visitors we send to each rental company’s site and we’re always happy to share this information with the rental company concerned. In fact, we send this information to every advertiser when it’s time for their annual renewal.

Over the last year, MyLocalVanHire.co.uk has averaged more than 34,000 visitors per month – some of them could be looking for your business in your location.

If you’d like to learn more about advertising on this site, click here to visit our advertising page.

Once you’ve signed up, your advertisement is guaranteed to be live in two working days and we’ll also publish a news article in our blog, profiling your company’s services.

Update: We’ve recently revamped our advertising page to make it much quicker and simpler to arrange advertising. We now offer instant online payments and simple, menu-based pricing.

Click here to visit our advertising page now

I’m very happy to welcome Spinning Wheels Vehicle Rental of Manchester to the MyLocalVanHire.co.uk directory.

Spinning Wheels offers van, minibus and car hire and even has a number of refrigerated vans on its fleet – making it a true one-stop shop for light vehicle hire in the Manchester area. The Spinning Wheels fleet includes:

• Medium panel vans (e.g. Ford Transit/LDV Maxus)
• Large panel vans (e.g. Ford Transit LWB/LDV Maxus LWB)
• Luton vans
• Luton vans with tail lifts
• 3.5t refrigerated vans (e.g. Ford Transit or LDV Maxus)
• 12 or 15-seat minibuses

All of this family-run firm’s vehicles are nearly new and covered by 24-hour breakdown cover. Minimum age for rental customers is just 23 and Spinning Wheels is open 6 days a week at its New Smithfield Market location, just of the A635 Ashton Old Road.

Spinning Wheels also offers a meet and greet service from Manchester International Airport, Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station and Chorlton Street Bus Station – highlighting its commitment to providing a comprehensive, first-class service.

To learn more, get a quote or make a booking, visit Spinning Wheel’s website or call them on 0161 231 7608. If you’ve been

It’s a pleasure to welcome our newest advertiser, Bridges Van Hire of Awsworth, Nottingham, to the MyLocalVanHire.co.uk directory.

Bridges Van Hire is a family-run business that was established in 1971 and is still going strong today. Bridges offers competitive daily hire rates on a wide range of vans and allows customers to choose whether to provide their own insurance or use Bridges – ideal for business renters.

Vans available to rent include:

• Small vans – e.g. Peugeot Partner
• Short wheelbase Ford Transit panel vans
• Long wheelbase Ford Transit panel vans with high roof
• Ford Transit luton vans with tail lift
• Ford Transit dropsides

Bridges Van Hire also offers a range of trailers for hire, including plant and car transporter trailers.

The company is based in Awsworth, near Kimberley (close to Ikea) and covers the whole of the surrounding area, including Heanor, Beeston and Nottingham. For more information or to arrange a hire, visit www.bridgesvanhire.co.uk or call 01559 32 32 32.

Ever since I started MyLocalVanHire.co.uk, the strength of demand for European van hire services – hiring a van in the UK to drive to Europe – has surprised me.

People need to hire vans in the UK and take them across to continental Europe all the time. One of the most popular destinations is Spain, especially for Brits who are planning to move home to or from the east of Spain. That’s why we’ve got a dedicated page on one-way van hire to Spain.

Wherever you are planning to take a hire van in Europe, finding the right ferry crossing at the best price is important. To help our van rental visitors find the cheapest ferry prices for their crossings, we have now partnered up with leading online ferry broker AFerry.co.uk to offer its fantastic, new, ferry price comparison service on the MyLocalVanHire.co.uk website.

Visit our Book a Ferry page to give it a try- you can specify the countries you want to travel between and the booking engine will do the rest, providing live, real time quotes for all major UK and European ferry companies.

Our newest advertiser, Riverside Van Hire of Wrexham, is an independent van hire company based at Unit 1, Riverside Yard, Hightown Road, Wrexham.

Riverside’s rental fleet includes a wide range of vans and minibuses – meaning that there should be something to suit your requirements:

• 15-seater minibuses
• Large panel vans – including LDV Maxus LWB and Ford Transit LWB vans with high roofs
• Short wheelbase vans – including Ford Transit SWB
• Small vans – including Vauxhall Combos
• LDV Box van with tail lift
• Luton vans

Riverside Van Hire is currently running an opening offer of 5 days for the price of 4

Riverside’s daily van hire rates start from just £30 per day and half-day hire is available. Special weekly rates are also possible – contact Riverside Van Hire for details or ring them on 01978 266007 for more information.