Hiring a van to move to Spain may not be an everyday requirement for most people - but it is a service that’s become increasingly in demand over the last 10 years or so.

Spain is not only one of the most popular holiday destinations for Brits - it’s also perhaps the most popular country to relocate to. Thousands of Britons of all ages move to Spain every year - and many of them want to do the move themselves, with a hired van.

The only problem is they don’t want to have to bring it back again, afterwards.

That’s where one-way van hire between the UK and Spain comes in. The two companies I know of who operate this service both maintain rental offices in the UK and in Spain - in the Alicante / Costa Blanca regions, which are most popular with British expatriates.

This allows you to pickup a UK-registered hire van in the UK, load it up with your possessions, drive to Spain and hand the van back somewhere close to your new home. The system works because there are also a similar number of people needing to hire a van from Spain to the UK. The result is reasonable daily rates, no catches and a really useful service.

There are two companies I know of who offer this service:

• J-Hire
• Way2Go Hire

On our van hire to Spain page, you will find full details of the locations, vans and services offered by each of these companies. They both offer similar services and charge similar rates, so in truth your choice might be dictated by which has the more convenient branch locations for you.

If you need to hire a van to move to Spain then it is definitely worth getting a quote from each of these companies. 

Regular rental companies - even those that let you take vans abroad - won’t let you drop off their vans abroad. You normally have to return hire vehicles to the country in which they were rented - not much good when you have just moved house 1,000 miles away.

J-Hire and Way2Go Hire are unique (as far as I know) in offering a one-way van hire service between Spain and the UK - so take a look here if you are planning to move to Spain.

Tightening credit availability and uncertain economic times are having an effect on the way businesses hire vans, according to GE-owned TLS Vehicle Rental. In an article in Fleet News, major UK B2B van rental companies TLS and Northgate have confided that companies are turning to them to hire vans where they might previously have bought or leased them.

By owning fewer commercial vehicles and renting for longer periods, customers are able to reduce their liabilities and gain increased flexibility - if a van isn’t required for a couple of weeks, it can go back to the hire company and will cost the business nothing.

According to Carl D’Ammassa, TLS’ Chief Operating Officer, having “no long term financial commitment” is one of the “key benefits” of renting. He says that the ability to “hand back the vehicle at any time” is “very attractive” to many businesses in “tough economic times”.

Ross Clarkson, Marketing Director of Northgate, the UK’s largest van rental company, echoed the sentiment of D’Ammassa’s comments, telling Fleet News that they are seeing companies “that would have outright purchased their vehicles” switching to rental. Customers are attracted by the flexibility of van rental and are also being discouraged from buying by difficulties securing credit.

Of course, van rental has always had a number of benefits - not least a lack of responsibility for maintenance, repair or replacement of hire vehicles. When a rented van needs replacing or repairing, the van rental company will arrange this automatically and provide a suitable alternative, resulting in near-seamless vehicle availability without any hassle.

See Fleet News for more details.

Reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions are undoubtedly the big issues of the moment for most van owners.

While motorway warriors might already enjoy decent mpg figures, historically it has never been so easy for vans used on urban work to reduce their fuel consumption. Idling time - whether at traffic lights or in queues - wastes terrific amounts of fuel.

The Mercedes-Benz ECO-Start system is designed to address this and one of the first vehicles to benefit from it is the company’s award-winning new Sprinter range. ECO-Start is now being fitted as standard to all 4-cylinder, manual Sprinters and it has now made its way into the rental market, courtesy of leading van hire company Northgate Vehicle Hire.

The Northgate name might not be familiar to you, but one of the companies they supply with hire vehicles is easyVan - and the new ECO-Start Sprinters are being trialled at three easyVan branch locations.

The trial locations are:

• Southampton - Delta Vehicle Hire
• Birmingham - Cartrux Vehicle Hire
• Bristol - Bristol & West Vehicle Hire

Mercedes state that the ECO-Start system can reduce fuel consumption by up to 10% - but trials in Commercial Motor and Motor Transport magazines have produced far bigger savings - of up to 30%, according to BigLorryBlog (penned by Commercial Motor editor Brian Weatherley).

I expect that the ECO-Start system will be a big hit with fleet and rental buyers - once it proves its long-term reliability and van drivers get used to the idea of the engine stopping and starting on its own! If you’re keen to try one out, then get in touch with one of the Northgate branches listed above or head over to your nearest Mercedes-Benz van dealer for a test drive.

An innovative new van hire service has launched in London. Streetvan is an extension of the popular and successful Streetcar service, which provides unmanned 24/7/365 car hire from a wide range of locations in London.

The way the service works is simple - you register to become a user and then have access to Streetvan’s fleet of VW Transporters, which are kept parked in reserved parking spaces in more than 50 locations around London.

You can make bookings on Streetvan’s website or over the phone and bookings can be made anything from 60 seconds to six months in advance. Collections and drop offs can be at anytime - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - unlike conventional hire services, as the collection/drop off process is completely automated and unmanned.

Each registered user has a smartcard that enables them to unlock the vans and deactivate their immobilisers - keys are kept in the glove box as they are no use without the Streetvan member’s smartcard and PIN.

Van rental rates start from £8.95 an hour and you can rent a van for anything from 1 hour to 6 months. Streetvan even permit vans to be taken abroad (unlike many rental companies), although this does incur extra charges.

Hourly van rental can be a boon for picking up eBay purchases or large items from shops - the only downside is that Streetvan is only available in London!

If you need hourly van hire outside London, the only company I know of that offers this service is Europcar, with their DriveTime product. Click here to learn more.

The Birmingham branch of well-known commercial vehicle dealer Chatfields has announced that it will begin offering a van and minibus hire service using LDV Maxus vans, which it also sells.

This reminded me that there are quite a few main dealers who also offer a hire service. In fact, I’ve used several in the past and they have often been quite convenient and competitively priced.

This kind of service is usually provided by particular dealers, rather than the manufacturers themselves - so availability in different locations can vary widely. However, if you have exhausted all other options and not been able to find a suitable hire van for your needs, it’s always worth a try, especially if you have a big commercial dealer near to you.

You can find location details for Chatfields’ Birmingham branch here.

Northway Vehicle Sales is an independent company offering short and long term van hire and commercial  vehicle sales from its base in Baildon, just to the north of Shipley, West Yorkshire.

The company was founded in October 2003 by two experienced commercial vehicle industry professionals and offers a comprehensive range of services. Vans are available for short and long-term hire and Northway can also arrange new vehicle leasing. The company keeps a wide range of used commercial vehicles in stock - they specialise in vehicles under five years of age with service history.

If you’d like to learn more about van hire or sales from Northway Vehicle Sales, visit their website at www.northwayvehiclesales.co.uk or call or email them direct on 01274 588880 / northwayvehicles@msn.com.

Baildon is a small village just to the north of Shipley, which itself is just to the north of Bradford, West Yorkshire.

European van hire - taking a hire van from the UK to mainland Europe and back - is an increasingly common practice. A few of the more popular reasons for crossing the Channel in a rental van are:

• Moving house
• Musical/sports tour
• Booze cruise
• …and of course couriers/express light haulage

Here on myLocalVanHire.co.uk, Birmingham is our second most popular van hire search location.  Walsall-based Admiral Self Drive Van Hire are perfectly positioned for both Birmingham and Walsall customers and are also one of the few companies in the area who offer a comprehensive European van hire service.

Admiral have a wide range of vans and minibuses available for European use. These Include Transits, VW Transporters, Mercedes Sprinter 4.3m long-wheelbase hi-tops and Mercedes-Benz Lutons with tail lifts. Admiral also have specially built 950cu.ft mini furniture removal vans (pretty much the biggest possible 3.5 tonne vans). All rental vans can be driven on standard car licence.

To ensure that your European trip is as stress free as possible, Admiral also provide comprehensive European RAC rescue and recovery cover. European driving insurance and documentation is arranged at no extra cost and there are no additional charges for extra drivers.

Admiral are ideally located for most of the West Midlands, just off Junction 10 of the M6 - click here for a map.

If you’ve got any questions about Admiral’s European van rental service or would like a quotation, you can call them free on 0800 197 8875. For details of their vans, check out their website here.

myLocalVanHire.co.uk advertiser Green Motion is helping primary school children in Oxford to learn about environmental issues through their sponsorship of Oxford City Council’s ‘Greenvision’ programme.

Green Motion, which has a branch in Oxford, is a car and van hire company specialising in environmentally-friendly vehicle hire. Energy saving, recycling and pollution control are core parts of their business strategy and Max Jacobs, owner of Green Motion’s Oxford branch, says that “it’s great to be able to actively support local education” - especially when it promotes environmental issues.

To learn more about Green Motion or book a green hire van or car, visit www.greenmotion.co.uk.

We are very pleased to welcome Practical Car & Van Rental in Caversham, Reading, to the  myLocalVanHire.co.uk van hire directory.

Practical are based on Ardler Road, in Caversham, which is to the north of Reading city centre. They are a national chain with more than 150 van, minibus and car hire locations throughout the UK.

Practical’s Reading branch covers the Theale, Wargrave, Whitchurch, Wokingham, Henley, Sandhurst and Purley areas and can provide a ‘meet and greet’ service at local railway and coach stations if required.

A wide range of hire vans and minibuses are available for hire from Practical in Reading, including:

• Short, medium and long wheelbase panel vans (e.g. Ford Transit, Mercedes Sprinter)
• Small vans (e.g. Vauxhall Combo, Citroen Berlingo)
• Luton vans (with and without tail lifts)
• 7.5 tonne trucks
• 9, 12, 15 and 17 seat minibuses

A full range of hire cars are also available.

Practical pride themselves on providing a flexible service and one-way van hire is available to most of their other hire locations in the UK. It’s also possible to arrange one-way hire to most major airports and many other locations. To arrange one-way hire from Reading with Practical, click here for their one-way hire page.

Age restrictions and extra fees for younger rental drivers aren’t much of a surprise - “it’s the insurance”, we all say.

It’s less well known that many of the same restrictions apply to older drivers, too. Especially anyone over 75.

Even though a great many people aged 70+ are still perfectly fit and able to drive, it seems that the insurers who cover van hire companies aren’t very keen on older drivers, believing they pose an extra risk.

I’ve found maximum age restrictions from 65 to 75 - with various ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ thrown in to the mix to keep us all confused.

To help anyone who is looking to hire a van and happens to be over 70, I’ve put together a league table of the maximum age limits operated by van hire companies offering national coverage (click here for minimum age limits):

1. National

Top of the league is National Van Rental with no upper age limit at most of their 100+ UK van hire branches.

Here’s what their website says:

“There is no upper age limit except at Pembroke, and Carmarthen where the age limit is 75 years. Plymouth, Exeter, Newquay, Taunton, Wigan, Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich the upper age limit is 70 years.”

2. Enterprise

In joint first place is Enterprise. According to their website:

“There is no maximum age limit when renting with Enterprise.”

3. Sixt

Sixt keep it simple. The upper age limit for van hire is 75.

4. easyVan

easyVan’s upper age limit is 75 at most branches and not specified for others. Check the online terms and conditions for your branch when booking.

5. 1Van1

1van1 have a maximum age limit of 75.

6. Europcar

Europcar’s upper age limit for van hire is 74.

7. Thrifty

Thrifty’s position is a little more complicated, according to their website. Their “standard insurance age range is 25-70.”

Anyone aged 71-75 should be able to hire a van, as long as they don’t have any medical conditions that are prohibited by Thrifty’s insurer.

Anyone aged 76 upwards probably won’t be able to rent from Thrifty unless they were previously a customer before they were 76, in which case Thrifty say that they: “may be able to help you as a re-renter, but we will need to refer this to our insurer.”

8. Budget

Bringing up the rear is Budget, which has the dubious distinction of being the only major firm that appears to charge older drivers a surcharge (most firms just do this for younger drivers).

Budget’s standard age range appears to be 25-70. Renters age 70-75 are allowed but are subject to a “Senior Driver Surcharge” of a whopping £11.75 per day (up to a maximum of £58.75). Ouch!

To learn more about rules and restrictions applying to van hire, see our “Van Hire Age / Licence Guidelines” page.