Topics
on car hire rental:
Where
have all the car hire rentals gone? ...
We are now in mid August 2009 at the height of the summer season and for the second
week in the row The Independent has featured this story, not only as a news report
but also in the editorial. It appear that holidaymakers are finding a severe shortage
of rental cars in countries like Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and other destinations.
Small
cars are particulary in short supply and on the insurance4carrental.com blog in
early July I reported the story under “ Book
your car hire early this summer - you might not get one at the last minute”
of propblems of some people I knew who tried to rent a car at Nice at the last
minute and could not find anything apart from an Audi TT that was rather expensive
for the week. In the end the person looking after the villa they were renting
was able to arrange a rental from a vehicle body repair company that provides
courtesy cars.
Car
rental companies say they have not been able to buy enough vehicles because of
a fall in manufacturing and tighter lending conditions. Normally there would be
a large choice of small Citroens, Fiats, Fords, Peugeots, Seats and VWs. According
to the Independent report “Lease Europe” the industry body for car hire companies
was saying that firms had been unable to get the finance needed to expand their
fleets and the rules restricting the movement of vehicles across borders to meet
demand had compounded the problem.
jmlvillas.com
are Holiday
Autos agents and their Managing Director
Stuart Nassos told The Independent that the shortage was blamed on shortages in
the recession as car manufactuers have cut the number of cars being built, therefore
fewer are available and also there is a lack of credit. The two combine to create
a perfect storm.
Stuart
Nassos advised holidaymakers not to rely on an airport booking which may be cancelled
at short notice, but to book a car from a city location.
Holidaymakers
and business travellers should book in advance and make sure they take out car
hire excess insurance which is usually much cheaper than buying it from the car
rental company when you collect the car. Insurance4carrental.com acts as introducer
agents for well known providers like
Insurance4carhire
and questor
Insurance.
The
recession plus the unsettled weather in northern Europe has also been another
contributory factor to the shortage. People have suddenly decided to take a last
minute holiday in warmer countries like Italy, Portugal and Spain, in fact at
jmlvillas.com we had an email from an agent in the Algarve ten days ago saying
she was so busy arranging last minute self catering villa holidays.
The
Independent article quoted Michael Taride, President of Hertz Europe telling the
BBC that there is a seasonal shortage of rental cars every summer, but it seems
to be more acute this year because car makers have cut production due to uncertain
economy. There has been a big increase in domestic and US inbound travel and holidaymakers
are deciding to go away at the last minute.
An
obvious solution is to use older cars in the busy season, however it looks like
most hire companies don’t keep car for too long. The Independent’s editorial is
of a similar opintion on the 15th August with a headline “ Bring on the old bangers”.
It
was a different situation in Ireland when I checked on Friday to rent a car in
Dublin for a long weekend commencing 27th August. Both holiday autos and
Irishcarrentals
had an excellent supply of small cars. Unfortunately
the weather won’t be as hot there as in the Algarve.
©
Philip Suter of jml Property Services August 2009
See
also:
No
car hire shortages in the summer of 2011
Are
there going to be car hire shortages again the summer of 2010?
Lack
of Car Hire Availability Set to Continue into 2010 Warns Carrentals.co.uk - December
2009
Spain
Still Has Car Hire Problems - Blog December 2009
Is
there still a shortage of car hire vehicles in Europe? - Blog October 09
Shortage
of Car hire vehicles in Spain - August 2009
Book
your car hire early this summer - you might not get one at the last minute
- Blog - July 2009
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