Hiring a van at the weekend can be more expensive than you think

If you need to move some furniture or other items, go shopping at IKEA or similar store over the weekend hiring a van in the UK could cost more than you think.

The reason is straightforward. Most van hire companies do not appear to be open on a Sunday and close around lunchtime on a Saturday. This means the consumer has only a very small window to collect the vehicle, move, shop or whatever and return the vehicle before the company shuts.
One company I looked at would only rent out the vehicle for the complete weekend. Other ones said no problem hiring for all the day, but as the depot closed sharp at 12.00 or 1.00 you cannot leave it outside as it would be your responsibility until it was checked back in.

So in nutshell you can quite often be looking at two days rental plus three days insurance as you will have to pay for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Last weekend I hired a van locally, after shopping around found a dealer with a spare Ford Transit. Although they shut at 1.00 there would be no problem leaving it outside and putting the keys through the letter box, but of course the vehicle would not be checked back in your presence.

We arrived soon after 8 in the morning, moved the first item from A to B, then drove to C to move the second item back to A and returned the vehicle (after filling up with diesel to the quarter full level, which is lot harder than collecting it full and refilling it to full again!) and got it checked back in.

Although paying for a full day's hire, in fact only really needed the vehicle for around four hours, so it worked out well.

Like previous van hire requirements, I purchased my own van hire excess insurance which was actually cheaper than the van hire company's one. As we promote different insurance companies on the insurance4carrental.com site, I like to try our advertiser's products. This time I used Questor Insurance Van Hire Excess Insurance, they have recently entered this market after being in the car hire excess insurance and the motorhome hire excess insurance business for a number of years. This cost me £5.99 and I was not charged a credit car fee. Find out more about Questor Van Hire Excess Insurance Here.  It is for UK hire only. 

Earlier this year I used iCarhireinsurance Van Hire Excess Insurance which again was good value, the current price is £7.99 a day with zero excess and they will cover you in Europe. Find out more about them Here  

On a couple of other occasions I have used Insuremyvanhire.com which is part of Towergate's Insurance4carhire They currently charge £7.99 a day. Find out more about them Here

So if you are going to the post Christmas sales, move home or furniture, do remember that if hire a van at the weekend and only want it for one day, it might be cheaper to hire it on a weekday.