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What are your rental terms?
Page 83
Page 84
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Alan Millar phones the trailer hire firms...
CONTRARY to popular opinion, CM staff seldom have the opportunity to indulge in the cloak and dagger journalism which journalists are alleged to employ. I did manage to slip vaguely into the role a few weeks ago when I set out to find out, from the owner-driver's viewpoint, what trailer rental companies offer.
By impersonating an ownerdriver's financial adviser, I was able to gain access to rental companies' staff who might otherwise give the press a "glossy"' view of their activities. I wanted to know their rates, conditions, and their general attitude towards phone inquiries, and asked them to send literature to an address away from the CM office.
A call to Trailerent's head office at Staines in Middlesex revealed that I was on to the wrong place. "You want to contact our Slough branch," the chatty telephonist told me, "and ask for Mr Moorhead or Mr Rice. Yes, Rice, as in pudding.Fortunately, it was Mr Moorhead who answered.
Could my client have a 40ft box trailer tomorrow? ' 'An owner-driver?said Mr Moorhead. -Well, that'll be difficult." He would need to provide bankers' references and trade
references from other businesses with which he had dealings.
He would also need to prove that his tractive unit is insured and that he has a fully comprehensive policy for the trailer,
both attached and detached any loss or damage incu while ills in his hands.
It will be the owner-dri■ responsibility if the trail( stolen from a lay-by.
Mr Moorhead promise send me a rates card, and arrived within five days. A tandem-axle dry-freight would cost my man £13 per for up to six days, £62 a w £57 a week if hired mon. £52 a week if hired quart £50 a week if hired six mon and £48 a week if hired f year. VAT comes on top of but all servicing, DTp tes' and normal tyre wear is cluded. There is no milt charge.
Rentco's London East d promised to send a rates and a list of terms and cc tions, but these still ha reached me after seven day may have been the Post 0 which let me down, but I compelled to use a rate , dated October 1978.
For the same 40ft tanc axle boxvan, my driver w, pay £15, £68, £63, £58, I
and £50 plus VAT for the same periods laid down by Trailerent. What about insurance? "Basically, it boils down to responsibility for damage and wear and tear," I was told, but Rentco offers to insure the trailer for its customers.
Its Rentco Insurance Plan, offers theft, damage, marine cover, and attached and detached cover for travel to most countries including the Middle East and the Communist bloc. Piextar Insurance Brokers Ltd places the insurance at Lloyds, and customers can take advantage of it if they advise Rentco when they hire the equipment.
My owner-driver would need two trade references and a banker's reference, and would have to satisfy Rentco that he has adequate insurance cover.
Gilflex Rental could not send me a rates card, but its East London man told me that a 40ft boxvan would cost £7.50 a day if hired on a monthly basis. Yes, my owner-driver would need two credit references from "someone he pays money to", a bank reference, and proof of fully comprehensive insurance.
The depot assured me that, once these checks had been made, trailers could be made available in no more than three days. "Generally our head office is very quick," I was told.
What about taking the trailers to Europe? "No problem, as long as he doesn't want to go to the Middle East." And Gilflex will provide carnets at 50p a page used, simplifying the small operator's task.
The manager of BRS Trailer Rental at Brentford in Middlesex had a similar attitude towards my fictitious owner-driver client. "I have no objections if he wants to take the trailer out of the country," she said, after asking for the customary business and bank references.
He could pay cash for the first two weeks, then apply for a BRS account which would allow him 30 days to pay, and he would be responsible for providing a fully comprehensive insurance cover for the trailer.
The terms and conditions laid down by BRS forbid the hirer from carrying goods which will damage the trailer, and prevent him from passing the trailer on, by any means, to a third party. If the trailer suffers a breakdown, is damaged, or lost, the hirer must continue to pay rental until the vehicle is returned in fit and proper condition.
Hire charges for a 40ft tandem-axle van are £15 a day. £65 per week, £60 a week if hired for a month, £56 a week if hired for three months, £54 a week if hired for six months, and £52 a week if hired for a year. These include VAT, and there is no mileage charge, but, like the other companies, BRS reserves the right to vary its rates without prior notice.
Boxvans are, of course, only one type among many which trailer rental firms have available, and my owner-driver could have gone for flatbeds, curtain siders, refrigerated vans, lowloaders, or skeletals. The basic conditions are the same, but hire charges vary with, for in
stance, BRS charging £9 per day for a 40ft flatbed, and Rentco £10.
Time prevented me from contacting other trailer rental firms, but the pattern of replies from those I did speak to suggests that they would have followed similar lines. A hirer must prove his financial standing, /must arrange adequate insutrance, and must behave responsibly when he takes delivery of the vehicle.
My only quibble with the people to whom I did speak was an apparent reluctance on their part to discuss the details of the terms and conditions of hire. I do not blame them so much as their companies' organisations, as few seemed to have printed conditions available. Only when a contract is signed, does the customer appear to see them in writing.
All, though, were willing to help, and any potential trailer rental customer seems assured of ready attention when he does contact a hire depot.