The growth of medium-term rental is giving fleet operators a wide choice of acquisition methods, says Meridian Vehicle Solutions.

Phil Jerome, managing director of the company, said the product was becoming established as a bridge between traditional daily rental and longer term solutions such as leasing and price.

He added: “Fleets have customarily been faced with a choice between acquisition methods that are designed to provide vehicles for days and weeks or for several years.

“There has been a very obvious gap that was not easily filled. The emergence of medium-term rental has started to change that picture and fleets are now looking at a spectrum of acquisition methods, with the new option spanning the gap between the two extremes.

“They can choose the product that fits their current requirement with a much higher degree of exactitude both operationally and economically.”

Meridian provides medium term contracts to fleets for periods of three to 12 months, with monthly lease rates comparable to long term contract hire and leasing.

Jerome said: “What we have seen over the last year is a much higher level of awareness of medium term rental and the number of vehicles we have on rent has doubled overall.

“Fleets are simply becoming more aware of the product and more comfortable with using it.

“There are many different but common fleet situations when medium-term rental makes sense as the obvious acquisition method.

“These can range from providing cars for employees during their probationary periods through to meeting the requirements of short-term contracts.

“We even see some fleets using medium-term rental on a rolling basis because they don’t want to commit to longer-term contracts or simply like changing cars frequently.”

He expected to see interest in medium-term rental increase over the next year as more fleet managers recognise it as an established product.

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