Covid-19 produces 'perfect storm' for fleets wanting short-term hire

The Covid-19 pandemic and the increase in home deliveries has caused issues for fleets wanting to get hold of vans on short-term hires, the Fleet 200 meeting heard.

Delegates at the latest virtual Fleet200 Executive Club event discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic and the increase in home deliveries had meant short-term rental vehicles were often hard to get hold of.

One fleet manager said: “It’s almost a perfect storm really, isn’t it?

“Because we’ve been reducing the number of people per vehicle during the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve increased the number of vans we run by about 15%.

“With the natural Christmas rush from the home delivery guys, the uptake in vehicles has been phenomenal and there’s been a struggle to get hold of short-term rental vans.

“I think everybody just has to sort of accept a little bit of pain on this one and go ‘it's a situation, we have Christmas at the same time every year, we know this comes, we normally manage it’.

“There have been certain situations where we haven't been able to get the vehicle we want, but in fairness to the rental companies, they’ve managed it pretty well.”