RENTAL SURVEY
Page 41
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17-TONNERS
Next name on our list was Smith Self Drive. Again we would have to sort out our own insurance, but a 16-tonne box van was available. We could pay the 289.70 unlimited distance charge when we collected, with a £50 fuel deposit which was returnable lithe vehicle was returned full. Again, proof of insurance and a letterhead were required.
We arranged to hire the BRS, Beeline and Smith vehicles for Thursday 21 September. The plan was to take our drivers to each depot, pick up the vehicles 3nd let the FTA inspect them at our test centre at Chobham, Surrey. We then phoned Ryder and Hunt and booked their trucks for the following day, Friday 22 September.
Ryder advertises trucks up to 38 tonies. A 16-tonner with tail-lift would cost f124.20, including insurance, said Jack the salesman. We would also have to deposit E250, and the price covered us up to 350km; after that it was 10p a kilometre. We were reminded (Ryder was the only iirer to do this) that the driver who colected would have to possess an HGV 3.
Last on our list was Hunt Truck Rentals of Uxbridge. It offered a 16-tonne iox van for £109.25 with a 295 deposit, ind the fuel we used would be deducted rom this. The first 2001cm were included, with a 10p charge thereafter, and insurince had to be arranged by us.
COLLECTIONS/RETURNS
tit dawn on day one of the test we were it Smith Self Drive, right under the light path of Heathrow Airport at Armadale Road, Feltham, Middlesex.
The yard is small and the main office is in the first floor. An unprepossessing enranee leads into a smart, functional area or customers to wait in, with easy chairs. Ales and potted plants. We were dealt with quickly and smoothly and were in and nit in less than 17 minutes.
Smith allowed us to pay by American .....2xpress and charged £78 with a £50 dexisit. We were given a cash refund to settle the outstanding balance when we returned the truck the following morning.
Before being allowed into the Ilercedes-Benz 1617, the company's helpid staff walked around the vehicle and narked any dents or scratches onto a :ard and got us to countersign the slip. Smith was the only company in our test to Jo this, and the only company which exilained fully every step of the booking rocedure.
The return to Smith was equally smooth and professional, marred only slightly by a broken computer printer which refused to issue our final invoice intil it had been switched off completely, ticked and then restarted.
Beeline Truck Rental is just around he corner from Smith Self Drive in FelthIM. If anything, the Beeline yard is smaler than the Smith yard, cramped between
the storage and air cargo freight forwarding warehouses that pepper this part of west London.
Beeline's tiny truck rental office only has enough room for two customers to stand in; our driver stood in the hallway. The two truck rental staff were friendly and cheerful, but constantly interrupted by a battery of telephones.
There was a problem, explained the manager. "Listen mate, I'm sorry. We've got a dodgy tail-lift; it's stuck in the horizontal position. We're looking at it now." How long will it take to fix? we asked. "Well, about an hour I should think. We're going to try and weld it."
Beeline offered us the truck until Saturday morning if we waited (effectively an extra 24 hours free) and tried hard to persuade us that the one hour repair estimate could easily be less. "No good," we replied, "we need the truck to do a job this lunchtime." Our subtefuge worked and we struck a compromise. Because we did not need the tail-lift, it was removed in about 10 minutes. We hit the road again after paying with American Express.
Beeline called V P Machine Transport's insurance broker just to check that the vehicle had indeed been insured by us. Beeline was one of three rental companies in the test which required us to insure the trucks ourselves (the others being Smith and Hunt), but the only one to check that we had done so.
When we returned the truck, the receptionist said thankyou and goodbye. The company did not check for dents or scratches (which was just as well because someone directing us into the yard had just helped us clip the gatepost) and did not bother to check the fuel level in the tank to see how much fuel we used. This
too was fortuitous because Beeline was the only firm in the survey to send us out with a less-than-full tank. In fact, the Beeline tank was less than a quarter full when we drove the vehicle away.
By the time we had sorted out Smith and Beeline the morning of our first day had all but slipped away, and when we telephoned BRS just to check everything was in order, we got a shock. "Sorry, Sir, you told us you would be picking up at 7.30am. We presumed you did not need the truck and we have let it go to someone else now." We had not committed ourselves to a 7.30 pick-up when telephone-booking the vehicle and protested, but BRS was adamant. Eventually it transpired that the truck rental office at BRS had promised the truck to someone who had broken down.
There was a long pause on the phone before BRS came back to offer us a truck booked in for a service that day. "Should be out of the service bays by 2.30pm, sir" we were told. We decided to give it a go.
We arrived at BRS' central London depot at the Elephant & Castle just after