Everything you need to know about hiring a van from NVP Vehicle Rentals

Moving house? sorting out the garden once and for all? Fancy a few nights away and have got a lot of equipment? Then you may be thinking about hiring a van. But what are the requirements? Are you even qualified to drive one?

Let's tackle that question below....

Driving licence and code

There are alot of myths around driving license and van hire, let us bust them for you. To drive our Vans from NVP all you need is a standard UK driving licence to hire and drive a van that weighs under 3.5 tonnes. All vans on the NVP Rentals fleet are less than 3.5 tonnes, so you can take your pick. It’s that simple. You don’t need any special qualifications. All our vans have manual gearboxes, so a full licence rather than a licence restricted to automatic vehicles is required.

We also require evidence of any driving endorsements, bans or points, such as speeding offences within the last 5 years on your licence. For that, you have two very simple options. You can use the government website to print out a copy of your Licence Summary which is valid for 30 days.

The other option is to generate a Unique Code, which NVP can use to view your summary online. In both cases, go to https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence armed with your driving licence number, your National Insurance number and the postcode on your licence.

Are you old enough?

For the smaller B4 and C4 category NVP vans, which includes the VW Caddy, the minimum age is 23 years old. Those under 25 must pay a daily young driver surcharge. For NVP's larger vans, like the Ford Transit, Volkswagen Transporter and the Ford Transit Luton, the minimum age is 25 years.

Insurance and excess

All our vans we hire in Stoke on trent area come with insurance cover as part of the hire package. What’s more, most rentals also come with a Collision Damage Waiver policy that limits your liability in the event of an accident or damage to the amount of the excess. For NVP's van rentals in the stoke on trent area, the excess figure is typically £1,000, but this will be confirmed by your hire specialist prior to booking.

Fuelled and ready to go

Most of our hire vans are fuelled with diesel (as you'd expect). However, smaller models such as the Ford Fiesta van may be petrol powered. You can check availability and specifications with your local NVP branch prior to driving away.

Size matters

You might think bigger is automatically better when it comes to vans, but even the smallest vans on the Hertz fleet have some serious load capacity. VW Caddy, for instance, has under 700kg of total capacity and a load bay that’s 1.5 metres wide, 1.8 metres deep and 1.2 metres tall. Again, that’s a very large load space compared to something like a standard hatchback.

However, if you’re moving large items including furniture, you’ll need more load space. This is where the Ford Transit van comes in useful, which can cope with loads up to 1,100kg and has a very large load bay measuring 1.8 metres wide, 2.5 metres deep and 2.4 metres tall.

The daddy of all our rental vans is the Luton. Its load space is fully three times larger than the standard transit at 2.1 metres wide, 3.9 metres deep and 2.4 metres tall. If you’re doing a major house move with lots of furniture and other large items, the Transit Luton would be your best choice. You can book a Luton for hire on our home booking form

Give yourself a lift

Getting large and heavy items such as furniture and home appliances like fridge freezer and washing machines into and out of a van can be a challenge. The van’s load bay is usually a significant distance off the ground.

The solution is to hire a van with a built in tail lift. This is a fold-out platform that lowers to the ground and then raises back up to the load floor, making is much easier and safer to load and unload large and heavy items.

Rolling out

For the most part, modern vans are simple to drive and surprisingly refined and economical. Most are just like a regular road car, right down to features like ABS brakes, stability control systems, steering-wheel airbags and even stereo systems.

However, NVP's larger vans may be much bigger than any car you’ve driven before and particular care must be taken when loading and driving a van with heavy loads. To find out more about NVP and hiring a van in stoke on trent area, visit out FAQ section at the bottom of our websites homepage.

Finally... taking photographs of your hire van is a must.

When hiring a van from NVP and checking it over, it is advised you take photographs of (or even videotape*) the exterior, interior and underneath of the vehicle.

Don’t worry if you think you are wasting our time, it is important and we understand you are serious about keeping the van in perfect condition. If you notice anything that the worker does not mark down on his check sheet, ask to involve another member of staff to complete your check-out or for a different van (where available).

We suggest you photograph both sides of the van, the bonnet, windscreen, back door/boot, tyres, and inside the loading area.

Need to hire a van in Stoke on trent? Find out more and book here.