are used rental passenger vans a good deal

Capps always follows up online reservations with a phone call to double check. No-shows are harder to swallow because of the specificity of the equipment. 'A 20 percent overbook on a van is the kiss of death,' says Capps. Overbooking to compensate for no-shows will get you in trouble, because there are no alternate choices or upgrades to accommodate 12 to 15 travelers. 'Fooling around with rates to compete with the guy down the road is not going to work,' says Capps. Still, 'You can't force the RPU,' he says, noting that commercial vehicle and van rentals are driven by need, not rates. 'It's not a meaningful scenario because there's nothing you can do to increase it.' 'If you're going to rent any type of commercial vehicle - big pickup, box truck, stakebed, 15-passenger or cargo van - throw the utilization table out the window,' says Capps. 'You almost want to short yourself and be out on the weekend.' Vercollone cuts his rates in half during the week in the winter. 'You can't give them away if no one wants them,' he says. Vercollone says it's not uncommon for 75 percent of his fleet to sit during the week. These operators say it is ideal to remarket at 30,000-40,000 miles while still under manufacturers' warranties.

This suggests longer hold times, though maintenance issues and potential liability temper the desire to run up the miles. The depreciation curve on large passenger vans is steep in the first year. Capps once found that he'd make more money selling off much of his van fleet in May instead of holding through the summer. 'The advantage to auction, even though it could cost us $1,500 to $2,000, is the quick cash,' says Irani.Ĭapps holds his risk vans for a year to 15 months, though he looks for opportunity sales when the market is right. Some try retail, though the vans can sit for awhile. Because vans accrue miles quickly, negotiating mileage caps with the manufacturer can get tricky.įor risk units, the auctions are still the primary remarketing outlet. There are fewer manufacturers' repurchase programs these days they're expensive and they come with more restrictions, these operators say. 'The minute school starts, drops like a hot potato,' says Vercollone. Jack Vercollone, president, de-fleets repurchase units at the end of summer and holds the risk units, a third of his van fleet, to rent through the winter. Verc Rentals serves Boston's south suburbs out of six locations with a mix of passenger cars, SUVs and vans. However, for a normal summer season, a six-month repurchase program will still encompass two slow months, says Irani. This strict seasonality is managed in part with a mix of risk and repurchase units. I've been trying to get around that for 35 years,' he says. 'Ideally you should sell them before July 4, though that's the beginning of your biggest month in rental,' says Dave Capps of Capps Van and Truck Rental, who rents large passenger vans, cargo vans, pickups and flatbeds out of 15 locations in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. 'I need to be wise enough to understand how much fleet to have when my utilization goes up and how much cost I'm going to eat when demand dries up,' says Yaz Irani of Airport Van Rentals, a van specialist serving four California airport locations.

Are used rental passenger vans a good deal