01 April 2009

Europcar to launch 'pay as you go' car hire

Europcar is to launch pay as you go car hire with the UK's first hire cars fitted with meters.

The meters will take £1 coins allowing customers to pay as they go rather than pay for the time of the rental.

They will be charged at a rate of £1.04p per mile and with a minimum load charged at £2 per journey.

Each car will be supplied with £10 worth of mileage on the meter and once this has been used, the customer will need to feed the meter according to the miles they anticipate travelling.

In order to avoid people breaking down when the meter runs out of money, Europcar will be fitting change machines in each of its 200 locations across the UK and for home deliveries, bags of pound coins will be offered in exchange for notes.

Marketing director Catriona Lougher said: "We already offer rentals by the hour, delivery and collection and the UK's widest choice of rental cars and soon customers will have the choice to take one of our metered vehicles which will prove really cost-effective for short journeys."

The vehicles fitted with meters will be available from key urban locations from April 1, 2010, allowing the business to test the service throughout 2009 at selected branches in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Lougher added: "We'd be a fool not to test this concept on our customers fully before our launch in 2010 but really hope this will prove to be a way forward for urban car rental."

By Bev Fearis