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What is Flexi Hire? A quick look at the key benefits
You’ve got a whole range of options when it comes to hiring vehicles for your business fleet. Many businesses opt for daily hire, whereas others prefer long-term leases. But what if neither option is exactly what you need? Simple. That’s where flexi hire comes in! Flexi hire is a core aspect of our service here at Intack Self Drive - it’s a useful alternative to other types of vehicle hire, and one that not every business considers. So what exactly is flexi hire, and how can your company benefit?
What is flexi hire?
Flexi hire is often referred to by a couple of different names in the industry. These include:
- Gap Hire
- Flexi Rent
- Short Term Lease
- Rent 28
- Flex It 28
- Monthly Hire
- Month to Month Rent
- Flex – E – Rent
Here at Intack Self Drive, we tend to refer to it simply as flexi hire. Essentially, flexi hire is designed to give you more freedom in hiring the cars your business needs for a period that suits you, and it does so without tying you into inconvenient long-term commitments or incurring hefty short-term costs. The process is simple and straightforward; choose what type of vehicle will be best for your intended purpose, and how long you’d like to hire it for (our hire periods start from a minimum of just 28 days). You can then renew - or ‘roll’ - this contract as often as you’d like.
Essentially, this system allows you to enjoy the benefits of longer term hire at reduced rates compared to daily hire car prices. This makes it far easier to manage all the various costs involved with hiring and maintaining your business fleet, and can easily save you hundreds of pounds while helping you to maintain your business’ productivity.
Advantages of flexi hire
There’s no long term commitment involved
One of the key issues normally associated with hiring cars is that long-term leases usually require some type of written or financial commitment, and one that’s not always convenient for your business! Then there are the slightly less obvious factors to consider, such as the steadily evolving legal stance on certain types of vehicles here in the UK. Gradually stricter controls on emissions and changes in vehicle tax means that fleet managers are always having to look several months (or even years) ahead when buying or leasing their vehicles, making it a constant balancing act. Few people can forget the government’s U-turn on diesel vehicles a few years ago!
However, flexi hiring a vehicle requires no long term commitment, allowing managers to make quick and agile changes to their fleet in reaction to any new legislation, key information or emerging market trends - saving the cost, time and effort involved in having to replace fleet vehicles one by one. It also helps control your cashflow, as the monthly payments mean you can budget accordingly.
Trial a vehicle to see what works for you
Another advantage of no long-term commitments is that it allows you to experiment a bit, trialling the vehicles that work best for your business, and best for your drivers. This is especially true for companies whose staff spend a lot of time out on the roads, such as tradesmen or salespeople. Trialling each vehicle allows you to test out its mileage, driver comfort and overall level of utility so that you can consider whether it’s worth investing in similar vehicles for the rest of your fleet, or even flexi hiring more of them - and all without spending money and time being tied into a longer-term lease.
Reduced delays and disruption
Flexi hire is designed to be fast and easy, so that you can get all the necessary administration sorted in a matter of days rather than weeks. This is another way in which it increases your business agility and responsiveness, allowing you to react quickly to changing situations. If you’ve got a new employee starting, for example, you can sort out their business transport in time for their first day, rather than leaving them hanging around waiting, or deal with all the hassle involved in organising for them to borrow vehicle in the meantime. It means that you’re always benefitting from maximum productivity, and with less hassle to boot.
Save yourself the complications of a ‘grey fleet’
In short, a ‘grey fleet’ is basically the use of an employee’s private vehicle for business travel. While it’s a fairly common situation for many businesses here in the UK, it’s also far less than ideal, as it complicates an employer’s responsibility to health and safety, their duty of care, and what level of responsibility they bear for the condition and safety of the vehicle. Flexi hire can give businesses increased flexibility and capital to provide employees with their own company cars - all of which have their own detailed service histories and maintenance schedules, making everything simpler and straightforward for fleet managers.
Quickly acquire vehicles for specific events or situations
Some situations might demand a certain type of vehicle. One example might be if you’ve just become aware of a particular corporate event you’d like your staff to attend, which you might be able to do most efficiently with a minivan or people carrier. Alternatively, you might be sending one of your staff to a sales call in a busy inner city like London or Manchester, in which case a city car might be handy so they can get in and get parked up on time. Or maybe a situation has developed at a job site, and you need to send a particular team down with particular tools, in which case you might want to explore your options in flexi van hire.
Whatever the case, flexi hire can give you the perfect type of vehicle at short notice, so that you can field it quickly and appropriately, wasting no time in getting your staff behind the wheel and off to where you need them to go.
These are just the general advantages that flexi hire can offer - you might find that it can offer even more specific benefits, unique to your business! We’ve got no shortage of options for you right here at Intack Self Drive; you can choose anything from compact city cars to impressive large cars in our flexi car hire section, or pick the perfect Light Commercial Vehicle from our flexi van hire category. And of course, if you’ve got any questions or you need any advice, our friendly team is only a phone call away on 01254 57811!