Brrrrr!!! Its blooming freezing out! -8 in our neck of the woods, so I thought it might be sensible to put together some tips for driving in the cold.

• Be prepared for emergencies – keep a blanket, boots, an extra pair of gloves and a flashlight in the trunk of your car
• Let the car warm up before setting off and allow an extra 10 minutes to do so.
• Be sure your car has a communications lifeline in case of emergency, a mobile phone is the obvious solution.
• Keep your fuel tank at least half full to prevent fuel line freeze-ups in cold weather climates
• Have your battery and coolant system checked. Older batteries and weak antifreeze might not provide the protection and functionality in the cold weather, and worse, can cause damage to your vehicle when it’s not running
• Understand how anti-lock brakes work. Do not pump your brakes. Instead, press firmly on the brake pedal when braking and let the system do the work to stop your car
• Traction mats, kitty litter, or sand can be used to improve traction on icy surfaces
• Be sure to have the proper winter-rated tires on your car and be sure to keep them properly inflated
• Keep an ice and snow scraper with you at all times and be sure to stow it safely when driving.
• Check the oil and water in the engine and make sure all of your lights are working.
• Clear all windows so that you have a clear vision of the road from all angles.
• Do not pour boiling hot water on any part of your vehicle; de-icer spray is the best solution, do not spray on locks though as this may re-freeze them.

Most importantly remember to adjust the way you drive, you can’t take corners as sharply as you might in normal conditions.

Drive safely, and if all else fails, get yourself over to Florida\ where your USA Car Hire doesn’t have to worry about ice.

regards,

James

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You can be forgiven for not having heard of the new social website on the block, as its still invite only however pinterest.com for me is going to be huge for the travel industry and here’s why…

As described on their website

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Traffic

In the last 6 months visits to Pinterest have risen 4000%, according to TNW in one week in December they received over 11 million unique visitors. Remember they have achieved all this despite being invitation only.

Some companies are reporting greater referral traffic from Pinterest than facebook.

SEO

Search Engine Land also points out that Pinterest is a great way to improve your search engine optimisation as it allows you to back link to your own site.

Viral

The buzz word of marketeers everywhere, viral marketing refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increased brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives. A good example of Viral marketing was the Cadbury’s Chocolate’s, Gorilla advert, which was popular on facebook and youtube.

Pinterest’s users are loyal but more importantly, active, which increases the chance for your campaign to go viral their recent additional of pinning to facebooks timeline also adds to the viral opportunities.

Engagement

Companies should take every opportunity they can to engage with their customers, Pinterest offers a unique and simple way to interact.

We interacted with more customers in the first week on Pinterest than we did compared to the first week on twitter or facebook.

Pinterest also allows users to re-pin or even comment on the information  you provide, users don’t have to be following you or “like” you.

Shop

Remember when there were tons of independent travel agents on the high street, windows full of holiday offers. Well Pinterest can be that shop window, pin a picture of your holiday, your tour or your car hire offer and add a price to it.

but most importantly…  

Visual

Selling travel is a very visual experience, hence the use of brochures and companies investing heavily on image based websites for example; four season’s recently spent $18 million on their new website.

Pinterest allows companies to create a board based on inspiring images, these images should promote your destination, tour or even car hire.

Do customers react more to an image or to text?

Can an image say more that words?

For me, facebook, google plus and twitter are the go to sites for companies committed to social media, however I think Pinterest is best suited to travel, I for one wont be surprised when a whole host of companies get on board.

You can visit the usrentacar Pinterest board here, for those of you who aren’t on Pinterest yet, but are interested, we still have some invitations left, see our previous post.

regards,

Gavin

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Today Alamo have agreed to remove their peak season surcharge for all new bookings collecting in July and August 2012 for a limited time.

The removal of the peak season surcharge will reduce usrentacar.co.uk Alamo peak prices by around £25 per week.

Frank Williams Director of Communication said

We are delighted that Alamo Rent A Car have given our customers the opportunity to hire a quality product during peak season without the extra charge.

The new peakless rates are ready to book on our system right now and can be secured with a £50.00 deposit.

Please note once this offer has ended, if you have not secured your rental on usrentacar.co.uk, a peak season surcharge may apply.

regards,

James

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Its almost the weekend… so how about a little bit of fun (I use this word loosely). Are you good a spotting things? Do you like Harry Potter?

If you’ve answered yes to both of these questions why not check out our exclusive Harry Spotter game.

Following the link here - http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/spot-the-difference-harry-potter.aspx

Can you spot all ten differences between these two pictures? If you can, why not email me them at jamest@usrentacar.co.uk and I’ll send you out a small prize.

regards,

James

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I have worked in the car rental business specialising in the USA for the past 14 years and along the way I have picked up some extremely useful tips when it comes to hiring a car for the first time. In this series I will do my best to dispel a couple of the more common myths and stigma’s associated with car hire USA.

The first issue I will tackle may be familiar to the regular visitors to the USA

Q: I will get sued if I don’t have enough insurance!

A: This is a pretty old question that has been around for as long as I can remember. I have spoken to many customers who have quoted a story from a friend of a friend who knew someone that got sued and lost their house because they didn’t have enough insurance. This question perpetuates because of the ‘perceived suing culture’ in America. I wouldn’t say its any worse than in the UK but its always wise to ensure you are adequately covered in the event that you are involved in an accident.

While it’s never advisable to drive a vehicle without insurance, our policies come with everything you will need to ensure you are covered for all eventualities. Here is a quick run down of what we include and also what the blurb actually means;

• Unlimited Mileage. There are no additional charges incurred for the amount of miles you drive. Mileage is not charged on a per mile basis.

• Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) which is a combination insurance of both Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Waiver. As long as you adhere to the rental policy of the supplier you will not be held responsible for the cost of replacement or repair to your hire vehicle.

• Uninsured Motorist Protection (UMP) up to $1m Liability Cover. Offers an Uninsured/Underinsured/Hit-and-Run Motorist Protection (UMP) that provides the renter and family members travelling together in the rented vehicle with up to $1,000,000 of non-stacked coverage for bodily injury sustained while driving the rental car, and caused by another driver who has no insurance, minimal insurance, or is a hit-and-run driver.

• Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) up to $1m Liability Cover. All drivers included on the rental agreement will not be held liable for third party claims for bodily injury or property damage resulting from an accident.

• Basic Roadside Assistance. In the event of mechanical difficulties there is an emergency number for you to call on the rental agreement you collect from the supplier.

• All Taxes and Airport Fees. You will not be charged any additional taxes or fee’s because your insurances have been pre-paid.

As you can see the cover we provide as ‘ standard car hire insurance ’ will cover you for most eventualities that you may encounter while driving your car hire USA.

For more information please feel free to contact our car rental specialist via www.usrentacar.co.uk

Author: Frank Williams
Web: www.usrentacar.co.uk

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Alamo were doing so well this week, on Monday they amended their petrol policy and Tuesday they revealed their new Cape Canaveral location, Wednesday was a bit quiet but today we’ve been advised of some new terms that aren’t quite as positive.

One Way Rentals

Ford Mustang and Convertible lovers collecting in San Francisco may have to rethink their schedule due to this new fee.

One way rentals commencing 01 July 2012 – 31 August 2012. Intercity fees from all San Francisco Locations for the STAR (Convertible) to all destinations will be charged at 350.00 USD

So to confirm, if you are collecting a Convertible from a San Francisco location and looking to drop it off at a different location between the 01/07/12 and the 31/08/12 you will be liable for a one way rental fee of $350.00 plus tax. Please note if the usual one way fee is greater you will pay the greater amount, for example SFO to MCO would still be $500 plus tax.

Gold rate

Starting from February 1st 2012, the Alamo gold rate will now only be available on rentals of 4 days or more from all locations.

The minimum rental period for all of our Gold products will be changing to 4 days (Alamo and National brands) for destinations USA and Canada and will apply to rentals picking up on or after 1st April 2012; this will apply for all new bookings made from 1st February 2012. Existing bookings will be unaffected.

These changes will effect all companies offering Alamo/National products.

Remember at present Dollar Rent A Car are still offering free one way rentals on their Convertible product within certain locations, contact our reservations department for more information or use our website to obtain a quote.

regards,

James

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Following on from yesterdays fuel policy alteration, Alamo Rent A Car have followed in the foot steps of Budget Rent A Car and Dollar Rent A Car by offering a Florida Car Hire services out of Cape Canaveral.

Located near the port at 6211 N. Atlantic Avenue, the office will run a free shuttle bus service to and from the cruise area during the following hours.

Mon-Fri: 07:30 am 05:30 pm

Sat: 08:00 am 04:00 pm

Sun: 07:00 am 04:00 pm

Alamo’s addition to the area can only be a positive move for customers as increased competition should see a positive effect on service and rates.

regards.

James

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Good news from Alamo Rent A Car today. After a lot of lobbying from ourselves, Alamo have agreed to return too the fuelling policies of  the past.

With our inclusive (silver) USA car hire product the customer is expected to purchase a full tank of fuel upon arrive and return the vehicle empty. Pump prices from suppliers can be more expensive, as we touched on during this post and if you’re renting for a short amount of time can work out to be more expensive.

So its refreshing to see that Alamo Rent A Car have heard our concerns and agreed that from 01/04/12 usrentacar.co.uk customers will be given the option to either pre-purchase their fuel upon arrival at an agreed price or return the vehicle the same way it was collected (full).

I’m sure you’ll all agree this is good news from Alamo Rent A Car and nice to see that the largest car rental supplier in America isn’t too big to listen to our concerns.

Now all we need is for the other car rental companies to follow suit.

regards,

James

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With car manufactures getting more and more advanced with their technology offerings, (see our post technology and car rental) the american automotive authority believes the time is drawing near when we’ll get in to our hire cars and not know how to even start them!

Facebook integration, keyless cars and even vehicles run on electricity are becoming the norm, if you’d mentioned this 10 years ago to the average Joe they would have thought you’d gone mental.

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we believe in being prepared, so before you drive out of the parking lot here are 5 things we believe you should know.

1. All drivers should know how to start the car, it use to be straight forward, stick the key in turn it and hey presto, these days its not so simple, take the Prius for example, to turn on the engine you insert the key, push down the brake pedal and press the “power” button….simples.
2. How to Turn on the lights, last thing you need is to be driving in a foreign Country fiddling around the dash board trying to figure out how to switch the lights on after along day at Universal Orlando!
3. How to Switch on the Windscreen wipers, again you don’t want to be caught in a sudden storm and not know how to quickly turn the wipers on.
4. How to open the petrol cap and where its situated on the car.
5. How to disengage the hand brake. (this one came from our facebook page, via John Young) ”I remember sitting trying to figure that one out for ages the first time we hired an SUV. The parking brake release was a button on the dash”.
6. How to operate an automatic, for UK drivers we generally all drive “stick” then change to automatic can briefly throw you, get use to the controls before leaving the car park. (suggested by Adam Robertson via facebook)
7. How to remove the key from the ignition, some vehicles require a push or a reverse twist to remove the key, better to figure this out before you’re miles away from the rental office. (suggested by Paul Bevan via facebook)

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For those of you that like statistics and fact based blogs – come on now, dont pretend like this stuff is boring and you’re not a car hire nerd Here are a couple of stats that you might find intresting. Honest! 

While looking at some numbers from a data post from 2011 regarding the amount of cars each major supplier operates versus the amount of revenue generated, we can grab a snippet of which supplier is generating the most revenue per vehicle for car hire in the USA. Its not an exact science but its in the ball park.

Check out these numbers;

We all know that Enterprise/Alamo is the monster player in the market with almost 1 million cars in the market but its surprising to find they are not the top dog when its comes to getting the most revenue per vehicle.

As you can see above the master’s of milking every last dime out of their vehicles is Avis/Budget making on average approximately$14,421.05 per vehicle.

Now the second hand market has been extremely buoyant for the last couple of years, and this is where the car rental suppliers are really making their profits.

So can we assume that Alamo are selling their vehicles before Budget, therefore not getting the most out of the rental revenue but getting more from the second hand market?

If you liked this post and still have a little ‘nerd time’ left to fill why not check the related blog James posted back in December.

Cheers

Simon

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