Kayleigh Evans, short-term hire manager at ACV, talks to Christopher Marchant about the reasons behind the venture, and what benefits and challenges may come ACV’s way in the current business climate.
After 26 years in the leasing industry, in July car leasing company The V4B Group launched its short-term hire division, Absolute Car and Van Hire (ACV). This alternative revenue generator may be a continuing source of income not just for V4B, but for car leasing companies nationwide.
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Speaking from Ellkat House in Wrexham, North Wales, where both V4B and ACV are based, Kayleigh Evans is confident about the new division’s prospects. She says what ACV can offer will stand out from competitors while utilising an existing customer base. Evans believes short-term hire is not just a smart move on V4B’s part, but the demands from customers made it inevitable.
She explains: “We’d been considering it for three or four years. A lot of our existing customers were using what I would call purchase leasing, where they’re looking to purchase the vehicle within the contract. They didn’t have shortterm options with us, so there was a great demand for it – from our existing customer base especially.”
Evans continues: “Last year we were dipping our feet in it and just doing it as and when needed. But it was about to become a full-time job, hence why I took over.” V4B’s opportunity with ACV stems from what is also a threat to the wider business: uncertainties over Brexit may make shortterm leasing increasingly necessary for customers, but they also advise caution for ACV as a company.
Evans explains: “Customers are a little bit nervous with what’s happening with Brexit and other things within the industry. Some customers and companies are reluctant to
commit long-term when we do not know what is happening. “Right now, in the UK, it is hard to figure out what’s going to happen from one day to the next, so I do think there is a market for short-term.
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By GlobalData“We need to make sure that what we are doing is right by keeping an eye on how the marketplace goes, and seeing how things go with the UK, moment by moment. We will go with the flow for the next six months, and then we will re-evaluate at the end of the year going into 2019 to see if we do need to expand and if we need to make changes.”
In the first quarter of 2018, a BVRLA survey showed a decline in fleet leasing for the first time since the organisation began compiling the data in 2014. Market uncertainty can link into this, and Evans gives an example: “You may be a construction company and you may be working on a school for six months, but you’ve committed to three years on a van. How do you then pay for the other two and a half years if you don’t know what business you’ve got there?”
Uncertainty in the work environment combines with a general need for flexibility in the market. Evans understands that consumers will be willing to pay slightly higher premiums on vehicles, in exchange for not being tied to a vehicle on a long-term basis. In the words of Evans, the V4B model is as follows: “Companies are not forced into lowpaying contracts because they’ve got to pay for a van for the next two years. There’s definitely a need for flexibility, not always, but there is for some people who are working from contract-to-contract.”
ACV prides itself on its availability to customers, through doorstep delivery and collection of vehicles combined with speed of booking. This, together with three-month minimum term ‘special deals’ is driving the immediate successes of ACV. Evans notes: “They are at a very competitive rate and they are top vehicles: brand new, no one else has driven them. You get the option to have one of them for a minimum of three months, but they’re heavily discounted because you’re committing for three months.
“Also, we can offer standard bookings at ACV where a customer can ring up at nine o’clock on a Monday morning and have a car for lunch time; we can accommodate that.”
V4B may be early out of the gate in opening up an avenue of short-term hire, but it is unlikely ACV will be the last extension of leasing players into the market. It is a lucrative option, and could well become a viable alternative in the face of any continued drop in the fleet leasing sector.
