Nexus Vehicle Rental says the vast majority of its retail clients have already booked additional LCVs for Christmas as increased online commerce and customer demand for next or even same-day deliveries put pressure on couriers.
Last year saw Nexus report a 29.1% year-on-year increase for van rentals and it expects 2016 to be another record year driven also by the now annual retail sales frenzies of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
According to Nexus, the most popular vehicles for the forthcoming peak season are extra-long wheelbase (ELWB) vans including Mercedes Sprinters, and long wheelbase (LWB) vans such as Ford Transits, followed by car-derived vans (CDVs) including Ford Transit Connects.
David Brennan, CEO at Nexus, said: “Following a record couple of years for retail sales, our customers and those within the courier industry are taking the necessary steps to ensure their fleets are ready to deal with peak demand.
“As a leading rental provider working with a truly unrivalled network of suppliers we can offer guaranteed availability and access to over 500,000 vehicles across 2,000 UK locations at very short notice.”