Shrewsbury vehicle hire company sees business double during snow spell

Jolly Good Van Hire bosses said they became the “fifth emergency service” for some as drivers and vehicles in the county struggled to cope with the bad weather.

And with more snow hitting the county last week Jason King, manager of the Shrewsbury branch, said he had seen yet another boom in business by 50% within just a two day period.

Mr King, who runs his company from Bayston Hill, said people and certain vehicles in the UK failed to cope with the freezing temperatures and the sudden snow.

Mr King said: “Whenever we get a bit of bad weather people find that their cars will not start and that they have to hire a vehicle at the last minute to avoid missing meetings - people cannot afford to have their vehicles off their road in the current economic climate.

“During the recent snow we were inundated with calls from people wanting 4x4 vehicles so they could get to work - nobody wants any unnecessary time off work at a time when so many jobs are at risk. Our workload more than doubled which is fantastic.

“We also found that people wanted to hire small cars because they did not want to take their own expensive bigger cars out onto the snow-covered, icy roads.

“There was a whole range of reasons why people needed to hire a vehicle.”

Mr King, whose full fleet of vans and cars were booked with many calls being received through the night, added: “People were monitoring the snow through the night as it fell and when realising their own vehicle would not step up to the mark they were calling the 24-hour call centre to arrange for delivery for the usual time they needed to leave.

“Others were involved in crashes and when they contacted their insurance company they discovered their cover did not include a courtesy car so they needed a replacement vehicle immediately.

“Then there were those who needed a hire vehicle while the insurance company determined who was to blame for an accident.”

Mr King said: “For some postal services had failed them by not being able to deliver their products so companies needed vans to do their own deliveries.”

Mr King added: “The demand for vehicles during some of the worst weather we have had in recent times was unprecedented in the history of the company.

“However, thanks to the team at Jolly Good Van Hire we were able to respond to people’s needs.

“And with this week’s weather changing so quickly we saw it happen all over again!.”

Jolly Good Van Hire in Shrewsbury is open 7 days a week from 7am and no deposit is required.