Using your Hire Van

Congratulations, you have booked a hire van with us! We hope you have a safe van hire trip. Here is a quick guide covering our most popular hire van, the Ford Transit. The Ford Transit makes an ideal rental van. It is economical, reliable and simple to operate. This guide will cover some of the features of the vehicle and common areas that people come across while using these vans.

Driving the transit and safety tips.

Although the transit hire van is an easy vehicle to drive, certain safety steps should be taken.

1. Adjust the mirrors of the vehicle before you drive off. This is critical as there is no rear view mirror. Mirrors should be adjust so you can see the sides of the van clearly and also vehicles to your left and right.
2. The transit is longer than your car, hence the most common reason for damage is catching the side of the van off walls, pillars, neighbours cars ect. To minimise the risk of this, it is essential that you can see the side of the vehicle clearly from the cabin. It is important to know the Standard hire transit is 5.6 metres in length and 2.4 metres high, so take care and be sure the hire van will fit before entering car parks and when booking ferries.
3. Engine management lights are quite common. If a yellow light comes on please ring us, if a red light comes on , please stop the vehicle and call us.

Keys, doors and locking mechanism.

The most frequent calls we get in relation to the Ford Transit hire van is the operation of the locking system. The standard Ford remote contains a rechargeable battery which to be honest is not very reliable.

The remote has three buttons.

• The padlock button locks all doors of the van.
• The open padlock unlocks the drivers and passenger doors.
• The boot button opens the rear and side doors.

A common issue with the current generation transit is the auto locking system. When the van exceeds 10mph it locks the rear and side doors. So when your eager passenger jumps out and starts tugging at the handle and wondering why the door will not open, it needs to be opened with the remote.

What do I do if the remote fails? - If the remote fails to charge and won't work, there is a simple, old fashion alternative. If this happens you can still easily open the rear and side doors. Put the key into the driver side door lock of the hire van. Turn the key quickly and twice to the right. The rear and side doors will be unlocked.

Fluids, Tyre pressures and Washer Bottle.

If you have a hire van for an extended length of time, it makes sense to check these items, similarly as you would on your own car.

The tyres of a hire vehicle will have the recommended pressure printed on the sidewall of the tyre. These are quoted in PSI, an air pump will have a gauge on it to show you when the correct pressure has been reached. Keeping the correct pressure in the tyre is important for ride comfort and braking performance.

The coolant levels and oil levels can be checked from the engine bay. To access the engine bay on the rental van you will need the key. There is keyhole just beneath the front edge of the bonnet. Turn the key to the left and then to the right, the bonnet should make an audible click to let you know it has been released.

The washer bottle filler is also in the engine bay, this has a blue cap.

Punctures and tyre issues.

We always check the condition of tyres prior to a rental. However, this does not stop punctures happening. A puncture can be an inconvenience for you but is easy to resolve. The tools for dealing with it are under your feet - literally!
 

There is a flap which contains 

•  A jack
•  A wheel brace 
•  A winding bar

The spare wheel is located under the rear doors. When you open the rear doors there is a bolt which needs to be removed with the wheel brace. Then use the wheel brace to wind down the spare wheel via the hole that the removed bolt was blocking. Instructions to handle a punctured tyre is in the user manual, which is conveniently located in the glove-box.

When you have the wheel changed, place the punctured wheel in the back of the van and tell us upon return. This eliminates the risk of a later customer going out with a flat spare tyre.

One final note on tyres, pay attention to the passenger side tyres in particular. These most commonly get damaged by curbs, so please use your wing mirrors, especially when reversing into parking spots etc.

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