20-03-2014

After many decades of renting vans, Dawsonrentals will be ditching the Hiregate brand name, and relaunching its van rental business under the moniker of Dawsonrentals vans.

This rebranding effort from the major business-to-business vehicle supplier is part of Dawsonrentals’ drive to develop and grow its light commercial vehicles division. By the end of this year the company expects to have a fleet of 4,000 vans.

Dawson group Managing Director Steve Miller said the company will open four additional dedicated van centres in 2014, planned for Ipswich, Kent, Avonmouth and Birmingham. The van centres’ opening hours will be 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to noon on Saturday.

And whilst offering vans of all sizes - as well as bodying chassis cabs to customer specifications - Dawsonrentals will focus its purchases on three manufacturers: Mercedes-Benz, VW and Ford. This will ensure it places a significant volume of orders with each in order to negotiate the best terms.

In commenting on the goals of the company, Group chief executive Michael Williams said:

“Our major focus is to convince people who would have bought vans to switch to rental,” said Williams. “Every day there are more reasons to come to us. We don’t mind if they run one, 100 or 1,000 vans.”