Our industry

The UK vehicle rental and leasing industry can be divided into three broad sectors. Here is some more information about them.

Rental

Rental companies provide cars and vans on short term hire, for as little as an hour or as much as a month. Offering a flexible, fixed-cost and 'pay-as-you-go' approach to motoring, it is very popular with holidaymakers, business travellers and non-car owners who have an occasional use for road transport.

Here are some facts about the BVRLA's rental members:

Number of members: 294
Number of vehicles: approx 250,000
Typical life of a rental vehicle before disposal: seven months/15,000 miles
Number of rental transactions each year: approx 10 million

Leasing

Leasing companies provide longer term vehicle hire with an agreed mileage limit, typically for a period of 12, 24 or 36 months. The contract often includes some sort of maintenance and breakdown cover.

There are a number of leasing options and the choice will depend upon a range of different circumstances, including whether you are a business or private customer, whether you want to take the residual value risk associated with the vehicle and whether you want the option to buy it at the end of your lease. The dominant form of lease is contract hire, which has more than 50% of the market.

Businesses like leasing because it is a flexible and fixed-cost form of motoring which means they don't have to worry about the depreciating value of their fleet. Funding vehicles in this way also frees up working capital that can be invested in other parts of a business.

Here are some facts about the BVRLA's leasing members:

Number of members: 78
Number of vehicles: 1.8 million
Average CO2 emissions of lease car registered in 2009: 144g/km
Average contract mileage of lease car registered in 2009: 19,183 miles

Commercial vehicles

The BVRLA's commercial vehicle members provide trucks, trailers and vans on a short and long-term basis, either through rental or a leasing contract. They operate mainly on a business-to-business basis.

Here are some facts about the BVRLA's commercial vehicle members: