Before choosing your new minibus, there are a number of points that need to be considered.
What is the best way to finance it and why?
Dependant on your club finances, contract hire or finance lease. More can be read on a prior blog here on our last minibus information blog , but it’s important to add into your considerations whether or not you would like to own the minibus as the end of the lease.
Insurance
In order to arrange insurance or even get a quote, you will need to be able to answer at least the following:
Drivers: who will be driving the minibus and where will it live, in each case you will need their licence number and possibly be in a position to fax the paper counterpart or email a scan. Licenses need to be clean and certainly without drink driving convictions.
Security: How will the minibus be secured, does it have category one or two alarm, steering wheel security and tracker. In each case Vanlease UK can advise and then arrange the install of the required security.
Where will it be parked: Whilst a minibus is an insured and taxed road vehicle, insurers prefer to see them parked off road and preferably out of site or at least in a secure compound. In some cases one of the drivers will take the minibus home, this will be the primary storage address.
Servicing your Minibus
Your new leased minibus will ideally require main dealer service to keep its warranty. As part of your choosing a minibus, consider whether you have a local garage with the correct franchise and then the facility to service your new minibus. If you take out a maintenance agreement with your lease, then your servicing is included with your monthly payment. In the case of Network and Lex this will then mean you have a central contact point to help with the arranging of any services. Tyres, which are expensive on minibuses, are included with your maintenance agreement, taking care of one more concern.
How will it be used
We never cease to be amazed at the variety of use of a minibus. In a nursing home case, we will often arrange a modification to carry one or even two wheelchairs, in school and clubs cases, we have arrange tow bars for trailers, roof racks and seat covers for outward bound trips. Consider how you will use your minibus, then see if we can help you.
Choosing the model
At Vanlease UK, we supply more Ford minibuses than any other make. Ford has a vast dealer network, a high percentage of whom are set up to service minibuses because of the dominance of the Ford Transit van in the white van market. That said, we also supply minibuses of varying sizes from a large list of manufacturers including Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Renault & VW.
