Car Hire

Can anyone tell me what the current vehicles are that Dollar/Alamo hire out for the following: -

1) 8 Seat Minivan
2) 12 Seat Mini Van
3) 15 Seat Mini Van

The reason I ask is that we hired through this site(Florida Car Hire & Dollar) a 12 Seat last year and basically it had no luggage space at all[msncry]. We were downgraded by Dollar to an 8 seat which was basically the same vehicle without the last row of seats so it had a massive amount of luggage space.
When we go this time (Feb 2006) we are getting married, there are 8 adults and 1 child going so an 8 Seat will not be appropriate but I do not want a 12 seat or 15 seat if there is no luggage space, as you can imagine there will be a lot of luggage!!! Three of the party are only going for a week.

Anybody help as we do not want any problems when we get there again with having to change the vehicle?????

can only speak for the 7 seater dodge caravan we had last time and the time before, and there is lots of luggage space,
but there are 5 in our group and we did get panicky cos we were so squashed!!

8 Seater is normally a Astro mini van. We had one last May and got 7 of us in it plus lots of luggauge

Get 2 cars - one 7 or 8 seater minivan for 2 weeks and one regular car for 1 week. You'll have a lot more flexibility that way anyway. It's unlikely all 9 of you will always want to go to the same places at the same time.

Tonish

Hi Guys,
We changed from the usual 7 seater to an 8 seater Ford Van, it seems the 12/15 seaters are the same vans with an extra seat in which as you said takes the luggage space. It turned out we had 9 there, for one of the weeks and ended up getting a Dodge Neon also, so would have been better to take 7 seater and a car!! My irish DL only covers driver+8 so a 15 seater was out for us. It was great to have the two cars to be honest, I could do stuff with the house and Marianne took the inlaws to parks I have had enough of :D

We booked 2 x 8 seaters (Link above/Dollar) for 14 of us, it wasn't until we were loading the luggage at the airport that we realised we had actually been given 2 x 12 seaters. We managed to get everything in by using the last row of seats for a couple of bags. I'm sure its just the same vehicle (Ford E350 I think) but with an extra row of seats, we didn't bother changing the cars because it was an advantage to us as 12 of us went to the parks on a couple of occasions and this meant we could all go in one car and leave the other for the 2 people left at the villa, and it saved us some parking money.

We had extra luggage on the return trip (obviously) and still managed to fit it all in.

Yeah a Ford F350 was what we had, i guess they are still using them now.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by pieman790
8 Seater is normally a Astro mini van. We had one last May and got 7 of us in it plus lots of luggauge
[/quote]


Good to hear this, there will be 7 of us and we are having an 8 seater.

We are looking now to hire 2 vehicles. Can we have the main driver on one as a named driver on the other and vice-versa?

Yes, when we hired 2 vehicles we used the link above and took the Dollar Gold option which has unlimited drivers, so all 4 adults were insured for both cars.

Daniel, if you use the links above and take the gold package you can have unlimited drivers on both cars [msnsmile2]

Cheers Caroline and Rosie, i have used the above links before, i just though that there might be some strange American law that meant you weren't able to drive more than one Hire Car at any one time.

No strange American law, but possibly physically impossible[msnwink]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by caroline
No strange American law, but possibly physically impossible[msnwink]
[/quote]

Not as impossible as you may think [msnwink]

The UK licence may differ from the Irish one but on my Irish/Euro licence I am only covered to drive a vechicle less than 3,500kg or driver + 8 persons Class B. If I want to drive the 15 seater I would need to do a test for a mini bus and get a class D or D1 licence.[msnscared]

We normally get a 7 seater from this site , this year we needed an 8 seater because 2 extra came along rather late, my husband just upgraded at the Dollar desk no problem, we planned to return the 8 seater after 7 days when the extra 2 passengers returned home but my husband decided we would probably need the extra space for the final journey to the airport with all our Florida shopping. It gave us plenty of passenger room and masses of boot room , we would probably go for the 8 seater again but its lots cheaper to book directly from here rather than to upgrade at the airport. It took my husband a little time to adjust to driving an 8 seater, he is well used to the 7 seater but after a few drives it became very easy he says.

Never upgrade at the airport as it costs more money. Better to contact www.floridahire.com and upgrade before you go which they can arrange this for you.

As long as you have a valid licence they do not seem to bother about this. If you want a definitive answer and have booked with us, email in your question to info@uscarhire.co.uk and we'll get a formal answer off our suppliers.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by dolphinv
The UK licence may differ from the Irish one but on my Irish/Euro licence I am only covered to drive a vechicle less than 3,500kg or driver + 8 persons Class B. If I want to drive the 15 seater I would need to do a test for a mini bus and get a class D or D1 licence.[msnscared]
[/quote]

Just wondering about the minibus issue and I found this http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/drvmbus.htm where Section 2 determines that you can drive one even though you're not currently licensed to do so. I don't know if this applies to Ireland though?

<span style="color:purple">Blott when driving minibus about 20 yrs ago for hospital residents im sure our limit was 12 seats which made me look out of interest at your posting</span id="purple">

1. Driving licences held before 1 January 1997
If you had entitlement to drive cars prior to 1 January 1997 - shown as group A (B for automatics) on an old style green or pink licence or as category B and D1 not for hire or reward on a pink and green or photocard licence - you can drive a minibus provided :
You are 21 or over, the minibus has a maximum of 17 seats including the driver's seat and is not being used for hire or reward


<span style="color:purple">You seem ok if licence held before 1/1/97 but then it goes on to say</span id="purple">

New rules from 1 January 1998
Your minibus entitlement will remain valid in the UK and on temporary visits abroad until your licence is <span style="color:red">next renewed</span id="red">. When your licence is renewed, your minibus entitlement (D1 and D1+E not for hire or reward) can only be issued if you make a special application which will involve meeting higher medical standards.
If your minibus entitlement is renewed you will normally be granted a D1 and D1+E licence for 3 years which will allow you to drive minibuses, not for hire or reward, in the UK and on temporary visits to other <span style="color:red">EC/EEA </span id="red"> countries. See below for more details about driving abroad.

2. Drivers who do not have minibus entitlement (Category D1)
If your driving licence does not allow you to drive minibuses, there are certain circumstances where you still may be able to do so.
You may drive a minibus with up to 16 passenger seats if:
i) you drive on behalf of a non commercial body for social purposes but not for hire or reward, unless operating under a permit;
ii) you are aged 21;
iii) you have held a car (category B) licence for at least 2 years;
iv) you are providing your service on a voluntary basis; and
v) the minibus maximum weight is not more than 3.5 tonnes excluding any specialist equipment for the carriage of disabled passengers. Minibuses up to 4.25 tonnes will be permitted in certain circumstances.
vi)if you are aged 70 and over, you are able to meet the health standards for driving a vehicle (i.e. minibus) which comes within the D1 class;
When driving a minibus under these conditions you may not receive any payment or consideration for doing so other than out of pocket expenses or tow any size trailer; you may only drive minibuses in <span style="color:red">this country.</span id="red">

you seem to be ok if you held a licence before 97 but after 98 or you renew you're licence

is it saying you need a medical and can only drive in this country [msnscared] [msnscared]

I think it's saying if you want a D1 licence, then you have to comply with medical conditions (which probably means a letter from your GP or similar) but that if you want to drive up to a 16 seater minibus as a volunteer, then you don't need a D1 licence. But I'm not brilliant at 'governmentspeak'.

Not sure what this means as it seems if you're a volunteer minibus driver, you can have any sort of medical condition as long as you don't get paid? Can that be right? Surely the safety of yourself and other road users (not forgetting your passengers) should be paramount?

Aside from all that, I can't quite see the incentive to apply for a D1 licence as it sounds like a lot of hassle when you can just drive a minibus as a volunteer without meeting the medical conditions or requiring a licence?

goverment speak
its looking about as clear as the visa application question and court cases [msneek]

i think what i am trying to say is

before 1997 everything seems ok

this is the categories i found

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/vehic...c.htm#Note%205

see note 5

you have to have passed your pcv or be in the armed forces

now if you pass your test you are limited to 8 seats

without applying for a d1

even then you are limited to this country ?? ec/eea?? in fact its

just mentioned as <span style="color:red">this country</span id="red"> in the last words of my entry

basically can a person who has passed their test after 1997 drive a 12/15 seater in florida on their licence?? [msnscared] [msnscared]

even after passing the test you are limited to 50km on a regular service route?? see rule 5 below

this is note 5 by the way everybody

Age 17 if member of armed forces.

Age 18 i. while learning to drive or taking passenger carrying vehicle (PCV) test; or

ii. after passing a PC V test when:

driving on a regular service where the route does not exceed 50km, or
driving a PCV constructed to <span style="color:red">carry no more than 16 passengers</span id="red">, and
the vehicle is operated under a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operator's licence or permit.

iii. <span style="color:red">not engaged in the <span style="color:teal">carraige</span id="teal"> of passengers</span id="red">

<span style="color:red">contradiction if ever i saw one</span id="red">

<span style="color:teal">??spelling</span id="teal">

clear as mud i think :D

if you download inf 28 driving a minibus

second leaflet down as a pdf

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/forms/online_leaflets.htm

mentions new rules after january 1998

and on page 5 mentions driving with up to 16 seats [confused]