An Australian campervan company has seen a 50% increase in requests for relocation deals after the credit crunch.
This is especially noticeable as most relocations (or $1 a day) deals take place during peak summer season, Christmas and Easter.
Read the whole article at news.com.au
I have made some updates to the site today. 
Mostly cosmetic changes here and there to make the site more usable. However on the front page there are some new stuff;
Will be back to make it all look a bit cleaner in the near future 
Two weeks ago we had a fun day (more fun than usual) here at Transfercar when Made From New Zealand came up from Wellington and did a video shoot of us.
We started out filming outside the University of Auckland Business School (where the idea to Transfercar first was developed). Then we moved down to the car yard at Jucy Rental Cars (they happened to be close, sorry to all the other rental companies that didn’t get the same exposure!). And Tim Alpe, CEO at Jucy gave us a raving endorsement!
All in all the whole shoot lasted the afternoon and it was a lot of fun to do. We shot 3 short movies. The first one came out today:
Let us know what you think!
Today New Zealand businesses and individuals are joining in on a massive protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law ‘Section 92A’ that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party.
A massive “blackout” of websites are occurring today from major online players such as Scoop Media, Zoomin, GeekZone, SilverStripe and many more. See full list here.
Transfercar will be carrying a centrally placed banner on all our pages in support of the protest. Click here for screenshot.
Winners of the petrol vouchers announced
We are happy to announce the winners of the “Wanna win free petrol?” -competition in the December issue of Transfercar’s email newsletter.
For those of you who missed it, this was the competition:
Wanna win free petrol?
Well, you can! What do you have to do to win? Nothing much really, just refer as many colleagues, friends and relatives to us as you can. That’s it!
We will draw 2 winners of $150 petrol vouchers each. To enter the competition just get the people you refer to enter your username in the reference code on the registration page.
The more new registrations with your username on it, the bigger the chance you have to win!
We have had a great response with almost 650 new users signed up through the referral, so welcome on board to all of you!
..and the two winners of a $150 petrol voucher each are:
Matthew Rice
Queensland
Australia
and
Andrea Wilke
Berlin
Germany
We congratulate you both and thank you for your effort! The vouchers have been issued and sent out to you.
For all of you who missed out this time there will be some more competitions with even bigger prizes in the future. Hopefully we will see some Kiwi’s amongs the winners then as well!
Hot off the press, here is the first Transfercar video introduction, made for Startup:
Transfercar introduction from Espen Grimstad on Vimeo.
I put it together this afternoon, and even if the sound is crappy and the light changing, I’m pretty happy with it. Look out for more to come!
A great new initiative for New Zealand businesses has begun to emerge; Made From New Zealand has grown out of the people behind Silicon Welly and StartUp and it is a web based community/networking/linkbuilding/promotional-tool, and I believe we have only seen the start of it yet.
I have already been posting a some articles to the Start-up blog over the past months and so through that I have been in contact with Patrick Macfie and Tim Norton. It is very cool to see what have come out of it (so far).
So for any kiwi individual or company that have something to contribute to the NZ business scene, be it entrepreneurs, investors or customers, check out Madefromnewzealand.com!
PS: From today the Transfercar blog will be plugging in to the Made From New Zealand blog network so these posts can be read there as well.
Keep it up guys!
Slowely but surely ‘it’ is coming- and New Zealand won’t be far off I bet. From fingerprint identification that is. Your thumb -or any finger on your two lovely hands for that matter- will be your most precious asset when renting a car or campervan in the near future.
Yup, it looks like we have finally arrived in the era where your authorising signature -and with that your word-is not sufficient anymore. The dawn of a new age where a photocopy of your identification doesn’t do it anymore like it use to in the ’80’s and ’90’s is upon us. And what about the good old creditcard? Nope, you will be needing ‘the goods’: Your passport or driverslicense, you prettiest signature and your fingerprint in order to secure a rental vehicle in -for now- The Netherlands and England.
As it turns out, these overseas rental companies suffer substantual losses of around the €350.000 anually. Why? Because people apparently feel the need to thrash the rental car they are using or simply steal it to be never seen or heard of again. And despite the fact the offenders sign a rental agreement and have their passport or drivers license copied- they are untraceable when it counts. Particularly when they are overseas visitors. In England this annual ‘damage’ figure is, thanks to the introduction of the fingerprint identification system, slowely reducing. However, this number is still persistently on the rise in the Netherlands. And so ever since October this year, Schiphol Airport has joined the fingerprint identification-team as well. No thumb-no car in the Low Lands and the country of the famous stiff upper lip.
Will this fingerprint identification march for New Zealand?-perhaps. After all, rental cars get thrashed here as well-or conveniently pinched if that suits the ‘program’ of the traveller better. And that’s a shame. Because this globally spread human behaviour is truly an embarrassment and a quite unnecessary one at that. And with the current global economy an investment like this will be the last thing rental companies are waiting for. Especially since the tourism industry is already noticing a decline in tourists visiting the country.
So come on you rental car users, play nice, play fair-don’t thrash (or steal) your rental.
From today, Air New Zealand domestic travellers will be able to check themselves in. And I mean completely and fully from you arriving with all your family in tow at the airport, to actually boarding the aircraft after mouthwatering over all those nice unaffordable goodies in the shops. You will be able to do what those lovely ground stewardesses use to do for you: Weigh your luggage, give you the snobby “I’m sorry m’am but your luggage is too heavy” spiel, check the luggage in anyway by printing the bag tags, dismiss you with a peevish “Thank you” followed by a weary “Next, please” and everybody would part ways happy. Because that is how it was suppose to go.
Welcom to today however, where YOU print your bag tags, YOU drop your luggage directly on to a conveyor belt and YOU get your boarding pass using your mobile phone….
Now, the self-service check in is not completely unknown up to a certain level. At different airline companies throughout the world it is possible to check in online so many hours prior to your flight. This in order to speed things up a bit at the service desk on the actual D-day. But the whole ‘do-your-luggage-yourself-thing’ however is new to New Zealand.
According to a Mr. Jones from Air New Zealand, this new self-service approach is designed to speed up the check-in and boarding process. It will see almost 40 do-it-your-bloody-self kiosks replace the good old 
traditonal service desks at Auckland Airport. Apparently this $30 million ’streamlining’ -you’ve got to love that word-project should see the average queue time drop from 15 minutes to 1 minute.
So, how does it work? You:
1. Self weigh your luggage at the do-it-your-bloody-self-check-in kiosk (-is this truly the end of the dissaproving Air New Zealand ground stewardess look?)
2. You scan your eTicket, mPass, creditcard or airpoints membershipcard at the do-it-your-bloody-self-kiosk
3. You attach the bag tag to your luggage and follow the signs to the bag drop area. where ever that might be.
4. Scan your boarding pass and board the plane.
C’est ca, according to Air New Zealand. “Our goal was to get rid of frustrating queues, cut customer waiting time and make checking in and boarding as quick and easy as possible. (….) Customers will now have much greater freedom and choice.” That’s great, thank you Mr. Air New Zealand-Jones.
Could this really be the end of the others-serving-you-because-you-pay-for-the-service-era as we know it? What’s next in this case, catering your own food and drinks while you’re in the air? Self-service the plane to your destination? Will this ’service-yourself-trend’ be implemented throughout our whole transportation system? And why are we so keen to replace humans with computers? I mean, don’t get me wrong-computers are neat, but before we know it, everything will be fully automated. Fly for example on Air New Zealand Cruise Control to Christchurch in 2009.
And just hypothetically: You could even make a rental car company fully automated if you’re keen. Type in your details on the screen, select the car you want, swipe your credit card and voila; your keys will drop into the tray of your do-it-your-bloody-self-kiosk. Pick up the car from the parking lot, drive it for the designated amount of days that you’ve rented it for, and drop it off.
At drop off the car will go through some sort of car wash look- a-like where it will be fully checked for any damage. Ofcourse this is fully automated. If all is good no extra costs will be charged and you’ll get your deposit back. And for the naughty driver who thinks he or she can get away with a couple of more days without paying because the stupid computer surely won’t notice it: The car is obviously pre-programmed so it will just stop driving when your days are up. And this would most likely happen somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Because even computers can get a bit…let’s say ‘peevish’.
Just like those good old Air New Zealand ground stewardesses use to get.
There are unfortunately a handful of…..let’s say unsavoury rental companies in New Zealand-a few more than a handful world wide obviously-that spoil it for the good ones. Mind you, there is a vast majority that handle ’situations’ professionally (like the companies on this website), but some kinda..don’t.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, or more specific the Consumer Issues Branch, often deals with complaints about rental car companies. Particularly from travellers:
“These travellers have since returned home to their respective countries only to be greeted by a credit card bill with additional charges by rental companies for damages to the car. Damages these travellers say did not happen while they had the car in possession.” (March 2008 Newsletter Ministry of Consumer Affairs)
Cue to: It’s-your-word-against-theirs-drama.
It happens to the best of us: To my next door neighbour last year in Australia, in January this year to my brother in Belgium and, I suspect, to a whole lot more travellers world wide.
But, when renting a car you can protect yourself from any unwanted bills afterwards. And this is rather easy to do so too.
It might seem a bit over the top or even paranoid to you, but taking a couple of photos of your rented (or to be relocated, mind you)ride before and after each trip doesn’t hurt anybody. Particularly photographing any current damage(s) before driving away into the sunset. And, of course don’t forget to point out these existing damages to the rental company while you’re picking the car up. Even when the employee says: “Nah, that’s sweet” -as they usually phrase it here in New Zealand- persist and have it put on paper anyway and get a copy of it. You’re not being painful -well, maybe a little bit- but you’re just covering your ass, nothing wrong with that.
Now, when you drop your rental off at the designated point of no return, it’s best to get someone from the company to give it a final inspection and literally -yes, LITERALLY-sign it of as, again, ’sweet as’. And while you’re at it, get a copy of that ’sweet as’.
However, this is easier said than done as many travellers are droppping the car off outside office hours. Probably because that’s the whole concept of backpacking (or travelling in general for that matter); postponing and avoiding by all means the ‘office hour life’. But apparently early flights or late night flights have got something to do with it as well. So it would be a good idea to go with a reputable company that has staff available that’s willing to stick around for 24 hours a day for when you -emotionally-part ways with your rental set of wheels.
Please note that most of New Zealand’s rental car companies are a member of the Rental Association of New Zealand, and you can rely on them to treat you fairly and ethically. But should a company -where ever this might be on Mother Earth- act dishonourably (a.k.a ripping your off), then there are some rights you may have which could be useful to know.
The two major credit card companies, Visa and Mastercard -with whom travellers have a hate/love relationship-have outlined terms and conditions with regards to the rental charge backs.
So read them and know what can and can’t be done: Visa and Mastercard
And, as they would say in the States:”For God sakes, take those photos of the damn car will ya”
