Fashion Contrast

I browse Reddit most days, I like the American anger towards anything which is omnipresent on the site, I also like the picture section and could quite happily spend most of my day looking at pictures of Chipmunks acting out Star Wars etc…

A interesting subject came up in the Ask Reddit section, regarding a possible American’s concern that Manual cars cost less to rent then an Automatic one, and since he had never driven a Manual, how quickly could he learn to drive and pass of being a Manual owner for the car rental broker when he arrived in Ireland.

I was interested by what he said about Automatics cost more to rent, now the real question is not whether he will be able to learn to drive the manual vehicle as pretty much all of know that its not really possible in a day… As my mother proved this weekend (recently converted to an automatic) that automatic’s are a lot easier to use and she promptly cried when it came to driving my fathers big manual. It was also fairly terrifying…

After a quick phone call to a local car hire broker – posing as a prospective rental customer, this felt very espionage and pretty fun! The man at the end of the line who had a very gruff, local accent told me that to rent a small one person type automatic it would cost me £260.29 for a week, not bad perhaps, but then here’s the encouraging, not so good for the aforementioned American, that the ‘easy to learn’(not) manual would cost him £179.91 for the week! Now after trying some very basic mathematics I came to the conclusion that there is a 31% increase in price from manual to automatic which in my simple non mathematics head seems to be fairly steep… However I do know mathematicians who admit to not being able to do maths without a calculator..

For further reading on how the fervent internet faithful of Reddit try and teach this guy how to drive the article is here

OK, So we routed the Croatians – it felt nice, a 5-1 victory; to up the moral of the country and unfortunately give us all delusions of grandeur as to us winning the World Cup. Capello seems to be quickly ousting the negative effect that the WAGS are having on the lads. By banning contact or something.

WAGS Down and Dirty in the Jungle? Best Place for them?

So we ARE of to South Africa to try and ‘win’ the title. It will however be interesting to see how many people go to all 7 of the definite games England will play, the news is stating that scammers are already trying to sell tickets for 6k plus – so contact FIFA if you want to go and they should be able to sell you a ticket to all of the games for just shy of 2k which is slightly more reasonable!

In many ways its wrong to just go to South Africa just to watch the football, its a pretty beautiful country and to help encourage people to actually have a ‘good look’ around Satpack travel are including a new form of Sat-Nav with any Car Rental taken out. The Sat Navs will include travel information and advice as to what to see, this will no doubt enhance travelers experiences whilst in SA. The system will almost work like having a personal tour guide on hand with ‘a wealth of local knowledge’ .

This Sat-Nav is perfect for exploring somewhere slightly off the beaten track and will help users to explore South Africa in a more personable way.

Exploring South Africa

A financial contract is all well and good when the financial climate is good. Small businesses during a recession are less likely to sign/agree long term/large contracts and for good reason. We all know how annoying it is when you sign a deal with say, a Mobile Phone or Mobile Broadband provider and a hugely better deal comes around a lot quicker than you ever thought it would. Dare I say it, if I wasn’t on an Orange Mobile Phone contract, I would almost certainly have gone for the iPhone pre 3g! But then of course, I would have been disappointed at the arrival of the 3g iphone which seems to be tonnes better.

Iphone 3G - Do I need one?

The way forward is to have the ability to ‘chop and change’, using a pay as you go system. Take for example Car Rental or Van Hire, an industry which seems to being effected by car hire shortages. Of course the BBC is talking specifically about foreign holiday based car hire brokers, but overall the shortage is seemingly crippling the industry.

Do the working’s of an industry need to change as soon as possible to allow for small companies who need the use of rental vehicles at a reasonable price to rent at a competitive rate for day to day tasks, in a pay as you go fashion, rather then having the crippling long term financial commitments a contract brings?

Tailor-made packages need to be thought through, with emphasis on being client specific and client friendly. Could this be free delivery of vehicles within a 10-20 mile radius, or huge discounts for advance payments on pre-pay vehicles? Flexibility is the key to any business needs and perhaps there should be an overall re-think in the rental vehicles market…? Thus, saving money and ensuring business work together to get through uncertain economic climates.