NHS staff and key workers offered 50% car hire discount

Posted by on 2 Apr 2020

A Rochdale vehicle hire company is offering a 50 per cent discount to NHS staff and key workers during the coronavirus outbreak. Richard Cotton, a director of Rentruck, based in Blueberry Business Park, said cuts to public transport had made it increasingly difficult for NHS staff and key workers to get to and from work. He explained: “We’ve got a fleet of 350 vehicles and wanted to play our small part in tackling coronavirus. “A lot of bus and train operators are running skeleton timetables which is making it harder for NHS staff who don’t have their own car to get to and from work. “Key workers, like pharmacy and supermarket staff, are facing a similar problem so we decided to do something about. “It would be easy to offer a 10 or 20 per cent discount but we wanted to make a real difference so we decided to make it 50 per cent.“It means a small car that would normally cost £135 a week to rent is now £67.50 to NHS staff and key workers.

“Our company dates back to 1924 and these are unprecedented times. We’re proud to be from Rochdale and know that a lot of NHS staff and key workers live in the borough and travel in so we want to do our bit.”

Rentruck has won the praise of Paul Dixon, who is a partner of Molesworths Bright Clegg and the chairman of This is Rochdale. He said: “Our younger daughter works on the NHS frontline at Manchester Royal Infirmary. She has moved back to the family home in Heywood from her house share in Didsbury to reduce the risk of infection.

“She can no longer walk to work, so has two options, public transport (with increased risk of infection) or hire a car. I called Rentruck in Rochdale to enquire about a vehicle, and when I explained the situation they immediately offered to reduce the weekly hire charge by 50 per cent for the whole of the hire period until the Government declares the crisis is over, which could be a few months yet. It’s another example of a Rochdale business supporting the NHS and key workers.”

Rentruck also has a fleet of 120 refrigerated vans and Cotton said they were increasingly being used to support supermarkets and pharmaceutical companies.

“At the moment they’re probably accounting for 90 per cent of our work,” he said. “We’re a relatively small company with six staff but we like to think we can make a big difference in these challenging times.”