Campervan firms give Euro 2012 a wide berth
With some campervan companies deciding not to rent to soccer fans, the old reliable Transit van, á la Joxer, may have to be brought back for the long trek across Europe.
Ennis, Co Clare-based Vanderlust said that after making a risk assessment, it had decided to turn away soccer fans.
A spokesman said: “Our campervans cost about €60,000 each and all our vehicles are relatively new as the oldest one was registered in 2008. We decided that we did not want to give out vehicles to lads going on the tear for a week in Poland.
“As well as that there would be very high mileage on poor roads. We got a lot of inquiries, but on taking everything into account, decided the soccer finals were a ‘no no’ for us.
“Another factor was the daily insurance of €30 would have to be increased to €80.
“Most of our business comes from families who want to holiday around Ireland. And they keep the vehicle very well. We can vet family clients but with the soccer tournament we would not know who would be taking out our campervans.”
Celtic in Dublin, one of the biggest in the campervan business in Ireland, is also giving the soccer tournament a wide berth.
Stephen Bradshaw, owner of Celtic, said its main reason for not embarking on the Euro soccer market was for insurance reasons.
“We could have had all our fleet booked in days, such was the number of inquiries, but we now only have insurance cover for this country and the UK. We could not get insurance for vehicles travelling to Poland.
“We had a huge number of inquiries, and would not have been able to cope with the demand if we were doing Poland. We would have no problems giving campervans to lads going to the tournament.”
Co Limerick campervan company Cara also said that none of its fleet would be given out to travelling soccer fans, as they too had no insurance to cover use of their campers in mainland Europe.
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