Merlin Vehicle Rental
Merlin Vehicle Rental has been a fixture of Cornwall’s hire industry for two decades. Founded on 14th June 2006, the business has undergone a significant transformation since its early days, adapting to shifting markets, evolving customer demand and a changing licensing landscape to become one of the county’s most versatile and well-established hire operators.
Sam Ryder takes up the story: “We established the business 20 years ago, initially doing bus and motorhome rental but then over the years markets changed, and we evolved into doing cars, vans, trailers, plant and farm machinery (we don’t have any buses or motorhomes now!).”
The fleet has evolved just as much as the business model. “The fleet size varies throughout the year because of seasonal adjustments, and this feeds our second-hand vehicle sales business. We have cars and vans of all sizes from supermini up to supercube Luton.” On the brand side, the choice is deliberate: “The fleet is virtually all Ford and Mercedes, and we find these brands work best for us as a whole life proposal in terms of running costs, expected downtime and residual value.”
It is a business built on pragmatism, keeping the fleet lean, the brands consistent, and the cost base under control. That same discipline shapes how Merlin operates day to day. Despite covering the whole of Cornwall, Merlin Vehicle Hire runs everything from a single depot. Its location is no accident.
“We cover all of Cornwall, but we’ve only got one depot, which is located about as central as you can get, and we’re right on the A30, which is the main trunk road for Cornwall, so geographically it’s a strong position.”
Keeping overheads down is a priority, but so is culture: “We keep the staff levels tight to keep the costs down, which means it can sometimes get a bit stressful, but we make it work! It’s a cliché, but we try to keep the family ethos with the staff, and they seem to like it.”
Before Companion: A Paper Trail With Nowhere to Lead
Before Merlin adopted Prohire Companion, the business ran entirely on paper. Every rental agreement was handwritten on a duplicate pad, every piece of ID photocopied by hand, and every check-out and check-in generated a pile of documents that had to be tracked, filed and retrieved when needed. “Prior to Prohire, everything was done manually. We used handwritten duplicate pads, and we photocopied all the IDs and everything else. It was a lot of paper!”
The inconsistency inherent in manual processes made an already labour-intensive job even harder. “Everything was a pain, and there was always a lack of consistency with the recording of data, e.g. if you’re doing a fresh damage check each time, you may miss something. It was labour intensive.”
But the most damaging consequence of the paper-based approach was what happened when things went wrong. Fuel disputes and damage claims were a weekly occurrence, and without robust documentation, Merlin had little to stand on. “It was very common and usually entailed either an argument about fuel or damage (or both) more than once a week.”
When those disputes escalated, the lack of evidence left Merlin exposed. “Ultimately, if you don’t have it documented, you haven’t got a leg to stand on with a credit card company or, if it came to it, court. We were taking the view that the loss versus the potential gain wasn’t worth the hassle, so we were losing there.”
For a business running tight margins with a small team, absorbing those losses quietly was becoming an unsustainable habit.
Using Companion: Confidence, Speed and a Professional Edge
When Merlin made the switch to Prohire Companion, the change was felt immediately, not just in efficiency, but in confidence. “It’s quick, it flows really well, and it looks professional to the customer. I think this gives us greater confidence generally.”
The customer experience shifted too. “Customers are still occasionally surprised when we whip out an iPhone for them to sign and tell them the paperwork is emailed, and then once they’ve gone, there’s not half a dozen (or more) pieces of paper to keep track of, and then have to dig out for the check in.”
The photographic record built into every hire has transformed how Merlin handles disputes. Before Companion, the team had limited options when a vehicle came back damaged or with a low fuel level. “We had no real recourse if someone brought a vehicle back damaged or low on fuel. Even with a signature, you’re unlikely to win.”
That changed fast. “When we first switched over, we had a couple of instances of people saying, ‘I’ve got photos’ when we charged for fuel or damage, to which we responded, ‘So have we, check your paperwork, ‘ and then we never heard back from them.”
The stakes got higher from there. A five-star hotel rented a van for an exhibition at the NEC. It was broken into, sustaining significant damage to the sliding door. The manager disputed liability, claiming the damage had been there at collection. “When I provided the evidence, the accounts department paid up.”
More recently, a fleet of vehicles returned from work subcontracted to a well-known parcel delivery firm in a seriously damaged state. “One even had the driver’s door hanging off. They intended to walk away, but we pursued them, and using the evidence provided by Prohire and Companion, we got a successful judgment and recovered over £25,000.”
That figure, £25,000 recovered through a single successful judgment, represents the kind of outcome that simply would not have been possible under the old paper-based system. It is not just a testament to Companion’s capability; it is a demonstration of what documentation done properly can mean for a hire business’s bottom line.
Going paperless was a significant step. But for Merlin, there was never any doubt. “From day one, we loved it! We’ve got a 40ft shipping container which we use as an archive room, and it’s full of paperwork, going back years. This all stopped the day we moved over to paperless, and we now create virtually no paperwork, and everything is stored electronically, which means everything is at our fingertips and there’s nothing to have to store.”
The Bigger Picture: A Connected System That Works
Companion does not operate in isolation at Merlin. It sits alongside Prohire, Proweb and Tracker, and the integration between all four is something Sam values greatly. “It’s seamless. Everything flows, the information is at your fingertips, and things like fuel and damage are still stored from the previous hire, so it’s quick as well.”
That seamlessness is part of what has kept Merlin loyal to Prohire through the years, despite approaches from competitors. Sam is clear on why they have stayed: “Firstly, we like the system, we like the backup when something does go wrong, and we understand how everything works. Secondly, being UK-based is a big selling point to us, and we know a number of you from when we first signed up, years ago. I don’t think you can overestimate how important these things are.”
For a small team covering the whole of Cornwall, missing a booking is never ideal. Proweb ensures that doesn’t happen. Running alongside Prohire, it takes online bookings around the clock, meaning enquiries that come in outside of office hours are captured automatically rather than lost.
“ProWeb is a fantastic addition because it takes bookings 24/7, so we come into the office to bookings which have come in overnight and over the weekend, which we would have otherwise missed.”
For a lean operation where every booking counts, that kind of automation pays for itself.
And on the question of switching? “We don’t believe in change for the sake of change. We’re happy with Prohire, so we don’t need to go anywhere else!”
For a business built on trust, consistency and doing things properly, that loyalty speaks volumes. Twenty years in, Merlin is not just a satisfied customer; they are proof of what the right software partnership can do for a hire business.
