With 2010 already upon us we are pleased to unveil the upgraded Avis We Try Harder blog, including a fresh look to go with the new decade.

We have been working behind the scenes updating systems so the site runs faster and along with the design improvements, helping to make it quicker and easier for you to find what you are looking for and generally making it a better blogging experience for you! We have also added links to our Twitter page, where you can keep up to date with all our latest Tweets.

Don’t worry about losing track of your favourite posts, as all of our old blog posts and comments have been kept on the site, so you can still see your old comments and find out what other customers and our staff here at Avis have been saying about travel, car rental and much more.

We hope you like what we have done but would love to hear your feedback on our new blog. We also want to know if there is any information on car rental or Avis that you would like us to write a blog post about.

As part of the team at Avis London City I am proud to announce that we are now the premier car rental company for London City Airport, and will be for the next 7 years.

This means that Avis now are the only car rental company with access to the main front car park and our customers do not have to take the lengthy walk to the long stay car park to collect their rental car.

We are also excited as we have had a brand new office, which is situated just next to the terminal building and has a Traffic Master and Flight Information Screen to help get your journey off to the best possible start.

Also to help improve the service at Avis London City we’ve extended the opening times at the weekends, by recommendation from our local customers.

If you are picking up your Avis rental car from our London City location, myself and the team look forward to meeting you and to find out what you think about our new office.

I am excited to announce the launch of the Avis Eco Collection, our new low emissions car group. If you choose to rent a car from the Avis Eco collection you can drive away in a brand new, stylish and fuel efficient VW Golf 1.6 TDI 90ps. The cars combined MPG is 62.8 and its CO2 emissions are sub 120, at 118g/km. Currently these cars are available at 21 Avis locations across the UK.

Also to celebrate the launch of the new Avis Eco collection, we will offset the carbon offset all of the Eco collection rentals that have pick-ups in December 2009 and January 2010.

We would love to hear what you think about this new car group and it would be great to get feedback if you have rented one of our Avis Eco cars.

We are pleased to announce that the planned strike by British Airways cabin
crew has been cancelled.

The High Court yesterday ruled that the 12 day strike, originally due to take place over the Christmas period was in fact illegal. It is now expected that all British Airways flights will operate as normal over the festive period.

However you might be travelling, Avis would like to wish everyone that’s travelling over the Christmas and New Year period a safe and stress-free journey.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Avis are pleased to announce that we now offer our customers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions from their car rental in the UK when they collect there keys. The cost to offset the rental is £1, this has been calculated based on average vehicle emissions, length of rentals, mileage and age of vehicles. The money raised will be allocated by our partner, The CarbonNeutral Company.

To celebrate the launch for every customer who chooses to offset the carbon on their rental in December 2009 and January 2010, Avis will match the total amount collected.

We would also like our customers to choose which project they want us to invest the carbon offset fund in. We have selected three potential projects, now all we need is for you to vote in our blog poll for one of the following:

Candelaria Hydro Power Project – Guatemala
The project involves the generation of renewable energy through the installation of a run-of-river hydropower plant in Guatemala. The project generated emission reductions of approximately 14,500 CO2 equivalent in 2006, verified and certified to the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

Damao Wind Power Project – China
This project generates clean energy from 40 new wind turbines in China. The total emissions reductions are estimated to be 100,000 tCO2 equivalent, verified to the Gold Standard (GS).

Vehicles for Change
In the Vehicles for Change portfolio, the verifiable emission reductions are generated by a coalmine methane capture project in Germany, which is combined with an initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina producing bio-diesel from waste cooking oil to be used as cleaner fuel for public buses. If successful, the Bosnian project will demonstrate the financial and practical viability of bio-diesel as a cleaner fuel source, paving the way to sustainable development in a nation adversely affected by war.

Have your vote now!

You might have heard by now that British Airways has announced a 12 day strike between the 22nd December and the 2nd January. This is expected to affect around a million people.

If you were planning to fly on an internal flight with British Airways within the UK over this period you may want to consider renting a car to get to your final destination. We strongly advise you to book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment, since the car rental industry tends to sell out of cars over the Christmas and New Year period. Avis still has availability at most key airports at the time of writing, but we expect to sell out over the next few days.

If you were flying on BA and had car hire booked with Avis please let us know in advance if your plans have changed as a result of the strike. We will do our best to accommodate your new plans. If you need to cancel or change your booking, telling us in advance will ensure you are not charged a no show fee.

If you would like to book a car or find out about our availability over this period please visit our website www.avis.co.uk or call us on 08445 818181.

We hope that your plans are not disrupted by this strike and that you enjoy a very happy Christmas whenever, and however, you reach your destination.

Avis have produced a white paper on Duty of Care to help small to medium business (SMEs) who require members of there staff to travel for work.

FACT: 200 drivers are killed or injured each week whilst travelling on company business*

That’s a chilling figure, but the law of averages says that many of these drivers will be working for SMEs simply because they employ more people than any other sector of UK corporate business.

Research has consistently shown it is the SME sector which is least aware of the responsibilities facing employers around their driver’s safety and for that reason puts them most at risk of prosecution, if an employee is involved in, or causes a major accident whilst driving on company business.

SMEs, just like large corporate companies are expected to adopt a road safety policy, even if they only have a few employees driving on company business to ensure they protect themselves against possible prosecution.

To read the full white paper click here

I recently read Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers”, which assesses the impact that the burning of fossil fuels is having on climate change and the potential consequences of this. The evidence presented overwhelmingly concludes that the burning of fossils is having an impact and, depending on the level CO2 we continue to produce, the potential economic, social and health implications could be pretty dire. Now, I’m not going to claim that I know or understand all the facts, nor am I sufficiently tooled to scrutinise or verify his analysis but, given just how bad things could get, I would much rather tackle a problem that might not be there than suffer the consequences of inaction if Flannery and his peers prove to be right.

But taking action will not only reduce your CO2 output, it could save you money too. So it’s great to see the recent Act on CO2 campaign on TV to promote proactive action and their website provides plenty of practical tips on how we can all reduce our CO2 output. Being in the transport industry, this could not be more relevant for us and our customers. The car hire industry is effectively a “revolving door” of new and near-new cars, giving customers access to the latest models and therefore, through technological advancement, the most fuel efficient cars. But additionally, we can all reduce our CO2 output by adopting some simple tips on driving efficiency that will not only reduce your CO2 output, it will save you money as well. The Act on CO2 website offers six tips for better fuel efficiency. I’ve listed these below with a link to the Act on CO2 website for more information…

1. Pump up to cut down
2. Less clutter in your car means less CO2
3. Driving at an appropriate speed reduces CO2
4. Less stopping and starting means less CO2
5. Over revving accelerates emissions
6. Idling is wasting fuel

It was BA’s annual charity Fun Run on Wednesday and some of the Avis team had the pleasure of taking part. The 5km run took place at the pretty nature reserve that borders BA’s Waterside corporate headquarters.

While I was happy to “pace” myself with Charlotte Lowry and Ali Wadsworth, the machine that is Chris Keogh ran the circuit in under 18 minutes. Meanwhile Jack MacAree, perhaps feeling that the course on it’s own wasn’t hard enough, decided to help a struggling child by carrying him halfway the way round the track. Jamie Gibson, Steve Liberda and Luke Trueman completed the Avis team.

Over 600 people took part in the event that was presided over by Willie Walsh himself. And it was for a great cause, raising money for Cancer Research UK. Well done all!

On Monday 21st September I had the pleasure of attending the Business Traveller Awards 2009. The awards were held at the London Hilton Park Lane and presented by explorer and adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes BT OBE.

The event was attended by 450 of the travel industries leading figures including Willie Walsh and the cabin crew from the now famous Virgin TV advert.

Avis did not have to wait long before we won our award, in fact the first award of the ceremony; Avis maintained the award for Best Car Rental Company in Europe 2009.

Not only was I pleased that we had been recognised as the leading Car Rental Company in Europe, but to hear the adventures of Sir Ranulph Fiennes BT OBE and how he has overcome so many personal issues was a true inspiration.