Bookings soar for campervan rental company but it can’t build fleet fast enough

In a mean year, Dillon Hansen and Jon Moran would person added 30 to 40 vehicles to their Native Campervans fleet.

But the Denver-based institution they founded successful 2015 has faced proviso shortages and alternatively built 17 vans successful the past year.

Due to a planetary semiconductor shortage affecting accumulation of conveyance parts, Native Campervans is uncovering it hard to conscionable its increasing demand.

“The biggest conflict is making definite we tin get chassis truthful that we tin physique retired and rent for the 2022 play that’s coming up,” Hansen said. A chassis is the basal framework of a centrifugal vehicle.

“We’re proceeding from dealerships that if we enactment successful an bid present it’ll amusement up precocious summertime adjacent year,” Moran added. “Amazon and FedEx and places similar that are astir apt going to gobble up the archetypal offering of vehicles, truthful it’s truly hard to accidental what’s going to happen.”

Hansen declined to supply circumstantial figures, but said gross accrued 75 percent from May 2020 to May 2021. Bookings surged aft dropping steeply successful the outpouring of 2020 arsenic the pandemic acceptable in.

“It’s been happening passim the manufacture and we’re not the lone ones getting this benignant of surge of either van beingness oregon RV benignant of travel,” Hansen said. “It’s been conscionable beauteous monumental passim the past year.”

Customers tin rent vans successful Denver, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, but are fixed 100 escaped miles per nighttime connected the van to question crossed the country. Hansen said the astir fashionable locations for their customers person been Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole successful Wyoming, and Rocky Mountain National Park successful Colorado.

Native Campervans’ busiest play is June-October, Moran said.

Because of newly-implemented preservation systems turning radical distant astatine nationalist parks crossed the country, Hansen said Native Campervans recommended customers rent vans successful off-seasons. In December 2020, bookings were up 300 percent from December 2019.

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