buggs is still in its infancy, but getting where we are now was not straightforward...

...somewhere back in 2001... Buzz the airline arrives in Bergerac, a big plane, a very small airport, lots of people, one car hire company.

It came to us in a flash, create a local friendly car hire company.

Once the clients buzz in on the flight they can bugg off in their car. Simple!!! So buggs is the name.

Four years later we finally find an insurance company willing to insure a car for hire.

We came to accept comments like "too risky, the English cannot drive left hand drive cars", "there is no need for a car hire company dont Hertz and Avis do that??",  "sorry, not got car hire insurance on our list" (French for "computer says no!")

Meanwhile, bad news, Buzz has buzzed off never to return, never mind we will keep the name, it just seems to fit.

Good news, Ryan Air and Flybe have arrived with more flights from more destinations with lots more people, the car hire demand has increased 10 fold. So a quick demo website and a bit of marketing to test the water. It turned into a flood, so no doubt the customers are out there just got to convince them that we are a viable alternative to the 'big boys'.

Our market was holiday makers and the second home owners and the price is the all important factor. The price quoted by the large companies is all based on how many add ons they can sell you whether it be an airline charging you for your luggage when checking in or extra insurance for this and that by a car hire company when you get the point of collecting the car. we want to quote a price and that price remains the cost to the customer. we want to get the customers details before he arrives so he can get off quickly. we want to prove service can come with low cost. Go to our "how we compare" section to see more on our pricing and how we structure it.

All we need now are some cars...good size practical cars which can accommodate a family of 5 with holiday luggage, a group of golfers with clubs and luggage, and the home owners purchases from Ikea and the local vineyard. A basic Renault Kangoo met the criteria with some Renault Twingos thrown in for the smaller option.

The full website went live 1st Feb 2006 with some local marketing (that means distributing 30,000 leaflets all over the regions local markets) and soon the enquires came in and so did the bookings. We took bookings from 1st March but a small technical hiccup meant we had to hire cars from Hertz as Renault had forgotten to tell us that we had to fill out a mountain of paper work before we could take delivery of the cars, so we did this, then they said "sorry we have sold your cars to someone else and will have to re-order, will 3 weeks be ok". So Buggs finally got going 3rd week of March.

 

Buggs is continually aiming to increase its fleet of cars. We allocate cars on a first-come first-served basis so book early to avoid disappointment.

 

read how the story continues...