The first two hours decide the first day
A depot three hours from the road you actually came for has already cost you a day. Not in money — in daylight, in patience, and in the kind of driving nobody enjoys.
This is why two depots in the same city can behave completely differently. One sits on the correct side of town for the coast; the other sits behind an airport and a ring road. The rate is identical. The trip is not.
- Where is the depot relative to the road out of town?
- How long does the transfer from the airport take at the hour you land?
- Does leaving the depot require crossing the city at peak time?
Two depots in the same city can behave completely differently, and the cheap campervan hire Melbourne page is the clearest case of an address that suits one direction and fights another.
Coastal depots that point the right way
Cairns is the clearest example. Sheridan Street runs through the middle of the city, north of the airport and on the right side of town for the Cook Highway. Collect before lunch and you are in the cane fields by early afternoon.
Hobart's depot at Cambridge is the same idea in a smaller city: east of town, near the airport, pointed at the Tasman Peninsula. You are on the good road before you have thought about it.
The depots that cost you a crossing
Melbourne's depot at Ringwood is east of the city. That is excellent for the Dandenongs, the Yarra Valley and Gippsland. It is poor for the Great Ocean Road, which begins on the far side of Melbourne.
Perth's depot at Bentley is south of the river, which suits Margaret River and adds a city crossing to anything north. Neither is a bad depot. Both reward planning the direction before the dates.
- Ringwood: ideal west-to-east, wrong side for a westbound coast trip
- Bentley: ideal for the south-west, a crossing for the Pinnacles
- Caringbah: ideal for the South Coast, a transfer from the airport
Bentley sits south of the river, which suits Margaret River and adds a crossing to anything north, and campervan hire Perth sets out the hours that make the crossing worse.
How to use this without a spreadsheet
Write down the first road you want to be on, and the hour you want to be on it. Then look at where the depot sits relative to that road. If the answer is 'across the city', the depot is telling you something about your itinerary.
Only after that is settled does the nightly rate become a meaningful comparison. Two quotes for the same route are only comparable when the route, the dates and the cities match.
The only remaining variable after that is direction, and one-way campervan hire is where the two options get compared against each other.
Questions this raises
Does collecting from a distant depot ever save money?
It can, if the one-way direction works in your favour. The saving is real but it is not a saving on the day — it is a saving exchanged for hours of driving, so decide whether those hours are yours to spend.
Should I collect from the city I fly into?
Only if that city is on the way to where you are going. Flying into one city and collecting in another is often cheaper than a cross-city transfer, and it removes a wasted half-day.