The term hire purchase means that the vehicle involved is owned by the finance provider and the customer will buy it over a agreed set period decided by the finance provider and the customer themselves, for example a person can agree with the transport rental company who they are in finance with to hire purchase a Renault Clio, and pay the finance company for example £250 a month for a year. This means the customer will have a vehicle for that period of time while only paying £250 a month and at the end of the year will fully own the vehicle themselves.
If you are interested in and like the idea of hire purchase you will need to go to a contract hire leasing company where they could possible arrange an agreement with you to take this option. However every transport rental company is totally unique and some may not even do the hire purchase option. However leasing options can be arranged between you and the hire purchase company to decide what the best option would be for you.
There are many different types of vehicles that are available in the trade of hire purchase, if you are interested in vans then the option of van rental would be a significant thing to look at when thinking of hire purchase a vehicle. This is very common for companies to do in trades such as builder, joiner or glazier as you only pay a small amount each month and get a good vehicle out of it and after the contract with the transport rental company has ended the customer will have full ownership over the vehicle.
A usual thing in hire purchase agreements is that the customer has to meet minimum requirements before they are accepted into the contract such as certain attributes of the drivers licence, insurance needs, how old the person is (since they cannot be underage) and credit checks. Additional identification would probably be needed when meeting with the rental company to prove you are who you say you are, as vehicles are expensive and they do not want them going missing, or being sold before the contract has finished and the vehicle is legally yours.
With recent financial issues in the United Kingdom society people are finding it more difficult to afford a brand new car as they cannot get credit, which would be why hire purchase is becoming a much more popular option as payments are spread out over months and the customer does get a vehicle from the start.