Blantyre Flights

With offices in Blantyre and Lillongwe SS-Rent-A-Car is cheaper than the multinationals and therefore more personal on the service. We hired a 4x4 with Driver (his name was Peter and he was excellent to work with, he's a young guy who is very driven, on top of things and willing to assist beyond the scope of his duty - He carried the Tripod and sound bag for the cameraman and was most interested in what we were doing and resourceful for our news coverage, without being annoying as some drivers can be) Ask for Peter to drive especially if you're journo's, you'll know what I mean when you work with him - tell him Steve from NHK says "Hi."

According to Peter, he only works part time for SS Renta a car, I guess it depends on the workload. I advise that you request for him personally, when you contact SS-Rent-a-car. Otherwise you can get hold of him through two of his friends:

Rashid: +265 934 2999
Harry: +265 955 9884

As regards car hire from SS-Rent-A-Car I specifically asked beforehand if the 4x4 we hired had working aircon and working electronic windows (Most cars I've hired in Africa have had problems with either the aircon or the electronic windows) Even though I was assured all was in order 2 of the windows packed in on the first day, for the rest of the time the windows worked sporadically. When I complained I was told by Sam Singh (the owner of SS Renta Car) that he'd give us his personal 4x4. Although I declined the offer I thought that was great customer service.

We were charged the following for a Ford 4x4 Double cab with canopy:

US$150/day incl. tax, insurance, driver and 200km free/day therafter US$0.84/km. Overtime for the driver is US$1 per hour before 7am and after 5pm.

A point of note: The WFP Land cruiser that travelled in convoy with us had two flate tyres on the return from Nsanje District, our Ford had no problems (Sorry Chris and Matthews)