Vehicle rental firm Car2U is launching Car2Instruct, providing short-term replacement rental of dual controlled vehicles.

The company has launched the division following a rise in demand for dual control cars - which has doubled in the last year.

The company has doubled its fleet in size to meet the increased demand, and hopes to become market leader in the segment.

Managing director GIll Frary said: “As our business has developed in the last few years, we have noticed a real growth in demand from motoring schools for dual-control vehicles- demand has doubled in the last year alone. It has become such a huge part of Car2U’s business and, because we know customer service is paramount in the vehicle hire sector, we wanted to make sure that driving instructors up and down the country have easy and rapid access to replacement vehicles when they need them, hence we’ve set up Car2Instruct.

“This division of the business is really helping us to grow as there are very few similar companies around the UK and in particular in the North of England. We help to reduce loss of earnings and the associated worry of finding a replacement vehicle when accidents or breakdowns happen. We get instructors straight back on the road allowing them to continually offer their customers the best service possible.”

The company plans to add three more jobs to its current team of ten, based in Sunderland.