One of Intercounty’s Mercedes-Benz Citan demonstrators, complete with internal racking and Masternaut telematics.

If you’ve ever test driven a car or van before buying it, you’ll know that most test drives only provide a very limited idea of a vehicle’s capability — in most cases, all you’re able to do is check that it works properly and doesn’t have any obvious problems.

Commercial vehicle dealers often make vans available for longer demo periods — days or even weeks — and that can work well for hauliers and couriers, who typically don’t require any special fittings or customisation; they simply load it up with pallets or boxes and drive it around their usual routes.

However, there are a significant number of van buyers who do need a lot of customisation. The UK’s army of mobile technicians, service engineers and tradesmen tend to have their vans fitted with various combinations of internal racking, roof racks and customised load compartments  — and then there is the question of telematics, which are increasingly widely used by all van operators, but normally missing from demo vans.

Wellingborough-based Intercountry Truck & Van recently decided to try and make some of its Mercedes-Benz demonstrators more useful, by fitting them with top quality racking and telematics, so that customers who use their vans as mobile workshops could have a realistic idea of how Merc’s latest models might perform in service.

Intercounty teamed up with racking manufacturer Bott, and telematics specialist Masternaut, to target businesses from the service sector – plumbers and telecoms engineers, for example. Intercounty is now offering demonstrators from the three model lines that make up the current Mercedes-Benz van family: the Citan, the Vito and the recently launched new Sprinter.

Each has been fitted with space-efficient Bott racking and a Mastenaut telematics system, allowing would-be customers to gain an accurate impression of the vehicle’s performance with their own working environment. Steve Shakespeare, Dealer Principal at Intercounty Truck & Van, explains:

“It makes no sense when you’re trying to win orders from service providers, to give them an empty van for trial.

“What are they to do with it? They can’t put it to work to see how it performs in a real life situation, because it’s not properly kitted out to carry their tools and equipment. Nor do they have the very latest in telematics solutions, with which to measure accurately the van’s impressive fuel economy, monitor the driver’s style and behaviour, or utilise mapping software to aid their own efficiency.

The new fully-specced van demonstrators are already proving popular with operators.  Intercounty has three models:

• A Citan 109 CDI Long fitted with Bott’s ‘Modulo’ racking, which can be configured and ordered online, and home-fitted in just 60 minutes;
• A Vito 113 CDI Long, with robust and affordable ‘Uno’ racking, and
• A new model Sprinter 313 CDI Long, with lightweight, reinforced racking from Bott’s ‘Vario’ range.

All three vehicles have also been equipped by Masternaut with telematics systems that feature ‘eco-drive’ driver-awareness software, which can improve vehicle economy by 10-15%; ‘live’ dynamic map-based tools for best-in-class business reporting, and tax & expense manager, a system claimed to be “the most accurate mileage collection technology on the market”.

The vans are available by arrangement from Intercounty’s branches at Boston, Lincoln, Milton Keynes and Peterborough.