Category Archives: Vans In Business

News and information relating to the use and function of vans by UK businesses.

Can’t get to the bank? Let the (mobile) bank come to you!

1 Reply

Hot on the heels of the hairdressing van, I’ve come accross a story about another innovative van conversion that is bringing important services to local people – rather than making them travel.

The closure of the majority of rural bank branches over the last 10-15 years is old news – all the major banks have done it, claiming that they served too few customers to justify their cost.

However, it seems the tide might be turning slightly with an innovative new service from NatWest. The bank has been showing customers in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall that there is ‘another way’ – by providing a mobile banking service that visits a number of otherwise bankless villages every week to prevent local people having to travel to a nearby town – often 10 or more miles – to do their banking.

The NatWest mobile bank is based on a Ford Transit chassis cab with a specially-designed secure Luton box body that contains a secure area, accessed from the cab, for the two cashiers to work in. Customers enter through a door at the rear into a public area with two counters at which they can be served – just like a regular bank. Customers can pay in cash and cheques, check their balances and make transfers to other accounts – all the most common requirements.

The mobile bank van makes several stops each day and over the course of one week is able to provide banking services to a surprisingly wide area, serving rural businesses and personal customers.

For more details, take a look at this story in the Daily Mail.

Clean Shaven VW Crafter Conversion Is Mobile Barber

4 Replies

A new van is rather like a blank canvas – with a bit of money and skill, it can be converted into almost anything – from luxury living accomodation to a mobile workshop or restaurant.

This VW Crafter conversion proves that new ideas are always possible – and that they aren’t as complicated as they might seem.

The Barbus - Mobile Barber in Volkswagen Crafter

The Barbus provides a mobile barber service to the good people of Banbury, Oxfordshire and is the brainchild of Stella O’Neill and Louise Viggers, the directors of Barbus Service UK Ltd.

The Barbus mobile barber interior

The conversion took four weeks to complete and involved ply lining and insulating the walls and ceiling in the load area, before covering it in a high gloss flame retardant plastic covering; the floor was covered in black rubber stud tiles; shelving was fitted and a generator was installed to power the heating and air conditioning system.

The van itself is a long wheelbase, high roof Volkswagen Crafter with a 2.5l, 136 PS engine driving a semi-automatic Shiftmatic gearbox.

It certainly looks like a cut above the average van to me and is very well trimmed… I thank you!

500,000 Mile Vauxhall Combo Van – A Record?

3 Replies
Vauxhall Combo with 500,000 mile

© GM Corp.

Like most of the economy, the secondhand van market is slowing down a little at the moment, with buyers only paying top money for high spec, low mileage vans.

However, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that vans are commercial vehicles and are designed to have a much harder and higher-mileage life than cars – as Nigel Weaver’s 500,000 mile Vauxhall Combo shows.

The 53-year old courier from Maidenhead, Berks, bought his Vauxhall Combo new from Burnham Garage in Slough in 2001, just as the model was making its debut.

Seven years later, after averaging over 75,000 miles a year, Nigel’s Combo has just clocked up its first 500,000 miles, all on the original engine.

Proof - Nigel's 500,000 mile Vauxhall Combo

© GM Corp.

“I bought the Combo because I liked the look of it, the fact it was comfortable and like a car to drive,” said Nigel. “In my job, you need to be comfy as you spend your entire working life on the road, and it seemed a well made van so I bought it intending to run it until it dropped.”

In 2008, the 1.7-litre diesel-engined van is still going strong, and continues to rack up well over 1,000 miles a week in Nigel’s hands, often in continental Europe as well as in the UK.

“I do some work for a brewery and regularly have to take British-brewed beer out to the head office in Amsterdam,” he said. “That gets some funny looks at customs, taking a van load of beer out of the country rather than the other way round!”

Nigel claims the key to his van’s longevity is to stick to a rigorous maintenance programme. “I’ve always ensured the oil is changed as soon as it’s due, and have always used genuine Vauxhall parts,” he added.

The van has had a few running repairs, including a new steering column and reconditioned gearbox at around the 400,000 mile mark.

“I could hardly complain at that mileage!” added Nigel. “It still regularly does over 60mpg, but I’m most impressed at how the interior has held up – the cab scrubs up lovely. I’ve never had the back ply-lined, though, so the rubber mat’s looking a little worn in places these days.”

Citroen Nemo vs. Peugeot Bipper (+New Partner & Berlingo)

1 Reply

It’s all change on the small van front this summer. Peugeot and Citroen are going head to head with two major new models, the Berlingo/Partner and the Nemo/Bipper.

I list them like that because they are of course competing against each other with the same vehicles – all Peugeot and Citroen vans (and most Fiats) are the product of PSA, so the only difference is badging and sometimes engine options.

Needless to say, the new Berlingo-Partner is bigger than the vehicle it replaces – although the current model will continue to be sold as the Berlingo First and Partner Origin. It’s still a great no-frills, economical van and will no doubt continue to sell well, especially in these increasingly budget-concious times.

The Bipper – Nemo is a smaller van, fitting between a hatchback like the 207 Van and the Berlingo. Here’s a picture of a Peugeot Bipper:

Peugeot Bipper van

It will have an impressive payload of 610kg, 2.5 cubic metres of load space and a neat overall length of just 3.86m. All of these features no doubt contributed to it winning the 2008 Fleet World ‘Best New Van’ Award and it should be a success, as should its Citroen-badged twin brother, the Citroen Nemo (see the similarities?):

Citroen Nemo van

For more details on all of these new models, see the excellent round up on the Fleet News site.

One-Stop Van Leasing from Lombard

Leave a reply

Following my recent post on the growing number of van manufacturers who are offering chassis vans with pre-built bodies, a new service from leasing specialists Lombard has caught my attention.

Lombard’s new Van Plus+ service offers the logical companion to an off-the-shelf body – full procurement, specification and preparation services for lease customers’ vans. Lombard say that it will find, specify, fit out, livery and deliver vans to lease customers – saving them huge amounts of time and trouble. I imagine a secondary benefit for Lombard will be that they can control the quality and safety of all such work, thus guaranteeing them better prices for their ex-lease vehicles.

It sounds like a good idea for all concerned, and visitors to this week’s Commercial Vehicle Show at the Birmingham NEC were very impressed, according to Lombard van operations manage Wayne Millard: “Visitors to the stand have been surprised that such a complete, specialist service is available from a leasing company. There has been huge interest, particularly as a result of increasing duty of care requirements [resulting from the recent introduction of the corporate manslaughter act].”

Budget ’08: How Are Van Owners Affected?

6 Replies

As anyone whose been near a radio, TV or newspaper today will probably know, today was Budget day – time for the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to set out his stall for the 2008/9 tax year. As ever (or so it seems), the focus was on the sinners – with booze, tobacco and gas-guzzling cars all easy targets for a tax hike.

But what was there for us – van drivers, operators and owners? I’ve been through the full budget document with a fine toothcomb – and it turns out that there are a few measures specifically aimed at vans that will affect us all – for better and for worse.

First, the Good News…

  1. The 2p increase in fuel duty has been postponed until October.
  2. From January 2009, there will be ‘VED incentives’ to purchase Euro V compliant light commercial vehicles – that’s discounted rates of road tax for cleaner new vans to you and me. Even better is that they will last for the lifetime of the van. However, no one’s saying how big these incentives will be, yet.

… and the Bad News

I’m afraid the bad looks likely to outweigh the good – for most of us, anyway:

  1. The 2p increase in fuel duty has only been delayed until later this year – not cancelled. It’s scheduled for October.
  2. On 1st April 2010, fuel duty rates will automatically increase annually by 0.5p above inflation – which probably means another increase of at least 2p-3p per litre.
  3. VED (Vehicle Excise Duty – Road Tax) will be going up for most van owners from 1st April 2009. Vans registered before 2001 with engines bigger than 1549cc will pay an additional £15 in road tax – taking the cost to £200. All vans registered after 2001 will also see an increase of £15 per year from 1st April, 2009.
  4. Finally, the current rules on free fuel benefit for employer-provided vans will be modified so that they are in line with the rules for company cars. Along with this, the current ‘Fuel Benefit Charge’ multiplier for free car fuel benefit is being increased from £14,400 to £16,900. Note: This point was wrong. The only change is that the reimbursement of fuel costs to company van drivers will no longer be taxable (as is already the case with cars). The current £500 fuel benefit for company van drivers remains. My thanks to commenter David Heaton for pointing this out.

Finally, RTFO…

The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation programme is a new initiative intended to use biofuels to reduce carbon emissions by the transport sector. The basic idea is that fuel suppliers will have to ensure that 5% of fuel sold on UK forecourts is biodiesel. This is the same setup that already exists in France, for example, where regular diesel includes 5% biodiesl as standard.

RTFO is replacing the current biofuel duty differential, where biofuels are subject to lower levels of duty than petroleum fuels. I don’t think it will have any real effect on regular fuel prices – although presumably it will mean 100% biofuels become more expensive.

A Green Budget?

You’ll notice that all of the measures above are very much designed so that they can be justified in terms of lowering carbon emissions. While everyone agrees that’s necessary, it does seem that businesses – which need to operate vans – are being left to pick up the eco-tab without any meaningful alternative being provided.

Cambridge Council Helps Van Hire Company Drive Safe

Leave a reply

Drivers driving for work are involved in a substantial proportion of all accidents – almost 20% of accidents in Cambridgeshire in 2005 and 2006 involved drivers driving for work.

That’s why Cambridgeshire County Council have recently introduced their “Road Safety: We Mean Business” training course. Available free to Cambridgeshire businesses, it helps them develop work-related road safety policies and awards a “Road Safety: We Mean Business” certificate to those companies whose road safety policies meet the required standard.

Fittingly enough, the first business in Cambridge to be awarded the “Road Safety: We Mean Business” certificate was a van hire company – Cambridge Car and Van Rental. The company, based on Newmarket Road, offer a wide range of cars and vans for hire in the Cambridge area.

For businesses, these road safety seminars offer several potential benefits, not least their being able to demonstrate that they are taking road safety seriously. This will become an increasingly important issue following the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter Act in April, under which businesses can be prosecuted for gross breaches of health and safety resulting in the death of an employee.

“Road Safety: We Mean Business” seminars are open and free to all businesses in the Cambridge and Peterborough areas – visit the County Council’s website for more details and a booking form.

 

2008 Fleet News Awards: Which Van Manufacturers Won?

Leave a reply

The 10th March, 2008, saw the UK fleet industry’s equivalent to the Oscars – the annual Fleet News Awards presentation evening. The turnout was strong despite the blustery conditions and all the major van manufacturers had been shortlisted for awards, so anticipation was high.

In the van section, the winners of the Manufacturers awards were:

Best Small Van: Volkswagen Caddy

Best Medium Van: Ford Transit

Best Large Van: Mercedes Sprinter

No real surprises here – the latest incarnation of the Mercedes Sprinter has retained its position as the large van of choice for courier fleets and anyone who values a high quality, prestige van. Ford’s Transit offers the perfect range of size and spec options for the middle of the market, and the VW Caddy has made strong inroads into the popularity of the Transit Connect at the small end of the market.

With these results in mind, it’s no surprise that many van hire fleets continue to purchase Transits, Sprinters and Caddies – popular and reliable choices with good resale values.

More Fleet Purchases: Ford Transits for British Gas

Leave a reply

British Gas must be one of the most well-known companies in the UK – and their fleet of vans must be one of the largest, at around 10,000.

The company are currently renewing and adding to their van fleet with a total of 723 newFord Transit in British Gas livery Ford Transits – 85 short wheelbase (SWB) models, and 638 medium wheelbase (MWB) models.

British Gas’s fleet support manager, Martin Lock, said that “The Ford Transit was the best cost option for our business. It’s popular with the engineers and we have a long-standing relationship with Ford that works well.”

Interestingly, all vans are being specified with 70mph speed limiters to improve safety and fuel economy. All vans also have air-conditioning and single passenger seats – which when combined with exemplary maintenance and low mileage should make them very desirable second-hand buys when they come off lease in five years’ time.

The new vans are being delivered at a rate of 30 vans per week – and are fully-liveried and fitted with Bri-Stor internal racking and roof-mounted ladder racks.

Fleet Purchases: Peugeot Help EDF Energy Cut CO2 Emissions

Leave a reply

EDF Energy has recently taken delivery of nearly 250 Peugeot vans (a mixture of 207, Partner and Expert models). The energy company is one of the UK’s largest and operates a 3,500 vehicle fleet.

EDF is targeting a 20% cut in its CO2 emissions by 2012, and the Peugeot vans are the latest step towards this. Not only do they feature the French company’s latest HDi diesel engines but these vans have not been shuttled around the country having extras fitted before delivery – as might have been the case in the past.

Peugeot have been able to offer EDF a one-stop shop – making all pre-delivery modifications at its regional distribution centre before delivering the vans directly to their end users – EDF. This saves considerably on transport costs and carbon emissions – helping EDF towards its target of lower emissions.

This kind of thing does seem to be a growing trend at present – more and more manufacturers are offering buyers the option of having their chassis vans pre-converted before delivery – where before a specialst body builder would have been used to build or modify the body after the vehicle left the factory.