{"id":6322,"date":"2014-06-13T16:43:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T16:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=6322"},"modified":"2014-06-13T16:43:38","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T16:43:38","slug":"ford-pipes-200-new-vans-to-national-grid-gas-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6322","title":{"rendered":"Ford pipes 200 new vans to National Grid gas fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6323\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ford-transit-custom-nationalgrid-1-sm.jpg\" alt=\"National Grid Ford Transit Custom\" width=\"350\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ford-transit-custom-nationalgrid-1-sm.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ford-transit-custom-nationalgrid-1-sm-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Ford has bagged a total of 15 awards for its new range of vans over the last 12 months, and was recently chosen as &#8216;Van Manufacturer of the\u00a0Year 2014&#8217; at the Van Fleet World Awards.\u00a0The company&#8217;s critical success is translating into sales, too, as news of a 200-van delivery to National Grid confirms.<\/p>\n<p>The utility giant has taken delivery of 200 new Transit Custom vans\u00a0for use by engineers who maintain\u00a0the firm&#8217;s gas supply network. The order is a relative drop in the ocean for National Grid, whose fleet numbers around 3,350 vehicles, but the majority of these\u00a0also bear the blue oval, making\u00a0the company a very important customer for Ford UK.<\/p>\n<p>The fully-liveried Ford Transit Custom ECOnetic models, powered by the Dagenham-built 2.2-litre TDCi 100PS diesel engine, are now fully operational throughout the National Grid fleet, equipped with racking systems, first aid equipment and special lighting. The vans are used for emergency call-outs and day-to-day by engineers, including the fitment and repair of gas metering equipment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6324\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6324\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6324\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ford-transit-custom-nationalgrid-2-sm.jpg\" alt=\"Comprehensive racking and safety equipment\" width=\"350\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ford-transit-custom-nationalgrid-2-sm.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ford-transit-custom-nationalgrid-2-sm-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6324\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The new vans have been comprehensively fitted with racking, first aid and lighting equipment.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ford direct sales manager Stephen Gafson, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe new Transit Custom is ideally suited to its role with National Grid and financially it clearly makes sense to the company, too. We are very pleased that Ford\u2019s long association with National Grid is to continue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The new Transit Custom\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/5620\">sold more than 10,000 units in its first year<\/a> and has been a major success for Ford,\u00a0bringing its\u00a0van range into line with manufacturers such as\u00a0Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, who have long offered two\u00a0different sizes of vans where Ford has managed with a single Transit model.<\/p>\n<p>The Transit Custom is the equivalent to the Transporter (VW) and Vito (Merc) models and will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/5678\">shortly be joined on UK roads by Ford&#8217;s new two-tonne\u00a0Transit<\/a>, which will give the firm a\u00a0direct challenger for the Sprinter, Crafter, Ducato and Relay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Grid has taken delivery of 200 new Ford Transit Custom vans for use by its gas engineers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[1694,548],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6326,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions\/6326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}