Commercial Van Solutions

After a few successful months or years of courier jobs the thoughts and discussions always turn to replacing your van at some stage. After all, it can't go on forever and a van that lets you down could put you out of business. The question raises a number of interesting debates - to buy new or in the used marketplace. Price isn't everything, reliability is. You only get paid and keep customers if you can be relied upon. If you work a few jobs with a customer and let them down, you might not gain more work from that source. It is only if you have quite a high number of successful missions behind you, that a customer might forgive one late delivery and still keep you on their list of drivers. Many drivers believe they will only get work if their van looks new and recently out of the showroom. This means a considerable regular financial outlay if you are going to maintain the standard with your courier jobs. It might be that your choice of van is down to how much you ar...

 The Honda N Box Plus is debuting this month, a tiny minivan that features a boxy body style and comes in smaller than the Scion xB. Destined to sell about 3,000 units per month in Japan, the automaker hasn't announced plans to bring this vehicle stateside, a model that features a short hood, sliding rear side doors and a sloped floor with an attachable aluminum slope for easy rear access. July Debut Honda plans to offer the N Box Plus with a two-tone color style. Different color styles will be offered for the roof and the body, a model that is base on the current N Box. That vehicle made its debut last December; the Plus version comes out in July and features a customizable multi-space system behind the front row. That system provides five different layouts including a lower-level mode, an upper-level mode, a slope mode, a bed mode and a flat mode. Each mode has its own advantages for maximizing seating, storage and even sleeping capabilities. Figure that such a vehicle ...

Handicap van conversions take a standard vehicle and then add various features so that it becomes accessible to someone who has medical issues affecting mobility. These vehicles are highly customized to meet the specific needs of a driver or passengers that require different amounts of space for comfort. The result of these conversions is a mobility van that has a combination of functional features and options that increase driver safety. At the same time, the vans can be customized even further in order to give the driver and passengers convenient options for long trips. Custom Access The most recognizable features of a mobility van have to do with how passengers with a limited range of motion or wheelchairs get into and out of the vehicle. The doors on the side might be widened in order to accommodate new options. Ramps are installed to assist someone in a wheelchair or with difficultly walking to move up a gradual incline into the van. Alternately, a lift could be placed in...

Conversion vans are an asset that most businesses overlook, but they have great potential for increasing both growth and visibility. More people every day are seeing small business as the answer to an increasingly uncertain economy, and for some of these businesses, a van might be the only large investment you need to get started. A custom van not only allows you to travel for business purposes while storing everything you need, it is also a high-profile vehicle. Add a sticker or magnetic decal with your company logo, web-address and phone number, and your van becomes a travelling advertisement with plenty of storage capability. Conversion Vans for Plumbing, Electrical and Home Repair If your business requires you to have tools, replacement parts and other supplies on hand while travelling, a new or used van is an excellent option. Some businesses of this nature think trucks are the way to go, but a van can be much more useful. Weather, for example, can cause problem...

  This is a great idea for your next family trip. Traveling in RVs and Campers in the U.S. is common. We have seen a lot of these vehicles-turned-rolling-homes around and most of them are really great, more than livable, to say the least.  However, some people took this mobile lifestyle to another level, and converted an Actros, which is essentially a workhorse truck built by Mercedes, into a cool hotel-on-wheels that offers adventure and surf trip packages. Their mission? To share the lifestyle with adventure-seekers and travelers. Truck Surf Hotel is the brainchild of Daniela Carneiro and Eduardo Ribeiro, who took inspiration from their experiences in order to formulate the concept of the hotel. The two have been traveling for years in a camper van, exploring both Europe and Africa for different cultures and surf sports. They created the concept of Truck Surf Hotel so other people can experience the bliss of uncrowded surf spo...

But don't rush to the dealership - it's only a one-off... Renowned off-road modification company Arctic Trucks has created a one-off "Icelandic-spec" version of the Volkswagen Amarok pick-up truck. The company, which shot to fame after preparing a Toyota Hilux for a Top Gear expedition to the Magnetic North Pole, has previously applied its know-how to many UK-market pick-ups. Back in 2016, the company helped launch the Isuzu D-Max Arctic Trucks AT35, and it has since created beefed-up versions of the Nissan Navara and Toyota Hilux. For the first time, though, the Icelandic firm has tuned a Volkswagen Amarok for use as a support vehicle for driving experiences during the Arctic winter. Upgrades are, as you might expect, numerous. The suspension has been lifted by 25 mm (1 inch) at both the front and rear, while new wheel arches have been fitted to accommodate the enormous all-terrain tires that surround 17-i...

The Ford F-600 is the size of a Class 5 truck but has the capability of a Class 6 model. Ford has big news for its commercial customers as the company introduces the new F-600 Super Duty, in addition to updating some of the other products in this hard-working range of products. The F-600 goes on sale in mid-2020. The F-600 Super Duty chassis cab is a medium-duty, Class 6 pickup but with the footprint of a smaller Class 5 model to slot between the existing F-550 and F-650. The F-600 is the same size as an F-550 but has upgrades like a heavier duty driveline and chassis that allows for a higher gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). Ford aims it at buyers who need the extra hauling power that comes in a Class 6 truck but without the greater size that can be awkward on some work sites. The F-600 is available with three engines: a 7.3-liter gas-fueled V8, 6.2-liter gas-fueled V8, and 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel. All three ...

  VW's venerable van gets a serious upgrade this year .  The Volkswagen Transporter 6.1 teases its fresh look once again. This time, the company shows it as the utilitarian panel van, instead of the people-hauling Multivan in the last photos.  A single- or double-cab pickup body is also on the way. The Transporter 6.1 comes with a 2.0-liter turbodiesel available in a variety of tunes, including versions with 89 horsepower (66 kilowatts), 109 hp (81 kW), 148 hp (110 kW), and 196 hp (146 kW). The 148- and 196-hp variants have all-wheel drive as an optional upgrade. There's also a fully electric variant with 110 hp (82 kW) and up to 77.6 kilowatt hours of battery capacity that allows for a 249-mile (400-kilometer) range in the NEDC cycle. The updated Transporter also makes the switch to electro-mechanical power steering, instead of the current hydraulically assisted system. The switch allows for a greater amount of driver assistance tech lik...

We've already gone on record saying the 2019 Ram 1500 boasts one of the most luxurious cabins in all of the automotive market in its Limited trim, so why shouldn't the pickup truck, too, have one of the coolest and most versatile tailgates? That may seem like an overly specific accolade to the non-enthusiast, but competition is fierce among pickups — which as a result just keep getting nicer and nicer, and cooler and cooler. Not to be outdone by GMC and its MultiPro Tailgate, those clever folks at Ram countered with the Multifunction Tailgate for the 2019 Ram 1500. The 60/40-split tailgate employs heavy-duty hinges to let you open one side or the other, or both at the same time outward , like barn doors, or to lock them down and open the whole thing at once in a downward direction like a conventional tailgate, all for increased ease of access. That access is further facilitated by a retractable step that extends from underneath the rear bumper. Our live video...

The new 2019 Ford Ranger is an excellent truck, one that we wish Ford had brought to the U.S. years ago. But we salivate even more at the forbidden fruit that Ford won't bring to the U.S.: the Ranger Raptor, the off-road truck that Ford sells in foreign markets but not in the land where the Ranger was born. Well if Ford won't do it, says tuner shop Hennessey Performance, we'll have to do it ourselves. And they have — presenting the new 2019 Hennessey VelociRaptor Ford Ranger.   These are the folks who have been selling various custom limited-edition versions of the big F-150 Raptor for almost a decade now, including an SUV version and the completely  nutty six-wheeled $349,000 VelociRaptor 6x6. They've turned their attention to something a little less expensive, giving the Ranger the Raptor treatment that Americans have been clamoring for. And it does indeed look sweet. It starts with the standard turbocharged 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder e...

There are dangers to traveling off-pavement. Annoyances like pointed rocks in the mountains, buried sticks in the mud of the lowlands, spikey brush in the desert or old pieces of metal near railroads can easily puncture a truck tire. To mitigate the risk of being stranded, those who spend a significant amount of time traveling off-road or overlanding will often carry two spare tires. Another handy emergency item is a tire repair kit. There are a variety of tire repair kits on the market ranging from less than $10 for cheap plastic kits to more than $50 for high-quality kits with lots of spare parts. These aren't permanent fixes, but a temporary fix to get you out of harm's way to the nearest repair shop, or far enough out of the woods to install a spare for safe highway travel. The tire kit we tested is from Grit Performance. We chose this kit because it features all-metal tools and a significant supply of spare parts and pieces to repair many types of f...

Volkswagen unexpectedly brought a concept truck to the 2019 New York International Auto Show, one that it built for Brazil's Sao Paulo International Motor Show last year. The Tarok concept is a unibody pickup truck (think Honda Ridgeline) that VW has promised will be built for the Brazilian market where small pickups are considerably more common. But the fact that VW brought this pickup to a U.S. show to "judge interest" is astonishing, so we took a closer look at the Tarok to see what its true chances are of arriving on our shores. The Platform Would Work The Tarok concept isn't a new version of the Amarok pickup that VW sells in just about every other market except ours. That truck would require a new plant to be built somewhere in North America to make selling it in the U.S. feasible — importing it wouldn't work due to the longtime tariffs on imported pickups that are still in place in the U.S. Not to mention it would require considerable...

In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of fleet management technology, allowing drivers and fleet managers alike to access a significant amount of smart data with regard to vehicle and driver performance. Features include fuel efficiency information, driver performance insights and real-time tracking via GPS, all of which help effortlessly manage the end-to-end performance of van or truck fleet. Fleet Trak, an award-winning TomTom telematics reseller based in the UK, discusses how fleet managers can make use of this sophisticated modern technology to help improve the performance of their fleet across multiple core areas. Improving driver standards while lowering risk   Anytime a van fleet driver gets into an accident while on the road, such as a collision with another vehicle or an object, this will take both staff and time out of normal operation. However, with the latest fleet technology in place, including vehicle cameras and tracking s...