Box Vans For Sale in United Kingdom

The regional distribution market is one of the most competitive. It is crowded with big national operators and small independents. Margins are tight, so getting the most from your lorry is absolutely vital. This means making some decisions on the size and weight limits of your truck, but it also means making an even more fundamental decision about your choice of body type. Early distribution trucks included flatbeds and dropsides and there are still many of these around today.

They do tend to be more suited to specific niches, though, such as construction and builders' merchants delivery work. This is due to their physical nature. Being open, they are not suited to delicate or high-value items. The loads are exposed to the elements and potentially to the eyes of thieves, so they are better suited to bulky and low-value loads which won’t get damaged in the rain and don’t attract the attention of thieves — so building materials are ideal.

The box van is a much more secure option. It protects loads from any criminal intent and shelters them from the elements. What it gains in security, however, it loses a little in flexibility.

The joy of the flatbed is that it can be loaded from either side or from the rear. This makes them easy and quick to load and also simple to unload on tight sites. It also means that there is no real preference in load order and the driver can cope easily with changes to schedules because loads can be taken off in any order. The flatbed can also cope with loads that overhang its dimensions a little.

The box van cannot offer that flexibility as most need to be loaded from the rear only. When a driver is dealing with a full load, therefore, he must think carefully about the loading order and ensure that the last pallet in is the first off. He will, of course be able to move things around a little, particularly a few drops into his schedule, but nevertheless this can cost valuable time. A curtainsider offers a bit of a compromise. It protects loads from bad weather and prying eyes but allows loading and unloading all around the truck. The curtains themselves can be damaged, however, and the curtainsiders are generally a little more expensive to buy. Security is not quite as good as a box van either, as the material of the curtains can be cut.

Despite this competition, there can be no doubt that the box van is the workhorse of the regional distribution market. They are cheap to buy and run and simple to maintain, with no moving curtains to get worn or faulty. They offer the best level of security and protection from the elements that you can get. With no exotic parts, buying a used box van is a simple affair. The standard mechanical checks should be carried out and service records examined. The box itself is a robust piece of kit and need only be checked for obvious signs of damage. Remember too that the box is a great opportunity for you to advertise your firm.

Until recently, box-bodied trucks were usually sold by the truck manufacturer as rigid chassis cabs with a box body built by a specialist bodybuilder. This is changing as more manufacturers are selling their trucks ‘ready bodied’. When buying a truck with a box body, check all round for damage and the inside for water leakage and nasty smells that are difficult to remove. If the truck has a tail lift, check that it is working and that it has been tested. Does the truck have a roof air deflector that reaches to the top of the body? If not it will cost you more on fuel or to fit the correct device. Finally double check all interior and exterior dimensions to make sure it is suitable for the job it will do.