Commercial Van Solutions

If you’re a commercial van upfitter, you’ve likely seen a growing number of customers who’ve traditionally selected a pickup or service body truck for a mobile service application, who are now taking a second look at using a van for that job.

That’s because not long ago, in 2008, there were few commercial van options available in the North American market — three full-size vans (Ford E-Series, Mercedes Sprinter, and Chevrolet Express/ GMC Savana) and one compact van (Chevrolet Uplander cargo). Today, that number has more than doubled to 10 van models, offering a much wider range of roof heights, wheelbases, payload capacities, and engines for fleet managers to choose from.

“We’ve definitely noticed an uptick of some customers switching from pickup trucks to vans because there is more choice now, especially with the new small vans and euro-style full-size vans that have entered the market the past few years,” said Jay Cowie, product manager at Ranger Design, a commercial van upfit manufacturer based in Ontario, New York.

With the influx of new van models, how can you seize this opportunity to sell more commercial van products and services? Tailor your offerings to capitalize on these four trends in commercial van upfits.

Trend #1: Rightsizing the Van to the Job

“Fleets are taking a more strategic approach to their business, focused on selecting the right-size van because now there’s more choice,” said Cowie. “Customers aren’t stuck with a one-size-fits-all van, which may be inefficient for certain applications. With greater choice, they can more effectively tailor vehicle selection to increase efficiencies and lower operational costs.”

How can upfitters capitalize on this trend?

• Expand upfit offerings to fit each available van model
• Offer modular or adjustable cargo management systems so that technicians can personalize (or right-size) the upfit to their unique needs and workflows in the field.
• Reimagine how the increased cargo area inside high-roof vans can be optimized — to create new upfit designs that boost worker efficiency and productivity.

Trend #2: Taking Weight Out of Upfits

“Because some of the new vans are bigger and taller with more cargo area, you can fit a lot more gear in it,” said Cowie. “And the more stuff in the van, comes more weight, which increases the risk of overloading the van. So, we’re seeing a shift toward using lighter-weight materials in upfits to increase legal payload capacity.”

Cowie said that Ranger Designs incorporates aluminum and composite materials to reduce overall upfit weight, depending on what mix of materials is best for the customer’s functionality, durability and budget requirements.

How can upfitters capitalize on this trend?

• Offer lighter-weight upfit options where the customer’s application allows.
• Help customers assess the cost-benefit of “lightweighting” in terms of productivity gains from increased payload capacity or the potential to “downsize” the vehicle and reduce acquisition costs.

Trend #3: Higher Demand for Ergonomic Upfits

According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) — typically caused by awkward movements, heavy lifting, and repetitive motion — account for 34 percent of all lost workdays, which can get very expensive for employers.

So, a growing number of fleet managers are looking to equip their vehicles with upfits that improve ergonomics to protect their technicians’ health — and their organization’s bottom line.

“[At Adrian Steel], we start by observing how the [technicians] do their work, so we can create a process flow of the types of equipment they need to access most often and what they need less often,” said Jeff Langley, fleet account executive at Adrian Steel, a manufacturer of commercial van accessories and truck equipment, headquartered in Adrian, Michigan. “We’ll then design an upfit system that positions those high-use items where they can be accessed quickly and easily, so workers can be more safe and productive when performing their job.”

Also, the upfit products themselves can be designed with ergonomics in mind. Take, for example, a bulkhead (between the cabin and cargo areas) that’s contoured to allow the driver seat to recline a few degrees further than a standard bulkhead, improving driver comfort and reducing risk of lower back fatigue. Another example is a drop-down ladder rack, which is especially helpful with the taller Euro-style vans because it enables workers to load and unload ladders from the side of the van, while standing safely at ground level, instead of having to strain and lift awkwardly to load a heavy ladder onto a standard roof rack.

How can upfitters capitalize on this trend?

• Educate customers on more ergonomic options to standard upfits, such as drop-down ladder racks, contoured bulkheads, grab handles, etc.
• Study how the vehicle is intended to be used in the field to uncover new ideas for designing upfits that help improve workflow and ergonomics.

Trend #4: Increased Demand for Mobile Power

“We’re seeing a trend toward fleets wanting van interiors that offer a more productive mobile workplace, with increased demand for power ports to run laptops, charge mobile devices, and operate electric tools,” said Langley with Adrian Steel.

At VMAC, we’re seeing similar growth in demand for air power in vans – for fleets that traditionally use pickups or service body trucks to run high-powered air tools, such as impact guns for breaking off heavy-duty lug nuts in a mobile tire service application.

The challenge has been that conventional air compressor systems available for vans — electric drive and gas/diesel drive compressors — are either too underpowered or take up too much cargo space (and weight) to be useful for most mobile service applications. So, the VMAC engineering team has developed the UNDERHOOD 40 CFM air compressor (40 cfm/ 100-150 psi), designed specifically for the commercial van market, with a compact rotary screw compressor. This system is powered by the vehicle’s engine to generate sufficient air power for a wide range of heavy-duty air tools, while minimizing the system’s footprint and weight inside the van’s cargo area.

How can upfitters capitalize on this trend?

• Expand your product offerings and expertise to account for your customers’ mobile power needs for commercial vans, in terms of electrification and air power.
• Help customers strike the right balance between maximizing onboard power, while minimizing the system’s weight and impact on cargo capacity.

The Bottom Line

With today’s commercial van landscape, opportunities abound for upfitters that serve the mobile service market. So, as you evaluate your product portfolio, look for any gaps that, if you were to fill them, could open up exciting new revenue streams — and make your company more valuable to customers.

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What’s wrong with extra weight on commercial vans?

Commercial van gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWR) and payloads can differ from vehicle to vehicle.  It is important to know what you’re working with when specifying or upfitting a specific commercial van.

GVWR should not to be confused with payload capacity.  GVWR includes the vehicle’s unloaded curb weight, passengers’ weight and cargo weight. Payload capacity is the difference between GVWR and vehicle weight.  For example: If a vehicle’s GVWR is listed at 10,000 lbs and the vehicle’s weight is 6,000 lbs (empty), then its payload capacity is 4,000 lbs.

According to AboutAutos.com, gross vehicle weight rating is the vehicle’s maximum safe weight that should not be exceeded.  Weight calculations include curb weight, additional equipment that’s been added, the weight of cargo and the weight of passengers.  A vehicle’s GVWR never changes.

According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), all commercial drivers of vehicles in interstate commerce with a maximum gross vehicle weight rating of over 10,000 lbs are required to obtain and maintain a valid Medical Examiner’s (ME) Certificate.  It is important to note that though most commercial vans have a GVWR of less than 10,000 lbs, the Ford Transit does have a GVWR of over 10,000 lbs.  If commercial vans are over-loaded, or at capacity in the case of Ford Transit, a ME Certificate may be required.

According to Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, fines for on-the-road weight violations range from $100 to $10,000 for first offence.  Fines double on subsequent violations within a year.  Fines and other punishments vary in severity from state-to-state, and can even include prison time.

According to Connecticut General Assembly, criminal charges may be brought against the owner or operator of an overweight vehicle if the weight of the vehicle is the proximate cause of a motor vehicle accident that results in death.

To recap the issues surrounding GVWR:

• GVWR never changes.
• Driver license requirements may be at risk.
• Monetary fines may be imposed.
• Business operations may be affected.
• Prison time and criminal charges are not out of the question.

With these important issues in mind, it makes sense to reduce the weight of vehicles by incorporating the lightest components possible.

An example of how you can reduce vehicle weight on Service Vans is with the use of VMAC UNDERHOOD air compressors.  Traditional air compressors mounted in the cargo area can weigh as much as 375 lbs.  The VMAC UNDERHOOD 30 CFM rotary screw air compressor weighs only 85 lbs. VMAC reduces vehicle GVW by up to 290 lbs.

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When Back To The Future came out, it predicted that we’d be driving flying cars in 2015 and for a while, we probably all were convinced that there was a strong possibility it would happen. As the years went by, this prediction seemed far more fantasy than reality.  While our vehicles may still be planted firmly on the ground, there have been incredible developments in design, technology and fabrication that have brought us some impressive advancements.

Lane Correction

Current Lane Detection systems notify you with an indicator light, beeping and haptic feedback with vibrations in the steering wheel or even vibrating in the seat in some models. But future Lane Correction sets its sights going beyond simply alerting you that you are departing from your lane or even helping you correct your steering once you have.  Future Lane Correction takes it even a step further by helping maintain your vehicle’s presence in the center of the lane so larger corrections are no longer necessary.

Collision Prevention

Collision Prevention systems already help alert drivers when an impending collision is likely to take place and some even automatically begin to apply the brakes to help reduce or completely prevent impact.  Future systems will up the ante completely by detecting when the braking distance is too short to avoid an object, such as a pedestrian stepping out in front of the vehicle, and add steering assistance to guide the vehicle around the barrier.

360° Views

Why just have a backup camera when you could have a clear 360° view around your entire vehicle?  Future safety systems will do just that.  In addition to providing a view of the area immediately behind your vehicle, 360° cameras with cameras stationed around the vehicle which displays the area around both sides of the vehicle and gives a panorama view of the front and back, with some models even able to give a bird’s-eye view of the top of vehicle.

Night Vision

It’s no mystery that as daylight vanishes, it gets more difficult to see animals and objects in the roadway ahead of you.  Night Vision systems can help drivers avoid a collision by using infrared light sources to illuminate obstacles in the road, giving them more time to react.

Pedestrian Detection

With the risk of a fatality being caused when vehicle-pedestrian collisions occur, car companies will be working to add Pedestrian Detection systems to help alleviate the likelihood.  When these systems detect a walker, jogger, bicyclist or motorcyclist in the path of the vehicle, it can alert the driver or even applies the brakes to stop the vehicle.

Adaptive Cruise Control

Adaptive Cruise Control takes the guesswork out of the space between you and the vehicle in front of you.  By utilizing onboard sensors and software, it can automatically manage the distance between your vehicle and the one ahead of you, preventing you from suddenly finding yourself to close and worse yet, rear-ending the vehicle you were following.

Vehicle To Vehicle Communications

Vehicle To Vehicle Communications sounds a lot like your vehicle will be calling another vehicle on its own and in a way, it kind of does.  In the future, vehicles will be able to talk to each other through intelligence vehicle systems using Wi-Fi to transmit your vehicle’s location to other vehicles and let your vehicle know of vehicles around you.  This can be helpful in situations where a vehicle has stopped suddenly up ahead or alerting you of an approaching car before passing a vehicle.

Bluetooth Standard

Handsfree will become the new normal when Bluetooth is no longer an upgrade or option but when it becomes standard.  This will allow for drivers to change a song or make a phone call without having to take their hands off the wheel.  Additionally, these systems will be able to read texts so drivers can keep their eyes on the road ahead

Adaptive Headlights

Unlike standard headlights, Adaptive Headlights are able to pivot when necessary by reacting to the speed, steering and elevation of the vehicle to increase visibility over hills and around corners. This can not only help drivers driving at night see obstacles in the road faster and help increase your vehicle’s visibility to other drivers who are approaching.

Driver Health Monitor

What if your vehicle could alert you that you were about to have a heart attack or for those with epilepsy that they are going to have a seizure?  It sounds impossible but advancements are making it much more likely.  Driver Health Monitor systems would use systems within the seat belt and steering wheel to gauge if the driver’s vital statistics are reaching a dangerous level.  In addition to pulling the vehicle over to prevent a crash, these systems will also be able to notify EMS of the emergency and location so help can be on their way.

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Imagine you could start with a blank sheet of paper and design the perfect field service van. What would you change from the old standbys? What cool new features or little luxuries would you dare to hope for? That’s the situation Nissan faced when it decided to try its hand in the U.S. van market. We spoke with Mike Hobson, the director of marketing for Nissan commercial vehicles, to find out exactly what the Japanese automaker wanted to bring to its line of service vans.

The Smart Van: Allyson Harwood, an editor at Motor Trend, described the Nissan NV to us as “cool,” not a word you usually associate with commercial vans. Was that what Nissan was aiming for?

Mike Hobson: We were coming to the party in a very mature segment and we needed to do something different. So we looked at what was out there and really took the opportunity to innovate. I don’t know if ‘cool’ was necessarily the goal, but to be unique, different, and really hit the customer targets was definitely the goal.

Did you have field service folks in mind when you were designing these vans?

Absolutely, we had a spectrum of customers in mind. With regards to the NV, the target customer was primarily an owner/operator [type]. So we set out to lay the groundwork for a vehicle that could apply to the service industry, to the delivery industry, to installs, plumbing, HVAC, locksmiths, et cetera.

We break field service down further still into two subcategories: installation, and service itself. On the installation side, they’re usually carrying heavier equipment and doing heavier-duty cycles in their vehicles. On the service side, usually it’s inspections of installations or it’s calling on customers or those kinds of things. So with the NV, we have the NV cargo van, which is the full-sized van. And we’re going to come out with NV200, which is going to start in the market at the end of this calendar year.

Describe some of the unique features of these vans.

We were able to start with a design that was more pickup-like, with the engine out in front, and that cleared out the foot well and it gave us a lot more interior comfort in the vehicle. Beyond that, we also have the “mobile office.”

One of the key ideas for this type of customer was the reality that they live in their vehicle — their office is their vehicle — so the “mobile office” concept is a way for us to incorporate the capabilities of working from their home office actually in the field. It includes this large central console with power ports for 110 volts, lockable storage for laptops, hanging file folders … the list goes on and on.

This market has dominated by U.S. brands like GM and Ford for quite some time. What do you think it will take for Japanese vans to compete? 

I believe everybody was a little bit surprised when we brought out the NV cargo van and now the NV passenger van, which is going into production this month. Because we were able to innovate as we talked about, we’re bringing things to the table that other companies have not been able to do or have no offered in the past. But for a Japanese brand, yeah, we have to prove ourselves in that market space.

We’ve been out in the market now for about a year. We are definitely gaining traction very quickly with a lot of customers and also some larger fleets as well. It took people a little while because they don’t want to take a chance with a vehicle that’s their primary source of income, so people will wait and see how things go. But we’ve really been proving ourselves, I think, one customer at a time.

Are there any other advantages of the NV line for field service firms that you’d like to highlight?  

We have a commercial incentive program that’s available to all purchasers of the vehicle, and that gives the customer the opportunity to select either a rack and bin package, similar to what Ford and G.M. offer, but we also have other options. We have a full graphics package as one of the choices. That is a turnkey solution where they can customize graphics directly, one vehicle at a time, and have those graphics ordered and installed at no charge to them, falling within the parameters of the program. That has been really well received as well.

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This year will see Volvo and Daimler put electric Class 8 trucks to test, as start-ups still have few commercially available models.

The busiest truck hub on the U.S. West Coast said that while major truck manufacturers and start-ups have made progress on battery-electric Class 8 trucks, the technology is still two years away at best from becoming more commercially viable for fleets.

Natural-gas powered engines have made the most progress to date in commercial viability. As for advanced diesel, fuel cell and hybrid electric technologies, those were not deemed ready now and may struggle to become so even by 2021.

The findings from a study commissioned by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach impact the future spending plans of the approximately 100 drayage operators that operate roughly 12,000 trucks in the busiest North American import gateway.

The Southern California ports, which already have strict rules on trucking emissions, are working on ways to bring emissions to near zero.   

The report provides a snapshot on where major truck manufacturers and start-ups stand in offering Class 8 trucks powered by batteries. So far, Volvo (Nasdaq OMX: VOLV) and Daimler (FRA: DAI) are closest to the commercial launch of battery-electric trucks by 2021.

As for the start-ups, China’s BYD (SZSE: 2594) is offering a battery-electric truck in the U.S. market. But its limited range and the company’s lack of full-scale manufacturing means its still in the early stages. As for Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) and Nikola Motors, they have “good potential to build and sell” battery-electric trucks, but neither has a commercially available product at this time, the report concluded.

Consulting firms Tetra Tech and GNA found that natural gas-powered trucks were the most commercially viable replacement for diesel trucks today in terms of range, drivability and maintenance.

Natural gas is hardly new, having been in use in drayage fleets since 2007. But after an initial surge of interest, the number of natural gas-fueled truck has fallen from around 8 percent of the active drayage fleet at the start of the decade to around 3 percent currently.

Natural gas-fueled trucks have played a declining a role due to the lack of horsepower in the first generation of engines. But Cummins (NYSE: CMI) introduced a more powerful natural gas engine in 2015 that can handle drayage applications.

The major truck manufacturers all offer models that can handle the latest generation of natural gas engines. Natural gas trucks, though, face the roadblock of limited refueling options in Southern California.  But state incentive programs aim to foster more widespread adoption of natural gas.

Natural gas trucks are also the farthest along in the testing process, with a study of 20 drayage trucks using the Cummins engine expected to be available this year. Local drayage operator Total Transportation Services said the Cummins-powered natural gas trucks “performed very well in our operations.”

But battery-electric technology is the one with the most testing interest in southern California, with some 65 trucks being tested. This month, Daimler will be operating 20 Freightliner electric trucks, including seven Class-8 e-Cascadia model tractors for drayage.

Third-party logistics firm NFI is also beginning tests of 23 of Volvo’s  battery-electric trucks starting this year in the southern California market.

As for fuel cell technology, Toyota (NYSE: TM) and the Kenworth division of Paccar (NASDAQ: PCAR) are involved in a test project in southern California. But fuel cell-powered engines, which start-up Nikola is also championing, is unlikely to achieve commercial viability “until well past 2021” barring any breakthrough in the technology.

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