Body beautiful: body conversions are the key to greater flexibility in your LCV fleet - Bodies & conversions

The 3.5 tonne sector is becoming increasingly important to the light commercial fleet operator. Despite the vehicles in this class becoming more sophisticated by the day it is not the choice of vehicle which drives this situation, but the limitations of the fleet drivers' licences.

Since January 1997 a `car' driver has been limited to 3.5 tonnes, where the driver passing the car test before this date could drive up to 7.5 tonnes. The issue of driver recruitment, training and retention, has seen fleets move away from the 7.5 tonner to some degree. With greater load volumes available on 3.5 tonnes vehicles and less reluctance amongst makers to build specialised applications on the humble 3.5 tonne chassis, this sector is expanding.

Historically, if you wanted anything other than a standard panel van at up to 3.5 tonnes you were in the minority. You bought the chassis cab and literally drove it around to the converters. Those days are gone and the nearest you come to the situation now is by using a converter approved by the vehicle manufacturer. To retain your warranty the body must be built and fitted by an approved supplier and naturally the dealer for the chassis cab can handle this for you. If your vehicles are contract hired this will be a condition of the hire. The residual value prediction, and hence the monthly fee calculated by the contract hire company is based on this assumption.

With highly specialist conversions such as high volume bodies built on chassis cabs, you are dealing with an approved supplier. For more conventional bodies, such as tippers or dropsides, you will more likely have the vehicle built line-side by the manufacturer in-house. Although this eases the paperwork for the operator, these bodies are simply bought-in from independents in the same way that the after-market company would fit its approved body to that vehicle.

Cheaper and easier to fit

Like any trend this one is self-perpetuating, as the demand for specialist applications on the 3.5 tonner grows, so the vehicle manufacturers design their chassis-cabs to be cheaper and easier to fit a wide range of bodies to. When one considers that a long wheelbase Ford Transit, or Iveco Daily has rear wheel drive, whilst most of the competition from Renault, Vauxhall, Fiat and Citroen/Peugeot has front wheel drive, standardisation of the chassis fittings is paramount.

Most body conversions are required due to the nature of the load, such as tippers or chilled food bodies but one is required simply for more load area and increased access.

The dropside, is the prime body for palletised loads. Not only does it offer far easier loading and unloading by fork-lift but offers a greater floor area than the panel van built on the same wheelbase. Multi-drop work with palletised loads make the dropside essential, the delivery order need not be so rigid but the driver must be aware of the non-uniform loading which the vehicle undergoes in such situations.

Tipper

The tipper is more specialist and obviously suitable only for a certain type of load but the versatility at 3.5 tonnes should not be underestimated. Health and Safety regulations mean that moving sand or gravel within a construction site is usually less efficient than delivering the product, albeit in smaller quantities to the point of use. Along with the palletisation of brick and block transport this has seen a fundamental change in the way construction materials are handled and the increasing fashion for DIY outlets and home deliveries of building products has served the 3.5 tonne tipper and dropside market well.

Although something of a generalisation, it would seem most tipper operators still prefer rear wheel drive chassis-cabs for this work. Not only is the traction when laden superior to the front wheel drive chassis-cab but the rear axle capacity is often higher too, a consideration for many fleets over protracted mileages and if operating vehicles on self-drive hire.

Transport of perishables

If the growth in home DIY has helped the 3.5 tonne sector, then the Internet shopping and home delivery trend is the best news manufacturers here could expect. Whilst there has always been a need for refrigerated 3.5 tonners, the infrastructure determined by large supermarkets and out of town shopping centres has meant that the classic hub-and-spoke distribution pattern is no better illustrated than in the transport of perishables.

Now that home delivery puts an extension to the system the 3.5 tonnes chilled distribution vehicles is big news.

VW's LT is already in use with the "Sanisburys to you" service, the home delivery arm of one of the UK's leading supermarket chains. The current LPG bi-fuel powered fleet will be expanded to 1000 as Sainsburys extends the home delivery service to some 60 per cent of UK households.

The one-tonne payload is split into three compartments for ambient temperature, chilled or frozen items to be accommodated. The LT35 has a 143 bhp 2.3 litre petrol/LPG bi-fuel engine with Tickford conversion. Similarly Tesco Direct is using VW LT35s for chilled distribution with 2.5 TDI 109 bhp engines. Meanwhile LDV -- that most prolific builder of in-house `conversions' -- has drawn on its Convoy bi-fuel model and with a Klege Europ body featuring three-way combination compartment the vehicle can carry ambient, chilled or frozen produce with the assistance of its Carrier Xarios 300 refrigeration unit. The body's adjustable bulkhead offers the ability to change the relative sizes of the compartments and can be stored on the roof of the vehicle if removed completely. The Xarios 300 also features an overnight standby operation to retain the refrigeration environment.

With home delivery extending to everything from groceries to new cars, the 3.5 tonnner is becoming a commercial vehicle force to be reckoned with. A situation which can only further benefit the operator.

RELATED ARTICLE: Efficient volumes.

The high volume body, competing head-on with the sub-7.5 tonnes box van is the route many operators take. For low density items, particularly pre-formed packaging for the electronic consumer goods market, the high volume body is essential. Such loads fill the load volume of the standard panel van without getting anywhere near its payload. Highly inefficient on cost per mile basis.

Naturally high volume bodies have a high profile and associated aerodynamic drag, hitting fuel consumption. The latest Luton style bodies have a more aerodynamically efficient shape, moulded as they are from high strength grp.

It has to be remembered however that these are high volume bodies, not high payload bodies, and the operator must ensure that drivers and loaders, used to stacking a standard low-roof panel van to capacity, are aware of the ease of overloading that can occur here.

Do not let the ease with which you can source body conversions give you a false sense of security. There are numerous factors to be taken into account.

Swapping bodies from one vehicle to another is less likely now than some years ago. As the body is adapted to a particular vehicle, not only from a mounting point of view but also on wheelbase and axle capacities, the practice has all but died out. It used to be driven by resale, and as transport companies' workshops often built their own bodies the first owner would keep its own body, the second owner wanting a chassis to build upon.

With the advent of greater approval for bodies by the chassis-cab manufacturer, and the current situation with `in-house' body options, the residual value is easy to predict since a Tipmaster, or Ingimex body is looked upon by the trade as a model derivative of that chassis.

So the fitting of the body should cause little concern to the operator, as long as the advice of the dealer, manufacturer and converter is followed. The problems which do arise are with the operator or its employees. Overloading is a serious offence and relates not only to the whole vehicle but each axle.

A vehicle can be inside 3.5 tonnes yet still have one axle overloaded, and likewise it can be over its 3.5 tonnes GVM, yet both axles can be inside their limits. The reason for this is that all vehicles are built with excess axle capacity to withstand non-uniform loading. However on a dropside, or high volume body it is easy to exceed this margin by bad loading. Bear in mind too, that many body conversions are in themselves heavy. A chassis-cab with a tipper fitted will have less payload than the standard panel van. Ensure that all data relating to gross weight, axle plating and payload is at hand for the driver. Many operators display it in the cab.

COPYRIGHT 2002 DMG World Media Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group