Van or estate

[egg67]

Why do we have to have a van just because we are self-employed? Why not a car? I have always bought vans as that is what the l have thought the customer think looks best, used to hire cars when taking to Family out for day trips till the wife started driving and we could afford a Second vehicle. Last job I did was for a Builder who was doing a 50k kitchen and bathroom refit, he drove a Audi estate said as all Materials delivered to site and all he needed was his tools that can fit in the car with the seats down and all be left on site the fist day, it made it a lot easy to pick his kids up from the after-school club's as he did not have to leve the job early to take the van home pick up the car, pick up the kids, with the money he saved by not having a van he got a nice motorbike and had fun at the weekends, l got fed up with spending 15k on a van that is noisy and not very well equipped just so you can spend more money to put your name down the side and then get some little sh:t Nick all your tools when your have lunch


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[hasel5]

Just gone from a van to a pick up and best move ever

 

[Rpa07]

I spent £200 to put a 5% tint on the rear and tailgate of my Astra hatch with 70% on the driver and passenger for extra security. If I had the spare cash to invest I would but as the OP said, the kind of money spare to invest in a van wouldn't impress anyone quickly. I ditched my back seats and platformed the back and fitted a van vault.


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[Adam W]

Why do we have to have a van just because we are self-employed? Why not a car? I have always bought vans as that is what the l have thought the customer think looks best, used to hire cars when taking to Family out for day trips till the wife started driving and we could afford a Second vehicle. Last job I did was for a Builder who was doing a 50k kitchen and bathroom refit, he drove a Audi estate said as all Materials delivered to site and all he needed was his tools that can fit in the car with the seats down and all be left on site the fist day, it made it a lot easy to pick his kids up from the after-school club's as he did not have to leve the job early to take the van home pick up the car, pick up the kids, with the money he saved by not having a van he got a nice motorbike and had fun at the weekends, l got fed up with spending 15k on a van that is noisy and not very well equipped just so you can spend more money to put your name down the side and then get some little sh:t Nick all your tools when your have lunch


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I can't imagine the customer cares about any of that. As far as they're concerned they'd be paying £50k for a kitchen and bathroom because that's what it costs. They might even resent the idea that the hired help (who they may even consider to be of a lower social standing than them) is in some way cutting back so he can spend his weekends riding around on a motorbike. Probably more so that someone might be regularly leaving work early because of their own personal circumstances.

As far as customers are concerned the tradesmen get in the van at the end of the day, drive to the end of the road and vanish, and that's only because they don't want a van on the drive overnight. They want to be able to poke their head in for a site visit, count how many people are on site and comment on how it's all coming together - the private lives of the tradesmen is none of their concern.

 

[amlu]

i`m just turning up to jobs by bike. managed to have all my tools pack into rear panniers. getting a van out only on big jobs, getting big stuff and ladders there.
customers are happy, especially central london ones!

 

[kenny7askew]

terrific

i`m just turning up to jobs by bike. managed to have all my tools pack into rear panniers. getting a van out only on big jobs, getting big stuff and ladders there.
customers are happy, especially central london ones!

 

[LankyWill]

i ply lined a renault clio for a bit and used that for a while. Saved up a bit of money (sold my clio) and bought a little caddy. Have to say my clio did me well and it required a bit of forward thinking kit wise. Now i have got a van i just leave the lot in their and can be more versatile work wise. Never had a comment customer wise and i dont think about the donkeys at the wholesalers...

 

[7029 dave]

i`m just turning up to jobs by bike. managed to have all my tools pack into rear panniers. getting a van out only on big jobs, getting big stuff and ladders there.
customers are happy, especially central london ones!

Just what my mate done.

 

[ruston]

The estate the op is thinking of will have a screen that pulls forward to the tailgate and will cover to the top of the rear back seats. that will give him a decent storage area.

 

[tomspark93]

Just gone from a van to a pick up and best move ever

how do you find loading and unloading with the tailgate? Is it a pick up with a hard top?