Buying the right racking for your van

In times of recession, a common question for van operators is this: how do we reduce costs yet still get the job done?

The simple reply is: buy less expensive kit.

How does this work though? Sure the reduced outlay will solve immediate cash flow concerns. And keep the financial director off your back. But isn’t this really just a false economy? What about the long haul? What about staff health & safety?

Take a simple roof rack for a van that is on a four year/100,000 mile contract hire policy. The business van manager has a choice: buy a rack that costs £100 that will last one year, or do they buy a rack costing £400 that will last four years? The obvious answer is the first option: it minimises outlay now, and costs the same over the term.

But what invariably gets forgotten at this point though, is the true cost to the company: time. Somebody in purchasing has now got to buy the same rack every 12 months quadrupling their workload on this one item. Then the vehicle has to be taken off the road every 12 months for two hours to have the old rack removed and the new one fitted. This loses the driver over the four years, a full eight hours’ productivity.

Then there are the Health & Safety implications: can companies afford to cut costs? The £100 rack will suit the purpose of carrying a set of ladders on a van roof that the user climbs up to, to load or unload; the £400 rack will still suit the same purpose but the ladders come off the rack to the user whilst they are stood on the ground without having to climb up anywhere.

Van managers should understand this: if they talk to the right company in the first place, they can buy ‘less expensive’, but more importantly, fit for purpose kit straight away – saving money in the long run