How to beat long van lead times

The new Renault Trafic is one of a number of new vans with long lead times

New van build delays

In addition, the sheer number of new vans that are coming onto the market (like the new Citroen Relay, Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer, Vauxhall Vivaro, Renault Trafic, Ford Transit and Mercedes Vito) has actually made the supply shortage worse as manufacturers are scaling down old model inventories and gearing up for increased production of the new models.

With new van lead times typically 16 weeks or more, companies are finding themselves without suitable vehicles to continue their daily business when the time has come to replace them.

How to beat long van lead times

If you are looking for a van for speedy delivery, then you will have experienced the issues we’ve just talked about – van availability at the moment is most definitely a problem.

So how do you get to the front of the new van queue?

With a little research from those van leasing specialists that have thought ahead -firms such as Global Van Solutions.

Jon Lewis, who is a director at Global Van Solutions, says their knowledge and experience in the market has helped put them in a better situation to service trades and small van fleets by pre-ordering those vans which they had anticipated being top sellers.

“We have pre-ordered a large number of our top-selling vans,” says Jon. “All of these vans are not easy to get and we have different colours arriving soon and in stock.

“We understand that customers don’t always want white, so we’ve also ordered in silver, black and red.

“In terms of van turnaround, we can fit items like ply lining and roof racks pretty much straight away, so when the finance process is completed, a very speedy delivery is what we always aim for.”

Jon adds:“We have a large panel of lenders and can cater for companies who may find getting finance a little more challenging.

Our main product is finance lease, although we also offer contract hire and purchase options.”