Practical considerations

Drivers who spend their entire lives delivering clean laundry to hotels, hospitals and other premises, and picking up soiled laundry to take back to base, will fight to get behind the wheel of the extensively-revised Citroen Relay

  That's because the manufacturer's latest offering, sold as both a panel van and a chassis cab, has one of the best-designed cab interiors in the business.

Clever features to be found in the three-man cab include a folding clipboard designed to hold A4-size paperwork mounted on top of the dashboard.

Flip a section in the back of the centre passenger seat forwards, and it becomes a useful desk that the driver can use to fill in documents. It includes a clamp to hold the papers in place.

Employees who are always complaining about back trouble will be impressed by the driver's seat.

Sourced from leading seat manufacturer Isri, it can be adjusted for height as well as reach and rake, and the lumbar support can be adjusted as well. You can alter the height of the steering wheel too.

But why does cab comfort matter? Surely the driver is simply there to get on with the job, and if he or she takes against the vehicle they're given, then that's too bad.

It matters because happy drivers are usually productive drivers. What's more, if they like the van they're allocated, they'll look after it, which means the employer won't be continually footing the bill for minor dents that aren't worth claiming for on the insurance.

Staff problem

There's also the point that it's becoming progressively more difficult to hire staff in many parts of the country. Offer somebody a shiny new Relay rather than a dilapidated shed on wheels, and you've got an instant advantage in the employment market - and you've got a half a chance of hanging on to your new recruit too.

There are other reasons why you might want to give the new Relay more than a passing glance.

The 86bhp 2.0-litre HDi and 127bhp 2.8-litre HDi diesel engines fitted to the previous model have been joined by a 104bhp 2.2-litre HDi diesel. All three feature common rail technology.

Common rail fuel injection allows the engine to burn diesel more efficiently - and make less noise about it - and pull more strongly at low speeds. It also results in cleaner exhaust emissions.

Offering plenty of performance, the 2.2-litre Relay is both quiet and frugal. The writer averaged a respectable 32mpg in a recent road test.

The new Relay illustrates two important developments in light commercials that matter to businesses of all types. Service intervals are lengthening, cutting maintenance costs and downtime, and warranties are becoming more generous.

The 2.8-litre Relay only needs servicing every 20,000 miles, and all Relays are protected by a three-year/100,000 mile warranty.

Relay van is on sale with a choice of three wheelbases and three different roof heights. Cargo volumes range from 7.5m3 to 14.0m3, while van gross payloads run from 1,105kg to 1,635kg, and gross weights from 2.9tonnes to 3.5tonnes.

Relay is the product of a massive and long-standing joint venture between PSA - Citroen and Peugeot's parent company - and Fiat. It's spawned two other models on sale in the UK that share pretty much all of Relay's changes - Peugeot's Boxer and Fiat's Ducato.

Peugeot has decided to differentiate itself from Citroen and Fiat by including a no-frills, lightweight 2.5-tonner in its range. Fitted with the 2.0-litre HDi engine, the short-wheelbase, standard roof Boxer 250 offers a modest 660kg payload.

Fiat sells Ducato with a 110bhp 2.3-litre common rail JTD diesel that isn't deployed in either of the other two models.

Sliding advantage

One big advantage of Relay family is the ease with which the driver can slide across the cab without tumbling over anything, and emerge safely on the pavement side. That's because the gear lever is mounted on the dashboard, and the handbrake lever is between the driver's seat and the door.

Speed of exit and entry is a key feature in a new vehicle developed by Iveco, parcels giant UPS, and German body builder Sommer. Based on a 6.5-tonne Iveco Daily City Truck chassis cowl, it's designed so that the driver can walk straight from the cab into the load area, pick up the item he's got to deliver, and exit through the sliding passenger-side cab door.

It locks automatically behind him thanks to a wristband-activated central locking system. When he comes back, he passes the wristband in front of a sensor to gain entry.

Citroen, Peugeot, and Fiat aren't the only manufacturers with something to shout about, and their activities aren't the only joint venture in town. Nissan has just put the Interstar on sale, and one of its key features will be a boon to anybody who has ever tried to squeeze a van into a tight parking space while making deliveries in a busy high street. It comes with rear parking sensors as standard.

Slot the gearbox into reverse, and you'll hear a beep. Start going backwards, and the beeps will become increasingly frequent the closer you get to an obstacle.

The results should include fewer injuries to pedestrians, less risk of criminal prosecution or a civil suit - we live in a litigious society, don't forget - lower repair and insurance bills, and less downtime. Being able to rely on sensors means that the driver doesn't have to take so long parking the vehicle, and the supplying dealer can set the system to ensure that the driver stops far enough from an obstruction to be able to open the rear doors.

Master rebadge

If Interstar looks somehow familiar, then that's because it's a rebadged Renault Master. Renault is in charge at Nissan these days, and the same model is also sold by Vauxhall as the Movano.

Grossing at from 2.8tonnes to 3.5tonnes, Interstar is marketed with three different body heights and body lengths, and three different common rail dCi diesels. You can choose from an 80bhp 1.9-litre, a 90bhp 2.2-litre, and a 115bhp 2.5-litre. Load cubes range from 8.0m3 to 13.9m3, while gross payloads extend from 1,101kg to 1,667kg.

Interstar isn't sold as a chassis cab, because Nissan wants to protect sales of its Cabstar E. Marketed as a chassis cab only, it's probably more suitable for tipper operators than laundries.

As well as low fuel bills, longer service intervals, and a generous warranty, launderers and drycleaners usually want their vans to be easily accessible. The majority of panel vans come with sliding nearside load area doors as standard these days as well as rear doors, and offside sliding doors are almost always available as an extra-cost option.

Nor is the driver going to want to feel like he's ascending or descending a mountain every time he gets in and out of the load area. Happily, front-wheel-drive vans like Relay/Boxer/Ducato and Interstar/Master/ Movano all offer a low loading height. Even this won't allow you to push roll cages in and out of the vehicle if you use them to collect and deliver laundry, however.

To get them in and out, you'll still need a tail lift. Companies like Ratcliff make extensive ranges of tail lifts suitable for light commercials, and one that can raise from 300kg to 500kg will have ample capacity.

You'll also need to equip your van with either floor or side-mounted tracking to which the roll cages can be anchored, either by restraining straps or shoring poles. Allowing cages to roll backwards and forwards all the time is dangerous, and could result in damage to the vehicle.

The foregoing light commercials aren't the only ones to be kitted out with common rail power. Front-wheel-drive Ford Transits are now on offer with a 125bhp 2.0-litre common rail Duratorq TDCi engine. Ford claims that it's up to 5% more fuel-efficient than the existing - non-common-rail - 100bhp 2.0-litre diesel, which remains available.

All TDCi Transits get anti-lock brakes as standard as an added bonus.

Not to be outdone, Volkswagen has opted for common rail power for the first time by equipping its LT35 and LT46 3.5-tonne and 4.6-tonne panel vans and chassis cabs with a mighty 158bhp 2.8-litre TDI diesel as an option. That's more power than most readers would require, however; certainly at 3.5 tonnes.

Moving up the weight range a little, DAF, Iveco, MAN, Renault, and Mercedes - not to mention Isuzu and Mitsubishi - have a new competitor at 7.5 tonnes in the shape of the inexpensive, Czech-built, Daewoo Avia D-Line D75.

Its advantages include a British-built 3.9-litre Cummins diesel engine on offer at either 135bhp or 150bhp and a five-speed ZF gearbox. Wheelbases of from 2.95m to 5.1m can be specified. The 3.9m wheelbase chassis grosses at just over 3.0 tonnes, which means it can offer a generous body/payload allowance.

With no ties to Daewoo's car operation, the manufacturer is 50.2% owned by Daewoo Steyr of the Netherlands. Importer Daewoo Truck UK aims to sell 300 D75s this year, rising to 600 in 2003.

Stuck on Merc

Basingstoke-based Sunlight has recently opted for four Mercedes-Benz Atego 815s at 7.5tonnes, however, along with a 13.5-tonne Atego 1323 and 15 18-tonne Atego 1823s. Its activities include everything from industrial laundering to workwear rental, and it operates over 50 service centres countrywide. The 18-tonners run regularly from branch to branch, and are proving economical.

All the Ategos are fitted with box bodies made by Wessex with roller shutter doors and tail lifts sourced from Ross and Bonnyman. Ninety per cent of Sunlight's 600 trucks were built by Mercedes, and recently it's been acquiring 70 new Mercedes annually.

Why Mercedes? Their reliability and the support provided by supplying dealer Pentagon of Fareham are among the key factors according to commercial director, Tom Sherlock, and the 18tonners are economical. "Many of the trucks are used to make up to 40 deliveries daily to customers premises, where their manoeuvrability is often a big advantage," he adds.

Sherlock's point about dealer support is an important one. A van or truck might be frugal, reliable and a dream to drive, but if the dealer you're relying on has sloppy service and parts departments, then you'll face a stack of problems.

So while you're collating information about vehicles, discover all you can about the dealers that sell them. Ask other launderers and drycleaners, and other businesses in the locality, what their experiences have been.

If a dealer has a reputation for incompetence, then you'll be better off placing your order elsewhere.