Vans are an important transport asset for any Council, and enable operators to move light loads over short distances. Our man in a van, David Stokes took to the road with four newly launched LCV’s, and assessed each of these vehicle’s capabilities for Local Authority use.

Citroën Nemo

Automatic transmission nothing short a luxury on today’s crowded roads, especially if caught in rush hour traffic. An automatic transmission box has benefits other than improving the driver’s comfort. They also make good economic sense, because you can’t break a clutch that isn’t there and its difficult to over-rev an engine if the transmission is left in the automatic setting. In general, drivers find driving an automatic transmission box calming and it puts less pressure on the engine and far less wear and tear is caused, thus prolonging the operating life.

Citroën sent along its nice new and shiny compact Nemo, equipped with an automated manual transmission box, SensoDrive. In my experience, the clutchless transmission provided all the comfort of an auto box with the fuel efficiency of manual transmission.

It approaches the size of Citroën’s old Visa van, however, nowadays its blessed with several creature comforts such as air conditioning, radio/CD player with MP3 capability, electric windows and mirrors, sliding doors on the both sides (optional) as well as asymmetric side hinged rear doors.

In the cargo area there are six tie down loops, which is more than enough to hold down those expensive and delicate items like a boiler, switch gear, large cans of paint and pallets of concrete blocks or paving slabs, increasing occupant safety considerably.

Driver comfort is well catered for with height adjustable driver’s seat, two cup holders, bottle holders in the reasonable sized door pockets and a nicely designed document clip holder that can be raised up and clipped according to requirement. For ease of cleaning the cab, the floors feature rubber mats that are simple to remove and wash.

The new Nemo is a great van, that is compact, easy to drive, and at home on the motorway and in the narrow city streets. It features tardis-like loading capacity, although it has a slightly high weight for the van’s size, but all in all a very capable and excellent LCV.

Fiat Fiorino

This Italian van came in a fetching shade of Racing Red and my neighbours, being British, asked me where I kept my black and white cat. The Fiorino is small – just a little bigger than the old Morris Minor van – but with sensible features like the cleverly folding passenger seat. It is so clever because, the rear of the front passenger seat folds down, making a handy table. The whole seat can also fold down enabling the van to carry long items without interfering with the driver’s view or getting in the way.

The van is a delight to drive with excellent all round visibility and well-weighted power steering. Changing gear is slick, and the brakes provide much confidence with their progressive and positive action.

Being the base model, I had to drive without remote central locking, it did however have central locking using the key in the door. In my opinion, the absence of this feature is not critical. The new small diesels not only offer a reasonable level of performance but with mature driving techniques can deliver extremely good fuel consumption. Fiat’s Fiorino Cargo will provide on the combined cycle 62.8 mpg which will make anyone smile, even the Council’s accountant.

A van is for carrying stuff and for its size the little Fiorino punches well above its weight. I like this compact van, because it is easy to drive and park and it is cheap to run.

Citroën Dispatch

Citroen’s new Dispatch has a sumptuous driver’s seat and is adjustable to most shapes of person. The two passenger seats are slightly shorter in the leg but are reasonably comfortable. The Dispatch features an adjustable steering wheel both up and down and in and out. Door windows and mirrors are electrically operated and the mirrors can be folded out of harms way when parked up. Electrically operated mirrors are expensive, but if they fold away they will suffer less damage. Regrettably, there is no document clip to stop the driver’s papers from flying about the cab.

Citroën is also proud of its enhanced traction system called Dispatch XTR+ which gives an enhanced traction in off road conditions without having to go to the expense of operating a 4X4 vehicle. The key to this system is the limited slip differential. In slippery conditions, the differential apportions 75% of the engine’s power to the non slipping wheel, not full 4X4 but then one isn’t paying for full 4X4 and the van will get you out of problems that an ordinary transmission would not.

The LX Dispatch features pneumatic, self-levelling rear suspension with lowering capability which means that the load bed can be adjusted making loading easier, and Citroën say that this gives the van better road holding characteristics. One usually bases the purchase of a van on load capacity, when you see L’ in the vans designation it means it’s the longer one but H1 means lower roof height.

This configuration van gives the operator 6m3 with a load length of 2,584mm. The load height is 1,449mm. On the floor there are six tie down loops but alas none on the sides that would be useful for carrying large bits of equipment like boilers etc.

A channel runs across the length of the van from the centre of the roof just back from the windshield to near the rear doors for storing long items such as pipes etc. My judgement is that this a great van. However, one niggle though. If it is now illegal to smoke in a company vehicle, why is there an ashtray?

Peugeot Boxer 3.0L HDi 157

Costing £28,893.00 OTR, buying a van nowadays takes a lot of thought. In these tough times that price should be subject to negotiation. The van Peugeot sent along for this test was a biggie; at a couple of centimetres short of six metres and a height of two and a half, parking was a problem. Finding a bay long enough takes some doing, and a short stop in Tesco saw me take up one and a half bays, but as I took two eager customers – my wife and daughter – I didn’t feel at all guilty.

It’s a bit of a climb into the spacious three seater cab, and the passenger seats are not as comfortable as the driver’s but for those users who envisage longer journeys with just two in the cab, there is a zero cost option of having a comfy single passenger seat. The main purpose of a van is to carry goods and, therefore efficient access is important. The standard Boxer van gets one side sliding door on the nearside and two side hinged rear doors, that can be opened 180 degrees from the closed position, good for loading the van by forklift.

The test van had a high roof line enabling six footers to walk upright and are in this ply lined load space you find ten floor mounted tie down loops and, very unusually, and five dotted along the sides at hip level. These are great for securing loads like fridges, boilers and other expensive gear protecting them from damage. Out on the road, you soon find how the three-litre diesel makes this van fly. At 70mph the engine virtually has its hands in its pockets turning at a leisurely 2500rpm. The engine delivers 157 bhp and a whopping 400 Nm at 1,700 rpm. The lever for the six speed gearbox is dash mounted making it possible for the driver to pass from one side of the cab to the other without impaling himself on a floor mounted gear or hand brake lever, which is on the door side of the driver’s seat. On top of the dash is a document clip on what I can only call a retractable lectern. It can be clipped up to read whatever you need to find out and laid flat when driving. Above the cab is a shelf for the stowage of documents, driver’s lunch or warm coat etc. From the cargo space, owing to the van being a high roof version, there is another space for the driver’s and his mate’s overnight bag. For charging the driver’s mobile, MP3 and powering the satnavs there are two dash mounted 12-volt sockets. There are two glove boxes in the cab, one in the centre and one where they are normally found plus two door pockets in each door, though there is no place to place a two-litre water bottle.

For the driver’s convenience and entertainment there is a CD/radio with remote controls on the steering wheel. Both door windows are electrically operated as are both door mirrors and as fashion dictates, on the mirror is the indicator repeater lamp.

All in all a great van but at the sort of price one pays for a luxury car. It’s easy to drive and control and will probably last for years.