Standard commercial vehicles often are too heavy duty for small business owners, including contractors, and SUVs, minivans, and cars don’t provide the same convenience and durability as vans and trucks. Ford thinks it has the answer to this problem: the Transit Connect light-duty commercial van.
The van, which has been available in Europe since the early 2000s and will hit the U.S. market this summer, not only stores materials, products, and tools more efficiently and loads more easily than consumer vehicles, it also is more compact than a standard commercial van, which makes it easier to maneuver on tight city streets as well as more fuel efficient, Ford claims.
Building Products editor Jean Dimeo and I headed over to a press event in Alexandria, Va., yesterday to check it out. While we enjoyed getting to tinker with the in-dash computer and being able to drive the vehicle around town, what we really liked was getting to talk to a contractor about his feelings on the van.
While Ron Caffi, president of Caffi Construction, doesn’t own a Transit Connect, Ford approached him to review the vehicle’s materials.
He said the van’s GPS system could save time, as well as make it easier for his workers to navigate unfamiliar territory.
The vehicle also is easier to drive in the city than his heavy-duty vans, Caffi said, and the fleet management system would allow him to send the closest worker to unexpected jobs.
However, Caffi remarked that the van is too small to handle the heavy equipment needed for some major construction jobs. But, he said he envisions it for residential service work, general contracting, finish carpentry, and painting projects.
To read more about Transit Connect, see the full version of the article here. –Victoria Markovitz
The van's door design makes it easier to load materials, Ford says.
