Box Truck or Cargo Van?

What is a Box Truck?
A box truck is a vehicle usually ranging in size from 14 to 24 feet that carries a separate cargo area i.e. box, that sits atop the chassis or truck frame. The cargo area is separate from the cab and usually there is no access from the cab to the cargo area. The cargo area is accessible via a rear garage-type door that rolls up. The most common use for these trucks is as moving vans, rental trucks e.g. Ryder or U-Haul and for appliance or furniture delivery.

Box trucks are made by a wide range of companies. GMC, Freightliner, International, Isuzu, Ford, Nissan are only a partial list of manufacturers. They’re also available in diesel or gas models so the decision to consider a box truck will take a considerable amount of homework. However, once your homework is done, there are a plethora of sites on the Internet to research, review and purchase a new or used box truck.

Advantages of a Box Truck
From a carpet cleaning perspective, the advantage of a box truck is the additional space it can provide for all your cleaning equipment. There is a considerable amount of equipment required for steam extraction cleaning via truck mount machines. In addition to the truck mount carpet cleaning equipment, you also need room for the water tanks, hoses, lines, cleaning wands, chemicals and other accessories and tools..

While carpet cleaning vans are usually more than sufficient for this purpose, the challenge comes in when you want to offer additional cleaning services to your customers.  Common up sell services might include carpet repair, odor control, floor cleaning, leather cleaning and conditioning and fine fabric care. Each of these services has additional space requirements.  These take the form of tools, other cleaning wands or brushes, additional chemicals or dyes, etc. The ability to carry all of this equipment for each cleaning job allows the operator to sell additional services to the customer that can be performed on the spot vs. scheduling another visit and possibly losing the sale.

There are other considerations besides space that can affect your decision. The larger truck mounted systems can give off a significant amount of heat. Too much clutter in your van can restrict the airflow that may affect the machines performance. The excess heat can also make the interior of the van uncomfortable to work in. There’s also the issue of machine maintenance. If your truck mount is not easily accessible by repair technicians you can expect to pay more for labor and suffer additional downtime when repairs and maintenance are required.

Disadvantages of a Box Truck
While the additional space a box truck provides can be extremely useful, it does not come without a price. First off, a box truck will cost more to purchase/lease simply because of its size. Fortunately, there is an active used market to help mitigate this cost.

You can also expect to pay more for fuel and tires. These trucks are heavier and, regardless of their power plant efficiency, will take more fuel to operate although many of these truck are diesels which are usually more cost effective than comparable gasoline models. Depending on the truck size, you may have more tires to deal with which again, is an additional cost not born by van users.

Lastly, box trucks do take more care and skill to drive. Unless they are the very largest models, they do not require any special licenses but the larger size makes them a different experience than driving a van. I know this from personal experience when I recently took a corner to tight in a box truck and crunched the back end of a parked pickup truck!

Conclusion
A box truck has some real advantages over a cargo van when used for a carpet cleaning business. These advantages, however, come at a price. Each business owner must assess his or her own needs with regard to the type and scope of services it wishes to sell and the necessary equipment required. Once this is done, a proper decision can be made on whether a box truck or a carpet cleaning van is the right solution.

Take a look at Jason’s box truck setup. Very well thought out and downright cool!