Iveco helps delivery drivers
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• by Gibb Grace Iveco hosted an urban distribution convention in Verona this month, and displayed two new distribution vehicles.
The EuroCargo 120 EL is an evolution of the current 120 model; the EuroTran concept vehicle was designed in collaboration with UK firm Ogle Design.
Both vehicles are the result of a two year study into the needs of multi-drop urban delivery operators by Iveces Medium Business Llritt.
Introducing the vehicles, MBU market ng director Chris Christianson said multi-drop, urban distribution vehicles had not changed much over a period when rising vehicle, driver and fuel costs, combined with increased road congestion, have all added substantially to operating costs. The new designs are intended to make the delivery driver's job "easier and to improve overall productivity," he added. The "Iran" part of EuroTran is a contraction of truck and van; it sums up the dilemma facing designers of this type of vehicle: should they be based on a van-like, monocoque structure or a truck chassis?
As EuroTran is still in the design study stage, no structural details are available, but the mock-up's soft styling and low body sides make it look more like an integral bus.
The design brief called for a low floor connecting the cab and the loadspace: the designers achieved this with a rear engine layout. The forward-control cab has been designed around a single driver's seat. This makes room for the seat to swivel through 45° and uses the passenger part of the cab as an office. There is standing-height accets to the driver's seat from the road, and from the cab to the loadspace via a sliding door.
The loadspace can be organised in a number of ways; it could be arranged into areas to handle small packets or for goods the size of washing machines or even motorcycies.
With a floor height of just 400mm, the intention is to do away with mechanical lifting devices and rely on a sack barrow and side ramps. Access is via very large side loading doors on one or both sides of the vehicle, but there would also be room for palletised loads which could be loaded through a rear door and stowed on a high floor above the engine bay.
This floor looked high on the mock-up—it was set 1.200mm above ground level to suit a typical loading bay height.
No details were given on the driveline, but Iveco says the rearmounted engine could be positioned either longitudinaliy or transversely and run on diesel, CNG or LNG. It would drive through an automatic transmission to reduce driver fatigue.
EuroTran is still a concept, and Christianson says its future depends on customer reaction. The concept could be adapted to suit vehicles at 7.5, 10.0 and 12.0 tonnes GVW—and it could be in service within four years.