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parcel Munich showground • Britain's bodybuilders are looking closely at their parcelvan designs following the arrival of US parcels giant UPS on the British parcels market.
UPS has been operating in Germany for 12 years and the parcels vans it has built to its design are said to be up to 20% more productive.
UPS ordered its first purpose-built vehicles in 1978 when its German subsidiary launched UPS specials based on Ford A-Series vans. Two years later Mercedes-Benz 608-based vans followed, and lighter M-B 207-based vehicles were developed in the raid1980s.
Two years ago UPS (Germany) ordered three prototype 2.8-tonne GVW Fiat Ducatopowered front-wheel drive specials, designated P36. It has now ordered 600 more.
The P36 has an unladen weight of 1,645kg and a load volume of 10m3 with an overall length of 4.95mm, a width of 2m and height of 2.64m to give 1.97m of headroom in the load space.
The walk-through cab has only a single seat with a steering-column-mounted gear change, and direct access from the cab to the shelved load space. Rear doors can be opened from the inside by means of a Bowden cable release. The roof is translucent GRP and a full-width rear step is spring-mounted to prevent crash damage.
Service life is expected to be up to 20 years.