Planning your van racking in 5 steps

Before talking about shelves, it pays to take an honest look into the current load space: what is in there — and how much of it is actually needed? Experience shows that unplanned vehicles carry 20 to 30 per cent dead material: duplicate tools, leftovers from past jobs, reserves that are never used.

List tools, machines, small parts and consumables and sort everything by how often you reach for it: daily, weekly, rarely. That list is the basis of any good plan.

The best racking follows the way you work: whatever is needed daily belongs at grab height by the sliding door. Heavy items low down, delicate items padded, small parts sorted into shallow drawers. Anyone working inside customer buildings should plan for portable BOXXes; anyone working at the vehicle is better served by pull-outs and work surfaces.

Permissible gross weight minus kerb weight minus driver minus racking minus material — what is left is your real reserve. This is exactly where lightweight construction pays off: modern systems such as SR5 save considerable weight compared with steel shelving and create room for machines and material.

Every vehicle model has its own body mounting points, wheelhouses and door apertures. Vehicle-specific planning makes sure the modules fit, the doors stay clear and the racking can be anchored crash-safely. The plan results in a fixed-price quote including an installation date.

Depending on scope, installation takes half a working day to two working days. At handover the racking is explained, load securing is demonstrated and documented. After that the racking lives on: modules can be retrofitted, rearranged and carried over when you change vehicles.