IN THE VANGUARD
Transport is one of those jobs best left to the experts. You could write off the next three weekends converting your van to deliver sandwiches, hot meals or a mix of the two. But will you reliably deliver them within the temperature controls now required? Better to use the skills of a specialist metal-basher, who will take a van off the manufacturer's production line and convert it for you into a mobile catering service.
One of the most intensive users of vans in the catering sector is the meals on wheels service: there is literally no alternative to road transport for getting hot meals to people in their homes. Because the clients are often elderly, in poor health or both, the meals on wheels service providers have to be able to guarantee reliable deliveries.
Customers may have to accept that they will receive their lunch some time between 11.30am and 2.30pm, but they at least know it is on its way.
Apetito Group is one of the bigger meals on wheels service providers, and has had a fleet of special vehicles, the ChefMobile, developed. In its home country of Germany, Apetito has used Fiat vans but working with Trowbridge Vehicle Contracts, 450, in the UK, it is using the Citroân Dispatch, 451..
The standard ChefMobile is fitted with an oven and chiller. An option is also available with a freezer unit installed.
Trowbridge managing director Philip Jenkin says: "The right to ownership of the oven is with Apetito, our customer, and the vans are only available on contract hire." He describes the contract hire system: "We are lending you our money in the form of a vehicle for a period - usually of three or four years - but in Apetito's case, it is five years. With food businesses like this, we like to be in control of the maintenance, so that's included."
Various maintenance plans are available. For Letheby & Christopher, for example, which also hires vans from Trowbridge, motor dealers look after the vehicles, and third-party engineers look after the maintenance of the ovens.
Trowbridge will undertake maintenance, tyre replacement, MoT testing and renewing the road fund licence, and will even provide a replacement vehicle whenever possible, if a van is taken off the road in an emergency.
For Upper Crust Catering, Hitchin Refrigerated Vehicles, 452, buys a Mercedes Vito, 453, diesel panel van and installs refrigeration, for Upper Crust to deliver its buffet lunches and other meals to its 400 or so outside catering customers.
Upper Crust managing director Paul Garner says: "I've got five Vitos now, out of a fleet of 11 vehicles, which I'm gradually replacing with Mercedes. It costs us about £17,000 per van, including a four-year parts and labour warranty." Because Hitchin imports the Mercedes from Belgium and does the conversion, Garner reckons he saves about £1,500 per van.
To effect the conversion, Hitchin ribs out the interior of the van with 2in by 2in timber, fixes fibreglass sheeting to that and then seals the insulated box. Part of the refrigeration unit is fixed to the roof, and the other part inside, to blow cold air over the food being carried, holding it at 3ºC.
Island Plastics, 454, has launched its meals-on-wheels Citroân Berlingo van conversion, which is uniquely available with diesel, electric or petrol power, after 12 months' field testing by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
The conversion makes possible delivery times of up to three hours without compromising the quality of the meals. The meals are heated - and held at temperatures above 63ºC - in the van using special Edstrom oven and Eberspacher heating equipment.
The heating system passes hot, fresh air through each oven in the vehicle, to maintain an internal oven temperature in excess of 70ºC. Heat is generated by burning fuel in a sealed combustion chamber, which ensures that fresh air cannot come into contact with the products of combustion.
The first 10 vehicles being delivered to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham are based on Berlingo Electrique vans. These are simplicity itself to drive, having two pedals (stop and go) and a lever for forward and reverse. The vans can be recharged overnight for less than £1, using a 13amp socket and 240volt supply. The Berlingo will travel at up to 60mph and can cover up to 60 miles from a single charge - and it's quiet and emission free, making it ideal for urban routes. Purchase price is about the same as for a diesel van.
Jiffy Trucks, 455, is another conversion company which fits out Citroân Dispatch and Berlingo vans for caterers. The vans are provided with ovens, refrigeration and hot water boilers, to take hot and cold food around industrial estates at weekday lunchtimes, and will often be seen doing evening and weekend overtime at open air concerts and other events.
Snaxwagon, 456, delivers meals and snacks to 1,500 sites per day, which could be anything from one man operating a garage to an office employing 35 people. It has a fleet of its own specially designed vehicles. The chassis is a Ford Transit, 457; on top of that goes a body in quilted stainless steel, made in Snaxwagon's parent company's territory - Chicago.
The body opens up at the side to give a refrigerated servery for sandwiches, snacks and drinks. The tailgate opens to reveal a Calorgas-fired oven and hot water boiler.
Since starting in Croydon in 1981, Snaxwagon has grown its UK fleet to 67 vehicles. It has 100-plus employees and serves the M25 area, the South coast and the M1 corridor as far as Northampton. Its parent company has 8,000 vehicles operating in the Chicago area.
Sussex became the notorious hot spot for white vans this summer, with good reason. The white van has even gained the same stigma as an Essex girl. Picture the scene - a white van parked round the back of a hotel doing a drop off with unmarked boxes delivered straight into the kitchens.
A familiar scene? In Sussex and beyond, this is now becoming common practice as a 3.5-ton, anonymous white Renault Master, fully refrigerated, delivers another supply of specially ordered chilled foods to a growing number of hotels.
Anonymity is essential as this is a new service preparing and delivering top quality hotel banqueting meals, chilled and delivered direct to the client's establishment, for the client's staff to cook and serve to guests.
John Davis, director of Barker & Davis, explains: "This is a simple, extremely cost- effective and very versatile service of supplying top quality cuisine directly to hotels. In the case of hotel banqueting, we deliver entire meals for 25 to 2000 people, using each hotel's own menus.
"We have our own team of highly qualified chefs who prepare and cook each hotel's chosen dishes. They are then packaged in convenie
