For people in the pharmaceutical, drinks supply, outside catering, horticulture and floriculture, meat and dairy or even ice-cream industries, refrigerated vans quickly become a necessity for operations. While many people opt to buy refrigerated vans for their chilled goods home delivery needs, a good number of professionals in the above industries find leasing or hiring these vans from already established companies a better alternative. This may be due to a variety of reasons—with refrigerated van costs being one of the top reasons. Whenever hiring refrigerated vans or contracting a company to lease such vans for your chilled goods home delivery needs, you may want to adhere to the following three basic rules that will ensure you get the most out of these services.

Always conduct a site visit

It is important to confirm with the company whether they offer site visits. Many companies offering refrigerated vans hiring or leasing services have demonstrator vans that they use for the site visit. A site visit offers you a chance to familiarise the van with the site of use prior to settling on a contract. It enables you to foresee the various challenges you may get with the van due to the outlay and nature of your site. A catering company, for instance, can foresee challenges with van height or length that may present on the day of the event. The same can be said of a pharmaceutical company delivering products to a new facility.

Always go for extra sizes

In many occasions, settling for an exact fit always tends to inconvenience many people on the day of use of the van. When calculating your appropriate van size, always factor in extra space for additional products that may be introduced impromptu. Also, remember that tight-packing product in refrigerated vans is not always the best way to transport products. Tight packing may lead to irregularities in temperature distribution within the van, consequently damaging some products. For instance, in a tightly packed van, the product closest to the refrigeration vents will be more chilled than those at the centre of the tight bundle.

Warranties and insurance

Finally, the third important rule is to always watch out for warranties and insurance. Warranties are especially important in the case of leases and conversions. You must ensure that the refrigeration units installed in the van come with verified warranties. If your service provider asks for insurance, they must also prove that the quality of their vans match the insurance they seek.

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