A place for everything, and everything ...

We all want to be organised in our lives, writes Brian Byrne. Some of us are, some of us will never be. But if there's ever a place to be properly organised, it's in your van.

Because your van is your place of work, your vehicle to bring you to and from jobs when you're a small tradesman/contractor. A canteen and a washroom, sometimes.



We're just so inclined to put stuff loose, or in a portable toolbox that in itself can slide around the place. And how much time to we waste looking for the equipment lost in the back of the van, or forgotten befause it wasn't in the place it should be after the last job.



That's why at a show like this, you can go 'aahhh!' about some of the solutions from the regular van storage people. Like Bott, Qi, Edstrom, Tevo and Order.



And I particularly like this ladder lifting 'ErgoRack' idea from Prime Design for uploading and dismounting latters from the van roof. Safely lifted, safely locked.

And it's all health and safety too. I remember when I was a heating contractor, and all there was to clean up before getting back in the van was a tin of Swarfega and some hemp. When I could find the Swarfega ...

(I wonder if I converted a van to my office, could I be better organised in my work today?)

Something for the van men, and women ... and the families

For all you van fans out there (and yes, there are those among our readers), here are a few pics from the CV Show 2014 in NEC Birmingham which is running this week, writes Brian Byrne.



In the big van business, the big story is the launch of the new Citroen Relay, which will be coming to Ireland probably in mid-summer. I'm not going into details at this point, but they have certainly smartened up the looks and the driver comfort. Build partners Peugeot and Fiat didn't have their versions on view.





Then there's the new Opel Vivaro, and they did have a Opel version on the stand just to confuse the Vauxhall-centred UK visitors. More practical, more efficient, more comfort and driving ease, according to the company. Longer bodies and brand new engines feature. At the moment, word is that it'll be in Ireland in the autumn. Renault showed their new Trafic version in a number of interesting variants.



But we'll see the revised Opel Movano big van in the autumn, mainly a new engines upshift though the Renault Master version seems to have more design tweaks.



Ford have all their Transit range on stand, including the new Transit Courier small van which we haven't got yet in Ireland. I've seen it before, and today it still looks like it will do the business for the company.





They also featured the pop-top Campervan built on the Tourneo Custom which is attracting a lot of interest here ... it's a country where a lot of people like to holiday on their own wheels, so there's a strong opportunity to take business from the currently dominant Germans and Italians.



Finally for now, the Twizy Commercial Ready4Work here is a 'van' version of the electric single-seat 4-wheeler. Not sure if they'll convince many.

More for the van fans later.