Pickup or van: which is right for the work you do?

The honest answer depends on where your work takes you and what you need to carry.

Even within a single trade, the needs can be completely different, for example in building. One builder might spend half their week on site, towing a digger on a plant trailer and parking on rough ground. Another could be doing an internal refurb in a block of flats, carrying tools and materials they want locked away and dry overnight. The first needs a pickup, for the towing and the rough ground. The second wants a van. Same trade, completely different vehicle.

When a pickup makes sense

• You spend time off the tarmac. Sites, farms, forestry and groundworks all suit a pickup's ground clearance and on four-wheel-drive models, its grip when the ground turns to mud.

• You tow. Most one tonne pickups are rated to tow up to 3.5 tonnes, which covers plant trailers, diggers and the kind of heavy loads a van simply cannot pull.

• You want one vehicle for work and home. A double cab pickup seats five and does the school run as happily as the journey to site.

When a van makes sense

• Your tools and materials need to stay dry and secure. A panel van gives you a locked, weatherproof box, whereas a pickup bed is open to the weather unless you add a canopy or a hard top.
• You carry volume, not just weight. A van gives you far more enclosed space for tools, stock and things that are bulky but light.
• You are in and out of it all day. Side doors, a low load floor and a walk-in body make a van much quicker when you are doing drop after drop.

Other things to consider

There is one thing worth checking before you go for a pickup. The tax treatment of double cab pickups has changed and some are now treated more like company cars than commercial vehicles for benefit in kind purposes. That can add a fair bit to the running cost where there is private use involved, so it is worth confirming with your tax advisor where a particular model stands before you buy.

As a general rule of thumb, if most of your work is enclosed loads and town driving, a van works best. If it is towing, rough ground and mixed use, a pickup does. Match the vehicle to the work and you will not go far wrong.

Vangoo's platform shows the condition shown upfront, so you can compare like for like before you decide.