Across Europe, the cargo van is as ubiquitous as the double-cab bakkie is on SA roads. Once you own a double cab, you quickly find new friends who suspiciously need something moved. So it is with a cargo van, especially one as useful and versatile as the Transit.
Related: Ford Transit Custom 2.0SiT panel van SWB Sport Pt1 (2025)
We magically found ourselves moving furniture, appliances and on the odd occasion, a broken-down motorcycle for people we rarely speak to or have spoken to since. This isn't a complaint, merely an observation on how easy it would be to start a small business moving stuff for a small fee.
Ford Transit Custom 2.0SiT panel van SWB Sport Pt2 (2025)
Van with a plan
In Europe, this phenomenon is known as "The Man with a Van," and many people make a decent living doing all sorts of odd jobs that require an enclosed cargo vehicle that isn't as big as a small truck but has plenty of space to carry goods securely. We have seen plenty of small businesses in Central Europe that use these vans as cost-effective tools. Often, these vans are kitted out with small workshops, such as mobile locksmiths and HVAC technicians. We have seen plumbers, electricians, and builders use these types of vans for day-to-day operations. The kicker here is that we are slowly seeing a prominent rise in this in SA, as business owners are beginning to trade their double-cab workhorses for enclosed vans for than just safety of their equipment.
Our own use case over the last few months, as mentioned in our previous articles, has been varied. We have used the Transit for everything from waste removal to moving our test motorcycles to a race team's headquarters, and even for the monotony of commuting to the office. It is hard to pinpoint a vehicle that has this many uses across the board, and there are many more we have yet to discover.
Day to day
Not much has changed during our time with the Transit; we are still finding new and interesting ways to incorporate its features into our daily grind, but it's still super safe and has settled into a fantastic cost-per-kilometre, returning 8.5L/100km during our day-to-day activities. We've had to top up the AdBlue system, which was easier than opening the fuel cap, and it costs R370 for 5 litres at our local petrol station. One thing I appreciate is that it's very easy to clean inside and out, and the convenience of having all those doors means you can access just about every part of your chosen load without having to clamber in, over, and out again to retrieve or strap down items. If one were to nitpick, the fact that you cannot disable the Auto Stop/Start system becomes rather annoying when sitting in rush-hour traffic.
Verdict
It's safe to say that I myself am something of a bakkie guy and like the reality of living with either an SUV or a double-cab, but once you begin to understand that the versatility of a van goes much further than just hauling stuff, having a cargo van begins to make a lot of sense. The Transit Custom has served our team incredibly well over the last five months, weaving itself seamlessly into our daily lives. We have found numerous uses for the van and then some.
The Transit Custom, on the surface, doesn't make much sense in a suburban driveway until you begin to see opportunities to use the cargo area and the potential for a small business. Maybe the Europeans have been onto something that South Africans are only now just discovering.
