BUILDING REEFER AND BOX BODIES FOR LCVS

Retro Vehicle Enhancements (RVE) moved to meet market demand in 2020 when it formed CoolBox. The new division provides dry and refrigerated box bodies, curtain sider and flat deck bodies for light commercial and light duty truck cab chassis.

Cool Box director Jim Stanners says RVE has come full circle with the addition of the commercial body operation.

His father Victor who founded the company in 1968, had worked for a body building operation which manufactured ambulances.

He says the family-owned company has developed knowledge and experience across the wider automotive spectrum in the last 54 years and CoolBox will offer speed of delivery for a quality product with local back-up and support.

Stanners says the reason for the move into body building was to meet the demand from small businesses who wanted to buy a smaller delivery vehicle for chilled goods, and preferably one that was fully electric.

“We’re currently developing vehicles for a milk delivery company which delivers from farm to door, and it wants to change from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to an electric fleet and assist in supporting the environment,” Stanners says.

The explosion of online shopping, notably for home delivery of groceries and chilled goods has seen more demand for smaller commercial vehicles like a single cab Ute with a chiller/freezer box body or a small van with an insulated body for chilled or frozen goods.

Overseas, single cab Utes with refrigerated box bodies are far more common, particularly in built-up urban and metropolitan areas where their size and maneuverability are appreciated.

CoolBox also provides freezer/chiller box, dry goods, curtainsider and flat deck bodies for all brands of light commercial vehicle cab/chassis like the LDV Deliver 9, Ford Transit, Iveco Daily, Volkswagen Crafter, and Mercedes Benz Sprinter.

It can also provide bodies up to 6.7 metres long for light- to medium-duty trucks like the Hino 300 series, Isuzu N-series, and Mitsubishi Canter.

Long lead times in the local body building industry continue to be a challenge for Kiwi business operators but CoolBox can source its product from suppliers in Australia and Thailand in three to four months and then have the vehicles up and running within weeks.

*This story appeared in the June 2022 issue of FleetTalk – click here to download a free copy of the magazine.