tokenlubav
Seasoned Expediter
Hi all. Newbie here. What a great site.
I need some advice. I have a book business and one of the things we do is pick up book donations from all over the Midwest and a bit beyond. We need a vehicle to do pickups. A trip could look like this: we go to a university campus up to 400 or 500 miles away. We spend two days there collecting books from professors. The books are packed into small boxes (16x12x12) that weigh on average about 35 - 40lbs each. An average pickup would be around 75 boxes of books (3000lbs) but at times we could get double that many boxes or more. We then bring the books back to our warehouse, unload, and go out again the next week.
Until now we have rented Enterprise Cargo Vans or Budget Truck 15' foot box trucks. We are ready to buy but don't know what to do. We started off thinking that the box truck was the way to go, but then we realized that we would never stack the boxes to the roof and the payload capacity was almost the same as a cargo van. We thought about getting a Sprinter but they are real pricey. Our latest thinking is to get a cargo van and a trailer and to rent a truck for big pickups. I'm looking for validation of that thinking. In addition, a few questions:
1. (Stupid question warning) - do we need to pay close attention to the GVW? What are the repercussions for exceeding that number on a regular basis? Is it bad for the vehicle to do so? Do we need to stop at weigh stations?
2. What kind of gas mileage can I expect on a cargo van loaded to max?
3. Advice on best channel to buy vehicle. Ebay? etc?
4. I have always been nervous to buy a vehicle with more then 60k or 70k miles on it. Is that silly in this case? Can I buy a van with 100k+ on it and expect substantially more life on it?
Any advice/input is greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long post.
Best.
I need some advice. I have a book business and one of the things we do is pick up book donations from all over the Midwest and a bit beyond. We need a vehicle to do pickups. A trip could look like this: we go to a university campus up to 400 or 500 miles away. We spend two days there collecting books from professors. The books are packed into small boxes (16x12x12) that weigh on average about 35 - 40lbs each. An average pickup would be around 75 boxes of books (3000lbs) but at times we could get double that many boxes or more. We then bring the books back to our warehouse, unload, and go out again the next week.
Until now we have rented Enterprise Cargo Vans or Budget Truck 15' foot box trucks. We are ready to buy but don't know what to do. We started off thinking that the box truck was the way to go, but then we realized that we would never stack the boxes to the roof and the payload capacity was almost the same as a cargo van. We thought about getting a Sprinter but they are real pricey. Our latest thinking is to get a cargo van and a trailer and to rent a truck for big pickups. I'm looking for validation of that thinking. In addition, a few questions:
1. (Stupid question warning) - do we need to pay close attention to the GVW? What are the repercussions for exceeding that number on a regular basis? Is it bad for the vehicle to do so? Do we need to stop at weigh stations?
2. What kind of gas mileage can I expect on a cargo van loaded to max?
3. Advice on best channel to buy vehicle. Ebay? etc?
4. I have always been nervous to buy a vehicle with more then 60k or 70k miles on it. Is that silly in this case? Can I buy a van with 100k+ on it and expect substantially more life on it?
Any advice/input is greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long post.
Best.