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Builders' merchant Travis Perkins will be running more than 100 Isuzus by the end of the year, having made the NKR its 3.5-tonne chassis cab of choice. Group transport manager Graham Bellman explains that the company had previously only purchased Ford Transit tippers, but made the decision to switch to Isuzu for its tool hire division when the products being carried increased in weight.

He says Travis Perkins is carrying a growing number of 2-tonne mini-diggers, which need to be towed by  vans with decent gross train weights (GTW). He claims the Isuzu offers an impressive 7-tonne GTW, which is more than 1.5 tonnes better than the equivalent Ford Transit. The vans are proving to be ultra-reliable in what Bellman describes as "tough operating conditions". Not only do they spend much of their time on building sites, but Travis Perkins keeps its commercial vehicles for eight years. "Over the years, we have tried a lot of vans," says Bellman. "It is fair to say that some are better suited to our operation than others."

Like the Transit, which the company continues to buy in panel-van guise, Bellman says the NKR is mechanically straightforward, and can therefore be repaired just about anywhere. "Sometimes our site isn't near to a dealership, so we want a van that anyone can work on, even the local blacksmith if necessary," he says.

But the Isuzu is not flaw-less, and Bellman is critical of the cramped cab. "Some of our larger drivers found the narrow cab to be  a bit uncomfortable, so we have since moved to the wider version. It adds 100kg to the weight of the truck, but it has solved the problem," he says. While he acknowledges that the ride quality is "typical of a forward-control vehicle", and "less car-like" than the Ford Transit, he says this is not a problem for Travis Perkins.

"It may be an important consideration if you are belting up and down the motorway doing courier work, but ours rarely travel more than 25 miles from home," he says.