Daily double

As distributors of natural food products, Ian Ward and his wife Linda, spend long hours on the road each day delivering a range of goods to supermarkets, cafes, health food shops, chemists and fitness and well-being centres. They reckon that their Iveco Daily has proven itself to be the perfect solution for them.

The couple’s company Earthly Indulgence, stocks a range of product lines that include alkaline water, coconut products, energy and vitamin drinks, alternative milks and organic drinks, which have become popular with a growing customer base.

Such is the workload that the couple have equipped their Daily 50C van as a mobile office, this allows Linda to keep up with the paperwork from the passenger seat while Ian does the driving.

“The Daily is fitted with an inverter [that] powers a computer and printer, Wi-Fi system and bankcard machine,” Ian said.

“We deliver from the Mornington Peninsula outside of Melbourne to just about all areas of Victoria, so this set-up allows us to stay on top of all the admin. We can spend 8-10 hours of the day out with the van, so it’s important that we’re efficient.”

Given the long hours, another important consideration for the couple in selecting a suitable delivery vehicle was comfort and ease-of-use.

The latest Daily van features Iveco’s 3.0 litre turbo-diesel engine which produces 170hp and 430Nm of torque and is matched to the Hi-Matic eight-speed full automatic transmission.

“The engine is powerful and the automatic is fantastic,” he said.

“When the speed limit allows, we can very comfortably hold 110 kilometres per hour, uphill and with close to two tonnes of payload in the back. It doesn’t feel like you’re driving a big van.

“The van does it so easily that you wouldn’t think it was even loaded.”

The Wards also make many deliveries around the Melbourne CBD and regional centres where narrow and congested city streets can pose challenges for other delivery vehicles.
“It’s great on the freeway but the Daily is also good in the inner-city traffic. With big mirrors, a reversing camera and a tight turning circle, the Daily negotiates these conditions quite easily,” Ian said.

“People also comment on how great the van looks and how clever the mobile office solution is, I think we’ve probably sold four or five of them.”

With business going well for Earthly Indulgence, Ian and Linda are in the process of adding a second Daily to the fleet, the second will be a pantech-bodied cab chassis to carry additional bulky items.

“I love our Daily and wouldn’t want to drive anything else,” Ian said.