After the days of using a horse and cart to move peoples household effects the choice of vehicles to carry this out was extremely limited, the foremost consideration was ease of loading by using a ramp so the dropwell design of vehicle was born. This type ofremovals van is still used today as it is simple and needs little maintenance however it does have its limitations.
History
Since WW2 the British choice of Removals Van has always been the Bedford chassis which eventually evolved into the famous Bedford Tk, which was simple inexpensive and cheap to run but had its limitations such as difficult to maintain because the cab did not tilt and the only access you had to the engine was through tiny side doors, also the 330 cubic inch engine was grossly underpowered without having a turbo.
Later attempts of adding a larger engine with a turbo plus tilting the cab using the TL model was too little and too late.
The solution
Was to be the vehicle of today, the european manufacturers such as Daf, Volvo and Scania soon realised the potential of the Removals van market and mad their chassis lower and having the ability to add a dropwell to their rear.
The increased quality, reliability, comfort and power was too much to resist and the Bedford Removals van was soon to be a thing of the past.
The Removals chassis still tended to be designed up to a maximum of 17 tonne gross vehicle weight which was ok but the vehicles still tended to be underpowered. Modern technology soon took over and Removal Van designers soon realised that the 38 tonne tractor unit with a stretched chassis was the way forward as it offered superior power with no loss of economy.