Turning a work van into a proper mobile workshop

Ask an electrician, a plumber or a builder what costs them time on site, and the answer is rarely the job itself. It is the 10 minutes spent hunting for the right drill bit in the back of a van. It is the second trip across town because a box of fittings slid under a pile of offcuts somewhere between the supplier and the site.

The van is the workshop, and most tradespeople treat it as an afterthought. A sheet of ply on the floor, a rack bought off the shelf and bolted through the body, and a resale conversation with the dealer three years later that nobody enjoys.

Autosafe has spent decades building vehicle storage and safety products for Australian trades, and its new Workready fitout range is the company’s answer to that problem. It is a modular system, designed around specific vans, that arrives as a complete package rather than a pile of parts and good intentions.

Every Workready fitout is built on Protekt flooring, and that order matters. The floor is cut to suit the van it is going into and mounts directly into the factory mounting holes, so the original floor stays protected underneath rather than being drilled through.

A non-slip hex finish keeps footing predictable when the load area is wet, and the flat, even surface gives everything mounted above it a proper foundation. Shelving bolted to a rippled steel floor moves. Shelving bolted to a purpose-cut floor does not.

Above the floor sits Autosafe’s Cube shelving, a modular system that mounts to the van’s factory roof mounting points and adapts to different vans and roof heights. Shelf positions are flexible, the uprights carry additional storage, and a large accessory range covers in-bay drawers, tool mounts and utility modules.

The shelving is powder-coated aluminium, which is doing more work than it sounds like. Every kilogram of storage hardware is a kilogram of payload that cannot be spent on tools, stock or materials, and lightweight aluminium leaves more of a van’s legal capacity available for the things that actually earn money. 

Because the system is modular, it also grows. An electrician who adds a second apprentice and a van full of cable reels is not starting again from scratch.

Autosafe has taken the guesswork out of specification with three pre-configured packages, each built on Protekt flooring:

*Prices as listed at time of publication. Configurations and pricing vary by vehicle. Check the Van Products website for current pricing and availability.

The Ultimate is the one worth a long look for anyone carrying expensive gear. Storage that locks changes what a tradesperson is willing to leave in the van overnight, and that has a habit of showing up in insurance excess rather than in a brochure.

Workready fitouts are configured for a good slice of Australia’s most popular commercial vans, including the Toyota HiAce in long and super-long wheelbase, the Ford Transit Custom in short and long wheelbase, the Volkswagen Transporter in short and long wheelbase, the Hyundai Staria, the LDV G10, the LDV Deliver 7 in short and long wheelbase, and the Kia PV5.

Each fitout is built for the vehicle rather than trimmed to fit it, which is what allows the system to use factory mounting points instead of new holes. For anyone running a leased or novated vehicle, or planning to trade at three years, that distinction is not a detail.

Autosafe fits Workready packages through its own fitment centres and a network of partnered resellers across the country, so a van can be booked in and collected ready to work. For those who would rather spend a Saturday with a socket set, the fitouts are also available for DIY installation.

The fitouts are designed and manufactured in Australia, and Autosafe backs its Workready components with a warranty of up to 10 years on non-movable parts, subject to the company’s warranty terms. For a fleet manager weighing a fitout against the three or four vehicles it will be transferred across, that lifespan is the number that matters.

Modular, customisable and durable is an easy thing to claim and a harder thing to engineer. Workready gets there by starting with the vehicle and working outwards, rather than asking the vehicle to accommodate a generic rack.

To configure a Workready fitout for your van or fleet, head to the Van Products website.