The latest van to offer itself up for long-term scrutiny by the experts at Fleet Van is the Citroën Berlingo – and it’s the best van you can get in the UK at present.

Who says so? Well, the judges at the Fleet Van Awards for starters – they’ve just voted the Berlingo Van of the Year for the second year running – not a bad pedigree.

The Berlingo first appeared back in 1995 and really broke the mould in the small van sector at the time by offering dynamics that the others couldn’t match – three cubic metres of loadspace, commercial vehicle ruggedness and car-like handing on the road.
Since then more than three million have been sold around the world.

In fact you can hardly traverse a street in the UK without bumping into one.

This new version appeared last year and was another quantum leap forward – hence the unprecedented Fleet Van accolades.

When it comes to Berlingos, our test van just about has the lot.

For starters it’s the L2 version which means that an extra bit has been added on to the back to bump loadspace up from 3.0 cubic metres to 3.7 cu m.

As standard you get ABS brakes with EBD, remote central locking, “guide me home” headlights and various other goodies but on top, Citroën has kindly added air-conditioning, ESP traction control, reversing sensors, a third seat, an overhead parcel shelf and metallic paint.

How many fleet drivers will get that little lot? None, we reckon.