FLEET WORLD - The Citroen Dispatch takes the honours as best medium van in this years ceremony.

New Citroën Dispatch has continued its award-winning ways by taking the Best Medium Van prize in the 2017 Van Fleet World Honours.

The New Citroën Dispatch has been named Medium Van of the Year in the 2017 Van Fleet World Honours. The award was won jointly with the Peugeot Expert and Toyota Proace at a prestigious ceremony earlier today at the RAC Club in Pall Mall.

This latest award in the New Citroën Dispatch trophy cabinet joins the What Van? Light Commercial Vehicle of the Year 2017 and Medium Van of the Year 2017 awards, which were presented at the end of last year. 

Van Fleet World Editor, Dan Gilkes, said; “The New Dispatch is quite simply a great mid-weight van that has taken a huge step forwards from its predecessor. 

The van is not simply a like-for-like replacement, as the addition of a third compact model broadens the line-up, opening up new opportunities and providing customers with increased choice to suit specific operating requirements.

“There’s a good choice of 1.6 and 2.0-litre engines delivering a good mix of economy and low emissions, with power and refinement. The vans can also be supplied with a very high specification, including industry first head-up display and hands-free side door opening.

“Citroën has managed to deliver strong load volume and payload capacities, while providing a comfortable, car-like driving environment in a van with perfect dimensions for urban use.”

The Van Fleet World Awards are chosen by a panel of expert journalists at the publication, who have considerable experience of the van market.

Commenting on the award, Jeremy Smith, Citroën UK’s Head of Commercial Vehicles & Business Sector Operations, said; “We thought we were on to a winner with the New Dispatch range.

The awards from What Van?, and now Van Fleet World, show that others with experience in the van sector think so too. We are delighted that the experts at Van Fleet World have recognised the strengths of the New Dispatch with this latest award.”

WHAT VAN ? - The Ultimate award goes to not one, but three models, all made on the same underpinnings.

The Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert and Toyota Proace are the 2017 What Van? Light Commercial Vehicles of the Year. It is the first time the award has been shared between three outstanding vans.

Citroen, Peugeot and Toyota collected the coveted trophy at the exclusive What Van? Awards luncheon held in partnership with Truckman, FORS (the Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme), Crystal Ball and Trucksmith at the Brewery in central London on 13 December.

The models also jointly won the won the Medium Van of the year Award.

PSA Peugeot-Citroen builds the new Dispatch, Expert and Proace at its Sevelnord plant near Lille in northern France and What Van? Editor James Dallas said:

“The vans represent a significant step up in terms of quality, practicality and economy compared with their predecessors.”

The trio have entered the biggest-selling sector of the UK light commercial market and one that is extremely competitive with high-quality models such as the Ford Transit Custom, Renault Trafic, Vauxhall Vivaro, Volkswagen Transporter and Mercedes Vito all vying for attention.

Dallas added: “The PSA pair and Toyota needed to up their game – and with the new generation models they most certainly have done.”

There were two new inductees into the What Van? Hall of Fame, Dave Petts of Ford, who has done so much to establish the Transit as the UK’s most famous and biggest-selling van brand, and What Van? magazine itself, which was originally known as the Good Van Guide and is celebrating its 30^th anniversary before undergoing a major redesign in the New Year.

Fiat Professional scooped both the Small Van and Light Van of the Year prizes for its respective Fiorino and Doblo Cargo vans while the Iveco Daily was crowned Large Van of the Year.

The Nissan Navara took the Pick-up Award and Volkswagen was recognised for having the best website.

Other winners included Dacia, Renault, Vauxhall, Mitsubishi, FORS, Trucksmith and MediaFleet WrapidCoat.

“The last 12 months have been exceptional in terms of the outstanding new product that has come to market,” Dallas said, “so it’s a pleasure to be able to recognise the best in the business.”