The annual What Van? Awards have now taken place and an array of winners have been announced by the industry publication across the light commercial vehicle (LCV) sector for 2014.

Marking another excellent year for the UK's LCV industry, some of the biggest names in the business picked up honours for their performance in 2013.

Ford makes its mark

The Ford Transit Custom was among four winners for the US company at this year's awards, demonstrating the company's ongoing excellent performance in the LCV sector over recent years, with the Custom becoming the first vehicle to retain the title of Van of the Year for two years in a row.

What Van? editor Paul Barker stated: "It was a difficult decision to break with tradition and give our biggest award to a van that was victorious the previous year, but the Transit Custom's impact on the light commercial vehicle market means the success is warranted.

"It's been a deservedly successful first year for the Custom, a vehicle that has moved the sector on in a whole series of ways."

The main reasons behind the publication making this landmark decision were the Custom's excellent ability to hold its value after sale, as well as the flexibility of its layout and design, fuel efficiency and low emissions, excellent load-carrying capacity and overall fine performance across the last 12 months.

It was one of three models celebrated by What Van? this year, with the Ford Ranger named pick-up of the year and the Ford Fiesta Van being awarded the small van of the year 2014 title. The Custom also took home the medium van of the year award.

Other vehicle winners

Ford was not the only manufacturer honoured at this year's awards ceremony though.

Indeed, the Fiat Doblo Custom was crowned light van of the year and the Mitsubishi Outlander picked up the 4×4 van of the year title. The Nissan NV200 was named editor's choice for 2014 and the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter was named large van of the year and also picked up a second honour (but more about that later).

The VW Transporter was awarded the used van of the year for 2014 title. What Van? asked auction houses across the UK to vote for their top choice in the used van sector and the standout candidate was by far the VW Transporter.

An auctioneer consulted by the publication stated: "Although its cost when new might be higher than that of some of its rivals, a combination of reliability that leads to fewer repair bills and sky-high resale prices means that overall running costs are low."

"Every time a Transporter appears in front of the rostrum the hands shoot up," another expert added. "It represents the gold standard of the used van market."

Honours for innovation, safety and sustainability

British Car Auctions (BCA) picked up this year's What Van? Innovation honour for its video appraisals system, allowing prospective buyers who are keen to purchase commercial vehicles at BCA auctions to inspect potential purchases online.

This allows all those who wish to invest in a new vehicle but who are unable to physically make it to the auction to be able to do so, safe in the knowledge they have carried out a full 360-degree inspection of any models they are interested in.

In addition, safety was at the heart of the What Van? Awards again this year and the 2014 title went to the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

The model's electronic stability programme (ESP) was singled out for praise, enabling the vehicle to automatically correct itself when struck by strong crosswinds – something any professional driver will know can be a hair-raising experience.

Finally, Ashwoods Automotive picked up this year's What Van? Green Award, as its services are helping commercial vehicle operators across the UK to significantly improve their environmental performance.

The company is perhaps best known for installing hybrid diesel/electric drive chains into Ford Transit models, but the firm also advises its customers on more fuel-efficient driving styles and also relays to fleet managers inefficient practices by drivers for companies that have signed up to its Lightfoot in-cab training system.

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