If you are a small local business or a national business with hundreds of trucks across the country, you’ve probably asked yourself the following question – what is an upfit on a truck?
In short, a truck upfit is a professional storage system designed to keep your tools, materials, and consumables organized. Although the concept is simple, there is a wide variety of solutions and product combinations, so finding the ideal upfit for your business is not always easy.
What Is an Upfit on a Truck?
What is an upfit on a truck? – An upfit on a truck refers to a customized storage system designed to organize and secure equipment, tools, and supplies in the truck’s cargo area.
This system typically includes storage solutions such as shelving units, drawers, hooks, and ladder racks that are strategically installed to keep everything in place, easily accessible, and well-organized.
The primary goal of a truck upfit is to improve productivity by minimizing the time spent searching for tools, reducing clutter, and enhancing safety by preventing loose items from becoming hazards while driving.
A good upfit is made considering the specific requirements of a particular profession or business, ensuring that the storage system aligns with the tools and materials used regularly.
At Adrian Steel, we provide a wide range of pickup truck equipment and we can help you create a customized upfit for your vehicle.
Benefits of Truck Upfits for Businesses
Truck upfits offer several valuable advantages for businesses.
1. Enhanced Safety
Truck upfits such as ladder racks and shelving enhance safety in multiple ways.
A well-made ladder rack simplifies and facilitates the loading and unloading of ladders from your truck, protecting your vehicle from possible external damage such as dents and scratches.
Ladder racks also help protect your physical integrity by reducing the effort involved in loading and unloading the ladders.
On the other hand, shelving units ensure that your tools and consumables are efficiently organized and secured, minimizing the potential for internal damage to your vehicle caused by moving equipment.
Shelving also protects you by eliminating the risk of tripping over loose parts on the floor and reducing exhaustion at the end of the day since you won’t have to rearrange equipment that has fallen out of place.
2. Improved Efficiency & Accessibility
Truck upfits improve efficiency on the job by providing designated spaces for tools, and consumables. This level of organization minimizes clutter and reduces the time spent searching for specific items stored in the truck.
A good example of this would be our portable bins. These bins are durable, lightweight, and portable. Our portable bins are ideal for keeping the same type of part or material in one specific place, so finding what you need becomes easy.
3. Increased Storage Potential
Dead space refers to areas within a truck’s cargo or storage area that are underutilized or inaccessible. In other words, dead space represents areas where it’s challenging to store equipment and materials efficiently, leading to wasted space in a vehicle. Upfits optimize the truck’s capacity, ensuring that every inch is utilized efficiently.
4. Reduced Distractions
Drivers are distracted on the road due to multiple reasons. One way is to be distracted by loose objects rolling around or rattling in the cargo area. Drivers can also be distracted by focusing their attention on thinking about where an important document might be.
Truck upfits are designed to organize and secure equipment, tools, paperwork, and supplies, reducing the chances of these items becoming distractions while driving. For example, keeping all important paperwork in one of our file storage solutions would be a great way to minimize distractions and save time.
What Kind of Equipment Can I Install in My Truck?
At Adrian Steel, we offer a wide range of truck storage solutions that fall into a few different categories.
Truck Caps – Enhance the security of your commercial truck with a new aluminum truck cap. Our unique design boasts 30% larger door access than competitors and is modular to allow for easier customization and maintenance.
Extendobed – Bring your equipment to you with an Extendobed slide-out truck bed. Locking securely in place when you’re traveling, the Extendobed easily unlocks and slides out to give you easy access to your complete set of tools and equipment.
Ladder Racks – Designed to securely transport ladders and other materials like lumber and conduit. Our ladder racks come in various designs, and each model has unique features, including locking mechanisms.
Tool Boxes – Storage compartments designed to fit into a pickup truck bed. They are used to securely store and organize frequently used equipment and consumables. Our truck tool boxes come with a low profile lid for increased safety, no-drill brackets for easy installation, and other convenient features.
Truck Bed Storage Solutions – Pre-built storage packages designed to increase your productivity on the job. These solutions are built specifically for certain trades, including HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and more.
Shelving – Our configurable shelving solutions are available in different sizes, making them compatible with a wide range of truck models. Our shelving units are also compatible with a variety of cargo accessories for storing different types of equipment efficiently.
Accessories – Our cargo accessories provide different ways to store your equipment and materials to take advantage of all the available space in your truck. Our collection of accessories includes portable bins, hooks, portable parts cases, tank storage, and more.
We can provide you with assistance to determine what combination of cargo management solutions works best for your specific requirements and needs. Contact your local Adrian Steel distributor for more details.
What Trades Benefit From Truck Upfits?
Virtually any trade will benefit from a truck upfit. However, the ideal upfit for an HVAC contractor will not be the ideal upfit for an electrician or security contractor. Therefore, it is important to select the solutions that perfectly fit the specific needs of your profession or business and that can also be implemented without problems in your truck model.
These are the main reasons why it is always best to contact industry experts like Adrian Steel to help you select the ideal solutions for you, helping you save money, effort, and time.
These are some of the common trades that benefit from truck upfits:
- HVAC/Mechanical contractors
- Plumbers
- Electricians
- Security contractors
- Building/Remodeling contractors
Upfit Your Truck Today With Adrian Steel
Here’s a quick recap of the answer to the question – what is an upfit on a truck?
Truck upfits are the ideal solution for professionals and businesses in a wide range of industries. They improve productivity and safety on the job by efficiently organizing every piece of equipment required to get the job done.
Although you can build your own truck upfit, it is always best to contact an industry-leading supplier like Adrian Steel, so you can get the support you need to make the best decision. Once you contact us, we will work with you to understand your business and the role of your truck in your daily operations. Then, we’ll identify what you bring with you to complete your work, so we can uncover potential challenges and opportunities that a custom upfit can solve. We have hundreds of expert distributors across North America who will help you get your storage solution no matter where you are located.
Find your Adrian Steel local distributor today to start customizing the ideal upfit for your business.
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