this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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What kind of jobs mandate the use of a pickup instead of a regular old van? Maybe tree surgeons and gardeners? Not sure who else specifically requires an open bed. Even then the open bed vans are far more spacious and practical so still not sure where a pickup is ever the correct choice.
Anyone who lives in the suburbs where doing lawn maintenance, tree trimming, and other such stuff is required due to HOAs and other such nonsense typically requires either owning a truck, or having a friend with a truck, because every now and then you have to pack it full of lawn crap and haul it off. I have to do yearly fire protection on my property, that includes cutting out bushes, trimming trees, and creating defensible space. Loading that into a van would be a pain in the ass, loading it into an SUV means I'm never getting the sap out of the carpet. Throwing it in the back of a pickup bed means I don't even have to think about it.
I don't own a pickup, but I have multiple friends with pickups, and you get into a beneficial "I'll buy you a tank of diesel if I can borrow your truck for an afternoon" relationship. They get 100 bucks in fuel, I get my lawn crap taken care of.
I understand the general use case what I don't get is where a pickup is more suitable than something like a flatbed Transit - https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFgxMDI0/z/VmIAAOSw6DNcrKoD/$_86.JPG
Which has a bigger bed, a far more economical engine and is overall far more suitable as a work vehicle for carrying those kinds of loads.
Also do you not just have garden waste collection services?
Just hire the above for the few times a year you would need it. Honestly I do find it baffling.
I'd definitely consider a flatbed transit personally, but there is definitely a "cool" factor that is lost on something that looks like that. Not that "cool" factor is a good argument for something to exist, but it is what it is.
And I could probably do that, but I'm in a pretty rural area and services like that tend to have a very long wait list around here because there's too many people that need the same work done, and not enough handymen/services willing to do it. Not to mention the cost tends to be several hundred dollars.