Rob Pope, head of engineering at the specialist fleet management arm of BT Group, says the result is not only capital cost savings but also improvements in flexibility of truck operations.
"The New Daily vans ... can carry the same equipment and tooling as the trucks they have replaced and can do 98% of the same work, whil2 offering a flexible operational package," explains Pope.
"Iveco secured the order as they offered the largest capacity panel van on the market, and we had full confidence in the New Daily to perform over a long service life," he continues.
"A smaller 5.5 tonne competitor model would have been too close to the wire on payload capacity, whereas with the New Daily, we have enough capacity for the crews to carry an additional one tonne of materials to site."
The Euro 6 New Daily 70C17 vans have a 3.0 litre heavy-duty diesel engine delivering up to 170bhp between 3,000 and 3,500 rev/min, and up to 400Nm of torque between 1,250 and 3,000 rev/min.
Each has been built on a 4,100mm wheelbase and offers an 18m³ load space with an internal height of 2,100 mm.
A towbar has also been installed to allow the vehicle's to operate with a skeletal cable drum trailer.
Each has also been fitted with Bri-Stor modular racking and Gardner Denver hydraulic and pneumatic on-board power systems, which operate from a PTO (power take-off) installed by Iveco on the production line.
The hydraulic and pneumatic equipment enables each vehicle to operate as a self-sufficient mobile workshop to support installation and maintenance of the telecommunications infrastructure.
Pope expects each vehicle to clock-up a low annual mileage, although with relatively high engine hours, due to engine being used to drive the PTO.
All servicing and maintenance will take place within the group's 500-strong garage network, of which 65 sites are owned by BT Fleet.