There are plenty of reasons a worker would choose a van. There are plenty of reason a worker would choose a truck.

Consider this setup:

Everything is made to be easily accessible. The rack can hold ladders and conduit that are as long as the vehicle (or even a bit longer). Other setups will have side access toolboxes.

Fifth wheels are not just for campers. They haul Bobcats. They haul livestock. They haul large sheds or even small houses. They haul several pallets of bricks.

For that matter, try getting pallet into a van as opposed to a truck bed. If it’s even possible to fit it in a van, you have to be a lot more careful while doing it.

It does no such thing.

Are you aware of what a fifth wheel is? If you don’t, you really shouldn’t be commenting about what’s better for work or not.

This “just buy a van” crap really needs to stop. There are plenty of reasons specifically to get a pickup truck. The F250 isn’t even sold to customers without a commercial account with Ford. Work vans and trucks are often made on exactly the same platform with a different shell put over it. The van will tend to have worse gas mileage due to the frontal cross section usually being higher (they ride a bit lower while having a same or higher ceiling height).

The problem is really the F150 and similar. It’s still gigantic, it’s sold to whomever can apply for an 8 year/25% interest rate loan, and is rarely used for anything like actual work. The diesel version was also discontinued, which pushes some people–the type who do actual work with it–to either buy the F250 or find a somewhat older F150 model.

It is outright impossible to buy a small truck in the US. I know guys who do real work with it and they aren’t happy having to buy a big machine. No, not the Maverick. That’s “well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it” but for trucks.