Next time you’re on the road from Melbourne to Sydney, keep an eye out for a Vito and a Sprinter driving in convoy.

If they’re white, with eye-catching blue branding on the sides, chances are Abacus & Hunt Managing Director Ben Pilkington is behind the wheel of one of them.

Ben’s high-end store in Melbourne is Australia’s home of bone inlay, velvet and fabric furniture – pieces sourced or designed down to the last detail.

Their team finds, sells, customises and delivers to customers valuable pieces that are akin to artworks. And their Mercedes-Benz Vans have big parts to play in delivering the glamorous goods, safely and securely.

“We have a Vito – which has been amazing – and have just recently purchased the long wheel base Sprinter,” says Ben.

“We looked at a few other options, but the Vito was just way more comfortable. We’re a high end furniture business so it fits with our brand. It was the best van for us. The space is perfect.”

Ben and his team use the Vito a couple of mornings a week to drop off smaller items at the post office, then usually a couple of afternoons doing inner-city Melbourne deliveries or trips out to customers in the country.

Now that they’ve added a Sprinter to the fleet, Abacus & Hunt have started turning retail sales into interstate road trips.

“The reason we got the Sprinter is because our interstate couriers were becoming so expensive, so what we now do is drive both vans up to Sydney once a month and do a day of deliveries up there,” Ben says.

“Then we leave the Vito in Sydney and drive the Sprinter up to Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast and do a bunch more deliveries there.”

Making the most of those long trips meant maximising the cargo space available, so Ben bought the biggest Sprinter available at the time – the long wheel base variant with the high roof. It means Abacus & Hunt can stack deliveries two layers high and fit in as much furniture as possible.

But that isn’t Ben’s only favourite feature of his growing fleet. He says they’re both very comfortable when you’re in them up to 12 hours a day, and the reversing camera makes it easy to park and navigate tight spots in the city.

And for the man behind a business that’s all about high-end visual appeal, he’s proud of the blend of Mercedes-Benz design and some distinctive Abacus & Hunt decals – not to mention the message it sends to potential customers.

“I love seeing the consistent branding on two vans that look quite similar to each other. Our branding on the white background of the vans. I genuinely love looking at it,” he says.

“I love driving them up to Sydney in convoy. The vans tell people we’re a luxury brand and that we have similar values to our customers.”

Content commissioned by Mercedes-Benz.