There are a ton of older used box trucks on the market. Their prices range all over the place from cheap to crazy expensive and their condition is the same. Some are well maintained and ready to work and others are more ready for the boneyard than the highway. Most are somewhere in between these extremes.
Here is a box truck I came across recently and actually thought about buying it myself;
The old truck is in need of some repairs – but she has potential in my opinion. The sleeper is surprisingly large and almost the size of what I am more used to in a big truck (tractor/trailer). Though the opening is more old-style where you sorta crawl through and into the sleeper vs just standing up and walking back there.
The box wasn’t bad – though there are two small leaks on both front corners. Not hard to fix if you know how to work with epoxy (it has a translucent roof).
The engine started and ran fine – after being jumped. It had been sitting for some time and not run on any regular basis so the batteries were down. I jumped it with my car after about 20 minutes or so of charging.
The biggest apparent problem is the door to the box – that thing is hosed – and a new one is in the range of about $2000 installed – give or take. To fix it right and do the work yourself would be probably less than half that – but regardless of who or how – the door needs to be repaired or replaced – and I would just replace the thing.
My business is primarily focused on training and consulting along with providing related products and services to help individuals, companies and other organizations do better in work, business, and life – and not on actually transporting stuff personally at the moment. Yet it was very tempting and I almost bought this thing myself!
For the right individual or company, it could be a great opportunity but for me, it would have been a costly mistake – or an expensive hobby – depending on how you look at it I suppose.