The Transit Custom modelled was used by Ford’s UK Press Office for the van’s launch in April 2018 and was specified to make a visual impact, with bumper skirts, flared wheelarches, 17-inch alloy wheels and a bright colour. It was then loaned to newspapers, magazines, TV shows and websites to conduct their own road tests and appeared in The Sun, Auto Express, Van Fleet World and many others. At the end of 2018 it was loaned to Dan Powel at the Honest John website for a three-month long-term test and earned a favourable report. In April 2019 the Globe Theatre received it for a six-month loan as part of Ford’s support of the arts sector. 

Ford launched the first-generation Transit in 1965 and it was so successful that the name ‘Transit’ has almost become an eponym for ‘medium sized van’, understood by traders and hire companies alike. The Transit Custom has been a successful addition to that family and in 2021 was the market leader in the UK one-tonne van market, with close to 54,000 being delivered. That impressive total was enough to make it the bestselling vehicle in the UK including passenger cars; the first time a commercial has ever achieved that accolade. Fords accounted for one-third of all commercials sold in the UK during 2021 and their Dunton-based Live Centre, which monitors data feeds from vans then alerts drivers and provides assistance has proven popular with customers.