What Is a Cash-in-Transit Vehicle? The Armoured Van Explained

The most common armoured vehicle on the road is not a limousine. It is the van that brings cash to the bank.

What it is

A cash-in-transit vehicle, CIT for short, is an armoured van or truck built to carry currency, coins and valuables. It has armour plate in its walls and floor, bullet-resistant glass and a reinforced body and cab, and it is designed to resist robbery and hijacking. (Armored car (valuables) on Wikipedia)

From stagecoach to motor bank

The idea is older than the car. In the American West, the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company ran iron-clad treasure coaches, with steel plating and ports to fire through. In 1910 the Bellamore Armored Motor Bank Car, on an Autocar chassis, served both as a transport and as a bank branch on wheels.

How it is built

• Armour. Walls and floor of steel, from about an eighth of an inch to more than a quarter of an inch thick.
• Glass. Laminated bullet-resistant glass, from about 1.5 to 3 inches thick.
• Weight. A typical route truck weighs about 25,000 lb; one built to carry coin, up to 55,000 lb.
• Systems. GPS tracking, CCTV, reinforced bumpers and remote engine disabling.

The crew

A CIT crew is usually a driver, who never leaves the vehicle during a job, and one or two guards, who carry the valuables between the van and the door. Rules on weapons differ: five EU member states and the United Kingdom prohibit weapons during cash-in-transit work, while US jurisdictions such as New York allow armed guards after background checks.

Law and the CIT van

In Europe, CIT vans are armoured vehicles under type-approval law, and the EU Common Military List states that its vehicle category does not apply to civil vehicles designed or modified to carry money or valuables. Read armoured cars in Europe.

Where DARTZ began

DARTZ’s first vehicle was a cash-in-transit van. In 1988, in Riga, DARTZ took part in developing an armoured vehicle on the Soviet RAF 2203 Latvija van with the French company Coopération Labbé, of Lamballe. DARTZ describes the result as the first civilian cash-in-transit armoured cars in the USSR, and as the start of its “Ruler Design” philosophy. The armour of every Prombron’ since traces back to that van. Read DARTZ before the Prombron’ and how an armoured car is built.