AXA Business Insurance study reveals that van drivers who drive both a van and another vehicle are more likely to commit traffic offences and have accidents in their van than their other vehicle.
Research among several hundred van drivers found that they appear to become more irresponsible when behind the wheel of their van than when in charge of another vehicle. When driving their van, drivers were 25% more likely to have picked up a speeding ticket in the last three years and were 38% more likely to have committed a drink driving offence. Around 29% more had been caught reckless driving while the number caught running a red light in their van compared with their other vehicle was a massive 47% greater.
In addition to this, the data showed that of those that drive both a van and another vehicle, around 16% had had an accident in their other vehicle in the last three years, but this figure climbed by 25% to 20% who had had an accident in their van.
Of those surveyed, nearly half (47%) owned the vans themselves and 38% said they preferred to drive their van to their other vehicle. Interestingly those who owned their van were more likely to have had an accident than those who didn’t.
Van drivers tend to update their vans slightly more often, with 58% updating their vans at least every 3 years compared to 54% updating their other vehicles so regularly. This probably reflects the disparity in miles covered, since van drivers spent an average of 15.6 hours behind the wheel of their van each week, compared to just 8.7 hours driving their secondary vehicle.
Darrell Sansom, Managing Director at AXA Business Insurance commented: “It’s interesting to see the apparent difference between the way people drive their van and their other vehicles. There are clearly many factors that may influence the number of accidents and traffic offences committed such as numbers of hours behind the wheel, the miles covered and the often stressful nature of driving a van to get to jobs on time. But we were surprised to see such big differences in some areas and would encourage van drivers to think carefully about how they drive before they commit an offence or get involved in an accident that keeps them off the road and as a result takes away their livelihood.”
