2010: the year of the van?

Jan 25 2010 Mike Waters

2010: the year of the van?

LAST year saw a major change for vehicle manufacturers and for drivers alike.

Largely driven by the need to be greener, improve road safety and save money, new models and technologies left the car market in a state of flux as the pace of development accelerated.

With 2009 behind us, it is fair to say that this year doesn't look like being any less dynamic as pressures from the EU and national government's to be greener and safer remain which should continue the trend of innovation.

Things to look out for will include uncrashable cars, several electric vehicle trials across the UK, new technologies that park your car for you and models that come with smaller engines but don't compromise performance.

However, while cars and their drivers didn't escape the spotlight last year, vans didn't seem to come under the same level of scrutiny.

Although some degree of change did happen, it wasn't to the same extent. As an example it is a relatively recent development that van manufacturers have had to make public the CO2 performance of their vehicles.

Hugely important to businesses in the UK with 3,722,000 LCVs on the roads in 2008, they therefore have a major impact on road safety and the environment. While there are electric versions on the market with manufacturers such as Modec moving the agenda forward, they remain more polluting than cars so it's only right that vans are not ignored.

So could 2010 be the year of the van? The Chancellor's pre-Budget report indicated that they are certainly on the agenda with the announcement of tax breaks for both companies and drivers using electric versions.

Something that is also expected to make a difference is the Department for Transport's Van Best Practice Programme which launched in the fourth quarter of last year and has the potential to have a real influence.

The programme aims to improve the efficiency and safety of Britain's van drivers, supporting them in saving money, remaining safe and reducing CO2 emissions, for more info their website is www.vanbestpractice.businesslink.gov.uk.

Van purchasing can be much more complicated than it is for cars with a huge choice of sizes, specifications and optional extras such as racking. This means that there can be many variants on one make and model, so it is encouraging that help is finally at hand for all those van drivers across the UK.

With so many vans on the roads, better environmental and safety performance affects all drivers and it seems only fair that pressure to be greener, more efficient and safer should fall on all road users, whatever they drive.

Mike Waters is director of market insight at Arval, Europe's leading fleet and fuel management company.