More than half of organisations (55%) from among the 176 questioned are running a four-year cycle, with just over a quarter (27%) opting for five years. At the other end of the spectrum, 10% of respondents said that they kept vans until they were defunct.
The overall results from the question 'Please indicate how long, on average, you are keeping vans on your LCV fleet?' were:
Four years: 55%
Five years: 27%
Six years: 4%
Seven years: 2%
Eight years: 2%
Until van is defunct, then buy new: 10%
Simon Cook, LCV commercial leader, GE Capital UK, commented: ‘By far the most popular replacement cycle is four years, used by just over half of all the fleets questioned. This shows a disciplined approach to whole-life costs. The majority of the LCVs being used by these organisations will be leased on a 48-month cycle with a mileage limit for this period including maintenance costs. The key advantage of operating on this basis is that costs are known, predictable and contained.
‘The "drive-until-destruction" approach is probably seen in the six-year and longer replacement cycles. We suspect that at this level, most vans are being operated on the basis that they are repaired until the cost of doing so is prohibitive and they are then sold at auction or scrapped. The disadvantages of working in this way are that expenditure on repairs and maintenance has a strong tendency to become both higher and more unpredictable while vans also start to reach a point where they start to look scruffy in terms of the corporate image that they project, which is an important consideration for many companies.’
Simon added that the key factors to be considered within a van replacement policy should be reliability, whole-life cost, operational needs, mileage covered, safety, image and driver acceptance.
The Company Van Trends review is a new element of GE Capital's Company Car Trends guide. The guide can be downloaded by visiting GE’s Toolbox at: www.gedrivertoolbox.co.uk.