Van fleets are increasingly looking at van ‘rightsizing’ to ensure the vehicles they are running are the right size for their intended use.
So says Arval as its research finds 17% of fleets have changed the size of vans they operate on their fleet in the last year. A total of 8% of companies surveyed said they had chosen bigger vans in the last 12 months while 9% had acquired smaller vehicles.
The research – part of the firm’s Corporate Vehicle Observatory Barometer research which covers 3,718 fleets – found different trends for smaller and larger fleets. Companies with fewer than 10 vehicles are leading the way with a switch to larger vans, while fleets with more than 50 vehicles are opting for smaller.
The finding have been published a year after Arval warned that fleets were missing out on significant savings to running costs and operational efficiencies by not adopting a ‘rightsizing’ approach.
Shaun Sadlier, head of Arval’s Corporate Vehicle Observatory in the UK, said: “Rightsizing works both ways – it is inefficient, and can even be unsafe, to use a smaller vehicle for a job that really needs a bigger van and vice versa. This is because of factors such as optimising the payload and maximising fuel consumption.”
