Tight time schedules mean that van drivers often have to speed to meet daily targets

The ever-increasing rise in internet and catalogue shopping with parcels being delivered by van is putting more light commercial vehicle drivers at risk of crashing. With more than three million vans on the UK’s roads – there are more than 320,000 sub-3.5 tonne vans registered annually resulting in a net increase of around 170,000 vehicles per year – the dangers facing van drivers are unprecedented.

A report by the AA Motoring Trust commissioned by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, says: “Employed van drivers can face heavy and potentially dangerous delivery schedules demanded by their bosses, forcing them to take risks and ignore speed limits and other traffic rules. “Many face even more pressure trying to make deliveries or carry out servicing and repair jobs in areas where parking enforcement is more about revenue-raising than helping them service the local community. “Many van drivers interviewed in the study admitted to suffering fatigue through shift working, long hours and unreasonable time pressures.”

The report concludes that consumer use of the internet will continue to have a significant influence on van use in the UK in the future. This year the value of home deliveries in the UK will reach an estimated £42 billion, up from £28.1 billion in 2001. The study, “Living with the Van”, calculates that vans were over-represented in fatal traffic crashes – like all large vehicles they are more likely to be involved in collisions with severe consequences – but are under-represented in less serious incidents. Vans presently comprise around 10% of the vehicle parc, but are involved in 8% of crashes. Six years ago, the cost to society of crashes involving light commercial vehicles was estimated to be around £689 million a year.

Last year 16,078 light commercial vehicles were involved in crashes (2004: 15,728), resulting in 6,048 casualties (2004: 6,166). An analysis of the figures reveals that 54 van occupants were killed (2004: 62), 533 were seriously injured (2004: 569) and 5,461 slightly injured (2004: 5,535). The Department for Transport’s report into road casualties on Britain’s roads in 2005 also highlights that vans were involved in crashes that claimed the lives of 261 people (2005: 267) and seriously injured 1,819 others (2004: 1,940), while 13,998 people were slightly injured, up from 13,521 in 2004.

However, as the government seeks to achieve a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 2010 compared with the average for 1994-98, there remains much work for companies to do to improve their safety records. In the 1994-98 period the average number of van occupants killed was 65; 950 people were seriously injured and 6,410 slightly injured – a total of 7,424 deaths and injuries. While there have been almost 1,400 fewer deaths and injuries involving van occupants over the intervening period and a 34% rise in van traffic, the government is less than halfway (19%) towards its casualty reduction goal, although the casualty rate per 100 million kilometres driven stands at 39%.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety for the AA Motoring Trust, says: “Managers are concerned about safety, but may not be very good at getting the messages across. Managers need to ask whether they are giving the safety message the clarity and emphasis it needs, and drivers need to ask whether they should be taking the messages they get more seriously.

“Business wants to maximise the use of its vans, but it also needs to concentrate more on finding ways to avoid both the direct and human cost of accidents, that poor safety practices make more likely.” The most common collisions involving vans are in urban areas, at junctions or where there is heavy traffic, and on high-speed rural roads, often involving the vehicle leaving the carriageway.

Key areas of concern highlighted in the report are:

• The imposition by employers of schedules that put van drivers at greater risk of fatigue because of their higher exposure to traffic.
  
  
• Tight time schedules that mean a driver has to speed to meet daily targets.
  
  
• A lack of policy concerning mobile phones, with their use while on the move resulting in poor lane-keeping, variable speed and a slower reaction time to hazards.
  
  
• A lack of clear information on seatbelt legislation available to drivers particularly in relation to the 1 March 2005 rule changes for delivery drivers forcing them to “belt-up” if they are travelling more than 50 metres between deliveries/collections – and greater encouragement and information for all van occupants to “belt-up”. A UK study of 87 light commercial fatalities showed that about 50% were not wearing seatbelts.
  
  
• Poor vehicle maintenance. Mechanical faults are estimated to be a factor in 5.5% of all vehicle collisions. Crash statistics show that in 22% of collisions involving defective vans, the defect contributed to the incident. The most frequent contributory defect is poor tyre condition.
  
  
• Load securing – if a load is not properly secured, is too heavy or lashing points have been inadequately fitted, a vehicle’s dynamics are affected and the risk of injury to occupants in a crash is much higher.
  
  
• A need for improved driver selection and driver training – crash frequency of drivers aged 19 is five times higher than that of a driver aged 41. Drivers aged 65 have a crash frequency that is 40% less than a 41-year-old.

“Individual training for drivers would be more effective than standardised group training”

The motoring organisation also says that further investigation to the crash compatibility of vans and cars would help van makers develop vehicles that better protected occupants of both vehicles – particularly the introduction of longer vehicle fronts to reduce force levels – if they were involved in a collision. The report concludes: “Companies that rely on van drivers should identify problem areas and introduce appropriate changes to create a safe working environment for their employees. Sending drivers on training courses, for example, is unlikely to reduce accident numbers if time constraints force drivers to ignore what they have learned.”

Interviews with van drivers and their managers revealed clear differences between the way employed and self-employed people looked at driving and clear attitude differences between people who drive for a living, for example delivery drivers, and those who use a van to do their job, such as plumbers and maintenance technicians. There were also major differences in the approach to safe driving between large and small firms. As a result, says the study, individual training for drivers would be more effective than standardised group training. Consequently online risk assessments for drivers could become the universal first step for companies looking to tackle their responsibility for safety on the roads.

The “Living with the Van” report and seven leaflets about driving vans and managing van fleets effectively are available at: Website: www.aatrust.com/safervans

<< back to contents page