In the wake of the recent general election, van drivers have put together a manifesto of their top 10 priorities for change for the new government.
The research was carried out by Mercedes-Benz Vans UK and involved questioning 2,000 van drivers and operators. Unsurprisingly, potholes were at the top of the list. A staggering two-thirds of van operators say they’ve had to pay for repairs resulting from pothole damage over the last 12 months. That’s just not good enough.
Second on the list is better town parking. Again, that’s unlikely to surprise any hard-pressed delivery driver whose been forced to endure the wrath of other drivers and traffic wardens by stopping illegally to make a delivery.
Here’s the top 10 list of van drivers’ priorities for the new government. There are a few surprises — check out numbers 6 & 7!
- Pothole repair: 60%
- Better parking provision in town: 43%
- Investment in bypasses to ease bottlenecks: 34%
- Widening motorways: 24%
- Increased traffic police presence: 19%
- Fewer speed cameras: 17%
- More speed cameras: 16%
- Better training for professional drivers: 14%
- Abandoning Smart Motorway schemes: 6%
- More toll roads: 4%
Congestion is one of the big themes running through the list. And it’s clear why. According to Mercedes-Benz, fleet managers estimate that 14% of their drivers’ time is lost as a result of congestion. That’s equivalent to about 1 hour 10 minutes out of every eight hours.
Surprisingly — given that congestion affects everyone — 61% of those questioned said that they or their employer had lost business as a direct result of congestion. This figure peaks at 82% in Greater London and 66% in the West Midlands, while 75% of delivery divers say they have lost business as a result of congestion.
Experiments with smart motorways don’t seem to have convinced van drivers, although this may be due to lack of understanding — only 28% of those questioned said they definitely understood how a smart motorway works.
It’s clear the government still has a lot to do to meet the needs of commercial road users.