Fleets ‘missing chances to tailor van sizes to their needs’

Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2017 |

Companies running van fleets are possibly missing “significant” opportunities for ‘rightsizing’ their vehicles.

That’s according to leasing giant Arval, which said that rightsizing refers to adopting a strategy designed to match the payload needs of a fleet to the specification of a specific model of van as closely as possible.

Arval claimed that 83% of fleets who acquired a van in the past year replaced their vans with one of the same size, with 8% opting to replace vans that are larger while 7% went for smaller vehicles.

These findings comes from the 2017 edition of the firm’s Corporate Vehicle Observatory Barometer research, which covers 3,847 fleets.

Arval also found that not very many fleets ask for external help when choosing their vehicles, with just 16% of larger fleets – consisting of more than 50 vehicles – seeking advice, 9% of medium fleets (10-49 vehicles) and 7% of smaller fleets (1-9 vehicles).

“Model selection is probably the most important van-related decision a business can make,” said Shaun Sadlier, head of Arval’s Corporate Vehicle Observatory in the UK. “Having a vehicle that closely meets your needs can make a huge difference to fleet costs and efficiency, and the rapid proliferation of different van designs and payloads that are now available means it is possible to identify models to fit almost any fleet profile.”

He added: “However, this research indicates that the vast majority of fleets are adopting a ‘same again’ policy to van selection, almost irrespective of fleet size, and foregoing the potential whole-life cost savings in areas such as fuel and tyres that ‘rightsizing’ can deliver.”

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